Patrick Kinahan: NCAA Tournament success would validate BYU's season

PROVO — Fresh off an uneven, but highly successful, regular season, the BYU basketball team now gets to determine its legacy.

Even without winning a game this week in the Big 12 Tournament, the Cougars will make the field of 68 when the NCAA selection committee unveils the brackets this Sunday. Counting the impending invitation, the program has made 32 appearances in the tournament.

For BYU, leaving a legacy requires winning at least one NCAA game and maybe even two. While noteworthy so far, especially in Kevin Young's rookie season as a college head coach, losing in the first round isn't good enough for the Cougars this year.

National brands like Duke and Kentucky are defined by long runs in the tournament, not by impressive records in the regular season. BYU has had a plethora of regular-season success over the years but yearns for more fulfilling finishes.

The Cougars traditionally go home after one or two games in the tournament. They have made the Sweet 16 only twice since 1981, each time led by the national player of the year (Danny Ainge and Jimmer Fredette, respectively).

After two lackluster seasons, BYU rebounded with an excellent campaign (23-11, 10-8 Big 12) last year in its inaugural Big 12 season but mostly will be remembered for another one-and-done in the NCAA Tournament.

In coach Mark Pope's last game before leaving for Kentucky, the sixth-seeded Cougars suffered an embarrassing loss to No. 11 Duquesne.

Young's first team upped the ante this season by going 23-8 (14-6 Big 12) and moved up to No. 17 in the most recent Associated Press rankings. A dominating performance over Kansas and two impressive road wins against Arizona and Iowa State have spiked expectations going into this postseason.

Bring them on, Young essentially said. He readily admits BYU, which has enjoyed virtually an unprecedented amount of positive publicity this season, needs tournament wins to validate the program's credibility.

"That's the whole point to have postseason success," Young said. "That's what you want, so I welcome it head on."

By virtue of finishing in the top four, the Cougars will get a double bye into the Big 12 quarterfinals on Thursday. They likely will face fifth-seeded Iowa State, which lost to the Cougars in double overtime last week.

In all probability, beating the Cyclones will set up a rematch with No. 1 seed Houston. The second-ranked Cougars demolished BYU 86-55 on Jan. 4 in Houston.

The humbling loss was the first of three consecutive in conference games, saddling BYU with a 1-3 Big 12 record. Through 12 conference games, the Cougars were middling along at .500 before reeling off an eight-game winning streak.

The impressive monthlong run essentially already secured BYU an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament. Unless the Cougars win the Big 12 Tournament championship, which isn't likely, their NCAA seeding is locked in.

As it stands, even with a brief stay in the Big 12 Tournament, college basketball statistics guru Ken Pomeroy has BYU as a six or seven seed. Advancing to the conference championship could bump it up even higher.

The uneven nature of the season makes BYU one of the more intriguing teams going into next week. These types of teams are hard to predict but also can't be ignored.

"For the most part, they've been pretty solid throughout the entire year," Pomeroy said during an interview on The Zone. "They've looked like a fringe top-25 team. Those teams will lose some games, and they may lose one or two games where you're like, 'Wow, that does not look like a tournament team.'

"But they also have stretches where you can envision them being a Final Four team. That's kind of been the M.O. for BYU. Obviously, they finished the season a little bit stronger than they started, but overall, I wouldn't completely downplay what they did early in the season, as well."

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