Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
PROVO — Lock it up.
BYU men's basketball rolled to its sixth consecutive win Saturday night against West Virginia, winning in a less-than-usual way with Fousseyni Traore's second double-double of the season.
The 23rd-ranked Cougars seem to be peaking at the right time, and have locked up an NCAA Tournament bid for the third time in five years. That's according to ESPN's Joe Lunardi, who moved BYU into one of six locks from the Big 12 for the field of 68.
Lunardi currently projects the Cougars as a No. 8 seed in the West regional, which would put the Cougars opening the tournament in Wichita, Kansas (Lunardi also had Utah State on the 9-seed line of the same regional, before the Aggies' two-game skid that included Saturday's 27-point loss to Colorado State).
BYU ranks 23rd in the Associated Press Top 25, 26th in the NCAA's preferred evaluation tool (or NET rankings), and 25th in KenPom's predictive metrics. The Cougars have been playing like the third-best team in the country during their six-game winning streak that started Feb. 11 at West Virginia, according to barttorvik.com.
Expand the parameters to Jan. 21, when BYU won at Colorado that started a chain of 10 wins in 12 games in Big 12 play, and the Cougars rank seventh nationally with the No. 2 adjusted offensive efficiency and No. 65 adjusted defense.
We talk about it on today's edition of the KSL.com Rocking Royal podcast, along with a long-form conversation with BYU cornerbacks coach and recently promoted defensive passing game coordinator Jernaro Gilford as the Cougars open spring camp to build on last year's 11-2 campaign and top-15 national finish.
Listen to the podcast is available below, or on your podcast app of choice at Apple, Spotify, YouTube and anywhere else you get podcasts.
