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ESPN (Joe Lunardi)
No. 8 seed vs. No. 9 St. Bonaventure
Lunardi puts the Cougars in the dreaded 8/9 game. This means if they were to win their opening round game, they have a date with No. 1 seed Baylor, future Big 12 foe, in the following round according to this bracket. The Cougars have played the Bonnies three times, the most recent being in 2002, a 66-57 win for BYU. It might even be better for BYU to be a 10-seed rather than eight or nine to avoid having to play the No. 1 seed in the following round.
CBS (Jerry Palm)
No. 8 seed vs. No. 9 UCONN
Palm also slates BYU in that 8/9 game, against a well-known brand in college basketball in the UCONN Huskies. That is a program with four national titles to its name, with ones as recently as 2011 and 2014. No. 1 Baylor would await the winner of this game in this bracket as well. The Huskies won the lone matchup between the schools, in 2003 during the NCAA Tournament.
No. 9 seed vs. No. 8 Virginia Tech
This projection has BYU dropping to the No. 9 seed, but still remaining in the 8/9 matchup. Virginia Tech currently sits at 8-4 and 0-1 in ACC play. TeamRankings not only lists BYU’s seed, but their tournament selection probability as well. As it stands now, BYU has a 71 percent chance of making the tournament. BYU has played Virginia Tech five times, winning all five matchups, with the most recent being in 2019.
NCAA.com (Andy Katz)
No. 8 seed vs. No. 9 Virginia Tech
Here is another projection that has BYU taking on the Hokies, just with the seeds flipped.
BYU clearly is well regarded as not only an NCAA tournament team, but one that may merit a single-digit seed. The Cougars have opportunities abound to improve upon their seeding, especially as they being WCC play next month.
The Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii, where Mark Pope’s boys are right now, offers another opportunity to pick up a quality win or two.
As it sits now, the Cougars rank 25th in NET rankings. Gonzaga (4), San Francisco (34), and Saint Mary’s (51) all offer chances for BYU to boost their resume in conference play.
It is worth noting that if the Cougars do indeed get another single-digit seed this spring, as they did last season, it would be the first time since 2010-2011 that BYU earned back-to-back single-digit seeds.