20th-ranked Cougars draw 5-seed, first-round bye in first Big 12 Tournament

PROVO — Mark Pope had a problem.

As soon as the fifth-year BYU men's basketball coach heard his 20th-ranked Cougars had earned the No. 5 seed for their first-ever Big 12 men's basketball tournament, he dived into his growing library of Taylor Swift's discography.

From an earlier reply to a since-viral question about BYU being picked to finish 13th in the conference's preseason coaches poll — 13 being Miss Swift's favorite number, that is — he knew all about his favorite country-turned-pop artist's obsessions (his four girls helped, too).

But he couldn't find anything from a single Swiftie to relate to his team's No. 5 seed.

"She doesn't have any five; there's no five. Is there? Where are the Pope girls when I need them? I'm super disappointed about that," Pope said after BYU's 85-71 win over Oklahoma State in the regular-season finale — with his tongue clearly and firmly next to his cheek. "I thought we could tie this together in a neat little bow, but not everything can go perfect."

Not many picked the Cougars to finish 22-9 in their first year in the Big 12, regarded by most as the toughest basketball conference in the country, yet alone with a 10-8 record in league play. Certainly not the coaches, who admitted back at the Big 12 preseason media days in Kansas City that they didn't know what to make of the former fifth-place finishers in the West Coast Conference.

Certainly not Las Vegas, whose consensus spread listed BYU at +3,000 to win the league prior to the 2023-24 season, according to PointsBet.com.

But Pope wouldn't have it any other way.

"This league for us is all about the chase," he said. "I wish they had picked us 14th or 15th; I think it actually helped our guys focus in toward each other, and it helped consolidate our group. I think we have a bunch of guys who are hungry on the chase right now and I've enjoyed that so far through the regular season. We're not going to change anything through the postseason. … These guys are so special that we're desperate to play as many more games as we don't want it to end."

Houston wasn't picked to win the league, either, but those other Cougars cinched an outright Big 12 regular-season title in their first year in the league on the final day of the regular season. The top-ranked Cougars finished 15-3 in Big 12 play and will open the tournament as one of four double-bye recipients against the winner of ninth-seeded Oklahoma and No. 8 Kansas State at 1 p.m. MDT Wednesday.

Iowa State, Baylor and Texas Tech earned the other double byes. BYU won't have to wait nearly as long to tip off its inaugural Big 12 Tournament, though. The Cougars will face the winner of 12th-seeded UCF and 13th-seeded Oklahoma State at 10:30 a.m. MDT Tuesday at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.

BYU swept the Knights, home and away, during the regular season, and split with the Cowboys on each other's home court. But the postseason is different for teams like Oklahoma State, which fell to 12-19 and 4-14 in league play after Saturday's loss in Provo.

One might use the word "desperate."

"I think it's really simple. The next time we lose, our season's over. That's where we are," Cowboys coach Mike Boynton said. "The moment we feel like we feel now, it's over. If we want to have a chance to put the uniform on again and have another day together as a group, particularly with our seniors, we need to make sure we play with the level of urgency necessary to to give ourselves the best chance to win."

Here's the full schedule of the Big 12 men's basketball tournament, which begins Tuesday at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City:

Tuesday, March 12

• Game 1: No. 12 UCF vs. No. 13 Oklahoma State (Big 12 Now on ESPN+), 10:30 a.m. MDT
• Game 2: No. 11 Cincinnati vs. No. 14 West Virginia (Big 12 Now on ESPN+), 1 p.m. MDT

Wednesday, March 13

• Game 3: No. 5 BYU vs. Game 1 Winner (ESPN or ESPN2), 10:30 a.m. MDT
• Game 4: No. 8 TCU vs. No. 9 Oklahoma (Big 12 Now on ESPN+), 1 p.m. MDT
• Game 5: No. 7 Texas vs. No. 10 Kansas State (Big 12 Now on ESPN+), 5 p.m. MDT
• Game 6: No. 6 Kansas vs. Winner Game 2 (ESPN2 or ESPNU), 7:30 p.m. MDT

Thursday, March 14

• Game 7: No. 4 Texas Tech vs. Winner Game 3 (ESPN or ESPN2), 10:30 a.m. MDT
• Game 8: No. 1 Houston vs. Winner Game 4 (ESPN or ESPN2), 1 p.m. MDT
• Game 9: No. 2 Iowa State vs. Winner Game 5 (ESPN or ESPN2), 5 p.m. MDT
• Game 10: No. 3 Baylor vs. Winner Game 6 (ESPN or ESPN2), 7:30 p.m. MDT

Friday, March 15

• Game 11: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8 (ESPN or ESPN2), 5 p.m. MDT
• Game 12: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 10 (ESPN or ESPN2), 7:30 p.m. MDT

Saturday, March 16

• Game 13: Winner Game 11 vs. Winner Game 12 (ESPN), 4 p.m. MDT

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