Sports Commentator Patrick Blake is host of the Blake’s Take show, airing weekdays from 5-6 p.m. on KZNU Sports Radio Southern Utah Sports Network – 96.7 FM 1450 AM – with live stream online at http://www.KZNUsports.com.
PROVO – The BYU Cougars now have to sit and wait to see of they will be selected on Selection Sunday.
The Cougars lost in the semifinals of the West Coast Conference Tournament to Gonzaga Saturday night, 77-58, in Las Vegas.
The Cougars end the season 25-8, record.
The Selection Committee will look at the Cougars’ wins and losses against the RPI top 50 and top 100; they will look at the Cougars Strength of Schedule the last 10 games, road record and any bad losses.
The Cougars ended the season going 3-6 against the RPI top 50, with wins over Oregon, Nevada, and Gonzaga. Oregon and Nevada are 50 and 46 in the RPI and a loss could knock them out of the RPI top 50 and hurt the Cougars’ chances of making the tournament. Gonzaga’s RPI is 23.
The Cougars lost six games against RPI top 50, Baylor (9), Wisconsin (21), twice to Gonzaga (23), and twice to St. Mary’s (25).
The Cougars three wins will help, and the six losses won’t hurt them at all. The Losses that will hurt the Cougars will be the two losses to teams outside of the RPI top 100. The Cougars lost to Utah State (132) and, at home, to Loyola Marymount (118).
The Cougars went 2-0 against teams in the top 51-100 in the RPI Weber St. (71) and Buffalo (74).
The Cougars weak conference schedule will come back to hurt them when the selection committee sees they played 10 games against the RPI 201 and higher. The Cougars’ Conference SOS is 161 compared to the 59 SOS in the nonconference.
The Cougars are 7-3 in their last 10 games. The committee likes teams that are peaking or hot at the end of the season. 7-3 is not bad, but not great either.
The Cougars have five more days to sit and watch conference tournaments until Selection Sunday. The Cougars need to hope bubble teams lose and conference regular-season champions or other top 25 teams win their conference tournaments.
Right now the Cougars are the fifth to last team in the tournament according to Joe Lunardi of espn.com – meaning that if a few conference tournaments have upset winners, the Cougars could be in trouble.
For more BYU talk, tune into Blake’s Take weekdays from 5-6 p.m. on KZNU Sports Radio – 93.1 FM 1450 AM – or online streaming live on the brand new KZNU Sports website: www.kznusports.com
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Copyright 2012 St. George News.