BYU owns a checkered history in the NCAA Tournament, with plenty of black and blue marks to show for it.
The Cougars have tasted both the sweet and the sour during March Madness.
Some sweet moments. But mostly sour.
For example, BYU ranks among the top 25 programs in all-time tournament appearances with 32, ahead of schools like Michigan, Virginia, Utah and Houston.
But the Cougars also own the dubious distinction of having the most tournament appearances without a Final Four berth.
Before the 2025-26 season tipped off, there were high hopes around Provo that perhaps this would be the year that notorious streak would end. That the Cougars would stop wandering in the desert and reach the college hoops’ promised land.
For the first time, BYU boasted the No. 1 recruit in the country — freshman phenom AJ Dybantsa — on its roster.
While Dybantsa has certainly lived up to the hype, injuries to players like Richie Saunders, Dawson Baker and others may impact the Cougars’ chances of making a deep tournament run.
Over the years, BYU has experienced its share of shining moments and not-so-shiny moments. In its 32 appearances in the Big Dance, BYU has posted an uninspiring all-time record of 17-35.
The Cougars have advanced to the Sweet 16 three times, including last season, and the Elite Eight once, in 1981.
Of course, there are plenty of variables when it comes to NCAA Tournament success. As former BYU coach Dave Rose liked to say, “Everybody talks about the seed, but it’s the matchup that’s important.”
As BYU awaits its 33rd appearance in the NCAA Tournament, here’s a look back at the Cougars’ colorful March Madness history of seeds, matchups, controversies, subplots, tournament records and quirky moments over the past five decades.
Cartwright stymies BYU from punching Sweet 16 ticket (1979)
In 1979, BYU made its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1972.
It was also the Cougars’ first appearance after legendary coach Stan Watts retired after that 1972 season. Plus, 1979 marked the first year that all teams in the tournament were seeded and it marked the final year that the tournament featured only 40 teams.
Coach Frank Arnold’s BYU team earned a No. 5 seed and faced No. 4 seed San Francisco.
The Cougars were led by sophomore star Danny Ainge and the Dons were led by future NBA player Bill Cartwright, who scored 24 points. Ainge was limited to just 11.
USF, a future conference foe of BYU’s in the West Coast Conference, won 86-63 in Tucson, Arizona.
Certainly, it was a missed opportunity.
Had the Cougars (20-8) beaten the Dons, they would have advanced to the Sweet 16 in the West Region, which was played on BYU’s home court — the Marriott Center in Provo.
Instead, USF lost to UCLA in Provo. In the regional final at the Marriott Center, UCLA fell to DePaul, which went to the Final Four.
That year’s Final Four was held in Salt Lake City at the home court of BYU’s archrival, Utah. That Final Four featured the famous Michigan State-Indiana State championship game between superstars Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. It marked the most-watched college basketball game of all time, drawing 35.1 million viewers.
An upsetting performance in Ogden (1980)
In Danny Ainge’s junior year, the Cougars posted a 24-4 record during the regular season, captured the WAC championship and were ranked No. 12 in the AP poll.
They were a No. 3 seed, facing No. 6 seed Clemson in a game played right up the road from Provo, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
However, the Tigers upset BYU, 71-66.
The Cougars jumped out to a 24-11 lead in the first half and clung to a 58-54 advantage with about nine minutes remaining. But Clemson rallied behind Billy Williams’ 24 points and future NBA star Larry Nance’s 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Ainge and Alan Taylor each scored 13 for the Cougars, while Fred Roberts added 10, but Clemson advanced. The Tigers went on to the Elite Eight, the deepest run in school history, before they lost to UCLA.
It was a bitterly disappointing end to a remarkable season for BYU. But it set up the Cougars’ best tournament run the next season.
“The loss in 1980 kind of propelled us into more success in ’81,” Ainge recalled years later.
Danny’s dash and the Elite Eight (1981)
The closest BYU has ever come to reaching the Final Four happened in 1981.
As a No. 6 seed in the East Region, the Cougars beat No. 11 Princeton and No. 3 UCLA in Providence to advance to their first Sweet 16.
Ainge, who was dealing with a back injury, scored 37 in the win over UCLA.
BYU’s Danny Ainge (22) drives past Notre Dame’s John Paxson in the second half of action in Atlanta during an NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 game, March 20, 1981. | Anonymous, AP
Then, in the program’s most famous game, featuring the most iconic moment in Cougar basketball history, Ainge, the consensus National Player of the Year, drove the length of the court for a game-winning layup in the final seconds for a 51-50 victory over No. 2 Notre Dame at The Omni in Atlanta in the Sweet 16.
It propelled BYU to its first — and only — Elite Eight.
Ainge’s coast-to-coast dash featured a behind-the-back dribble at midcourt, then he sliced through four Irish players, resulting in a dramatic, unforgettable layup over the outstretched fingertips of Orlando Woolridge just before the final buzzer.
“The Notre Dame game gets a lot of hype because that was the game that got us to the Elite Eight. But I think the UCLA game was probably a highlight to all of us. Maybe even beating Utah that year,” Ainge recalled in 2022. “They were ranked in the top 10 in the nation. They had two top-10 picks in the draft. Those were two fantastic wins that year — beating Utah at home and beating UCLA, which was a No. 3 seed. It was a team that we had all grown up with as the dynasty — just after the (John) Wooden years. The great Larry Brown was their coach. I think that was the last game he coached at UCLA. That was probably the highlight of our season that year.”
Two days after knocking off Notre Dame, BYU’s run ended at the hands of No. 1 seed Virginia and its star 7-foot-4 center Ralph Sampson in the East Regional Finals, 74-60. It marked the Cavaliers’ first Final Four appearance.
The Cougars are still waiting for their first one.
Birmingham Blues (1984, 1987, 1988)
Strangely, for three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances in the mid-1980s, BYU was assigned to the same location — Birmingham, Alabama — with mixed results.
In 1984, as a No. 8 seed in the Mideast Region, the Cougars defeated No. 9 UAB (University of Alabama, Birmingham) before falling to No. 1 seed Kentucky, 93-68.
It was during that visit to Birmingham that BYU’s coaching staff discovered Alabama native Jeff Chatman, who ended up becoming a four-year star for the Cougars.
In 1987, No. 10 BYU fell in the first round to No. 7 New Orleans in Birmingham.
And in 1988, the Cougars, as a No. 4 seed, were sent to Birmingham again, where they beat UNC-Charlotte 98-92 in overtime before losing to No. 5 Louisville, 97-76.
Earlier during that 1988 campaign, BYU, which finished 26-6, was ranked as high as No. 2 in the nation, its highest ranking ever, and had a 17-0 record, when it played a regular-season game in Birmingham, where it dropped a 102-88 decision to UAB, altering the course of the Cougars’ season.
Heartbreak in Hartford (1990)
BYU earned a No. 12 seed and faced No. 5 seed Clemson in the first round in Hartford, Connecticut.
Right after the opening tipoff, BYU freshman Mark Durrant took a pass from teammate Marty Haws and hustled for a layup to lift the Cougars to an early 2-0 lead against the Tigers.
It marked the first game of the 1990 NCAA Tournament, which meant Durrant scored the first basket of the Big Dance.
“That’s my claim to fame,” Durrant said years later. Durrant has been a radio color commentator for BYU basketball for nearly 30 years. “That was pretty exciting for me, thinking about the team we were playing and that the whole nation was watching it.”
Going against future NBA players Elden Campbell and Dale Davis of Clemson, the Cougars kept the game close throughout before dropping a 49-47 decision.
A missed layup by BYU in the game’s waning seconds cost the Cougars a chance to advance.
“It really could have been one of the great moments in BYU basketball history,” Durrant said. “It’s hard to even think about it. Every year that goes by, it almost hurts more because I realize how close we were. If we had won that game, we were in position to win a couple more.”
Bradley, Shaq throw block parties (1991, 1992)
With 7-foot-6 freshman star Shawn Bradley, BYU earned a No. 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament and faced No. 7 Virginia, which defeated the Cougars a decade earlier in the Elite Eight.
In that matchup, Bradley set an NCAA Tournament record with 10 blocked shots, leading a Cougar second-half rally for a 61-48 victory at the home of archrival Utah at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.
The previous record was set by Navy’s David Robinson.
When a reporter congratulated Bradley about his accomplishment, Bradley replied, “What record?”
BYU coach Roger Reid understood the weapon he had in Bradley.
“I know that most teams that we play try to psychologically act like he’s not there and take it to him,” he said. “But he’s there. He’s 7-6 and he doesn’t go away.”
BYU was eliminated two days later against No. 2 Arizona, in a game that turned out to be Bradley’s final game in a Cougar uniform. He left for a mission, then declared for the NBA draft before returning home.
The following season, BYU was once again a No. 10 seed, though in 1992 the Cougars had a better record (25-6 compared to 21-13 in 1991). BYU’s first-round game, played in Boise, Idaho, was against No. 7 Louisiana State and star center Shaquille O’Neal.
Against the Cougars, Shaq was dominant, recording 26 points and blocking an NCAA-record 11 shots, a record set one year earlier by Bradley.
“Ever since I got here I’ve been hearing, ‘Watch the fakes,’” O’Neal said after the game. “When I called my mom, she said, ‘Watch the fakes.’ I talked to my brother and it was ‘Watch the fakes.’ Even my dad said, ‘Watch the fakes.’ … After I got that first foul (in the opening minute), I said, ‘Shaq, watch the fakes.’”
O’Neal, who would go on to win four NBA titles, watched the fakes and watched the Cougars go down to LSU, 94-83.
Kevin Nixon’s homecoming, reunion games (1993)
BYU’s Kevin Nixon is known for two famous shots during his career.
In 1992, he drilled a half-court buzzer-beater that beat UTEP and gave the Cougars a Western Athletic Conference tournament championship.
Months later, he knocked down a 14-foot jumper as time expired against No. 9 Oklahoma in the 1992 Maui Invitational.
Both shots went viral, in an early 1990s sort of way. Nixon was a crook, stealing wins for the Cougars in dramatic fashion.
In the 1993 NCAA Tournament, the Cougars, a No. 7 seed, were assigned to Chicago for a first-round game in the Midwest Regional.
That was a big deal for Nixon, a Council Bluffs, Iowa, native who played at Northwestern, located in Chicago, before transferring to BYU.
The Cougars beat No. 10 seed SMU and then drew No. 2 seed Kansas in the second round. One of the Jayhawks’ stars was Rex Walters (a future coach at San Francisco).
Nixon and Walters had been teammates at Northwestern before transferring to their respective schools.
There would be no last-second heroics from Nixon in that game.
While BYU put up a valiant fight against Kansas, the Jayhawks prevailed 90-76 after pulling away in the closing minutes.
Guard Nick Sanderson led the Cougars with 24 points, including six 3-pointers. Walters poured in 28 points for the Jayhawks.
There was no way Kansas was going to look past BYU. A year earlier, that Kansas team was upset in the first round by UTEP — the same team that Nixon knocked out in the conference tournament with his 54-foot heave.
One-and-done in Memphis (1995)
BYU earned a No. 8 seed and was matched up with No. 9 seed Tulane in the first round in Memphis, Tennessee.
The game was close throughout but the Green Wave secured the win thanks to the contributions of Kim Lewis (22 points) and Jerald Honeycutt (16 points).
The Cougars were led by Ken Roberts (20 points), Russell Larson (20 points) and Robbie Reid (19 points).
It was a year that began with a lot of promise, as BYU beat ranked teams Oklahoma State and Louisville in the Great Alaska Shootout. But the Cougars lost five of their last seven games of the season.
While No. 1 seed Kentucky downed Tulane in the second round, BYU didn’t return to the NCAA Tournament for six years.
The return to the Big Dance (2001)
In the mid-1990s, BYU basketball hit rock bottom, posting an abysmal 1-25 season in 1996-97.
Partway through that campaign, coach Roger Reid was fired and Tony Ingle was named the interim coach before the school hired Steve Cleveland.
On Selection Sunday — March 11, 2001 — four years to the day after his hiring was announced, Cleveland guided the Cougars back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years.
BYU earned the automatic bid after winning the Mountain West Conference Tournament against New Mexico behind the play of Mekeli Wesley, Terrell Lyday and Trent Whiting.
It marks the last time the Cougars won a conference tournament — 25 years ago.
BYU celebrates championship game win over New Mexico at the MWC tournament in Las Vegas, March 10, 2001. | Ravell Call, Deseret News
BYU received a No. 12 seed and took on No. 5 Cincinnati at Cox Arena in San Diego.
The Bearcats blitzed the Cougars 84-59. A 28-9 second-half run by Cincinnati put the game out of reach. The Bearcats finished with 11 3-pointers.
With the win, Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins earned his 300th victory at the school and it marked the program’s 1,400th all-time victory.
It marked BYU’s worst NCAA Tournament loss since a 93-68 setback at the hands of Kentucky in 1984.
But at least the Cougars found their way back to the Big Dance after a long absence.
Sunday-play bracket blunder (2003)
When it comes to scheduling games, the NCAA accommodates BYU — which doesn’t compete on Sundays due to religious reasons — with what is known as “The BYU Rule.”
The NCAA Tournament committee must place the Cougars in Thursday-Saturday brackets rather than Friday-Sunday brackets.
But on Selection Sunday in 2003, the committee made an egregious error.
Or a calculated gamble, perhaps?
Not only did the committee give the 23-8 Cougars, which tied for the Mountain West Conference regular-season title, a head-scratching No. 12 seed against No. 5 UConn, but it also sent BYU to Spokane, assigned to the South Region, with the possibility of a Sunday game if the Cougars advanced to the regional final.
When the mistake of not accounting for BYU’s no-Sunday rule when setting the bracket was discovered, it generated waves of national attention. The NCAA’s plan was to keep BYU in its assigned bracket through the first two rounds. Had the Cougars advanced to the Sweet 16, they would have been reassigned to the Midwest Region semifinals, which were scheduled for Thursday-Saturday. That would have caused busted brackets, literally.
As it turned out, BYU fell to UConn, 58-53.
For the NCAA, it was a case of a crisis averted. For BYU, it was simply a case of another first-round loss.
Mac Attack (2004)
BYU received a No. 12 seed for the third straight time and was paired with No. 5 Syracuse, the defending national champions, and coach Jim Boeheim, in the first round in Denver.
The Cougars played the Orangemen tough but they couldn’t cope with guard Gerry McNamara, who scored a career-high 43 points, including nine 3-pointers, in Syracuse’s 80-75 win.
McNamara had a Jimmer Fredette-like game, years before anyone knew who Jimmer Fredette — who grew up in upstate New York, not far from Syracuse — was.
“Right from the beginning, from that first shot I took, it felt good,” McNamara said.
Boeheim called it “as good a performance as I’ve ever seen in college basketball.”
X(avier) marks its spot (2007)
Another promising season — this one included 25 regular-season victories and a 17-0 record at home — resulted in another first-round exit for BYU.
No. 9 Xavier outlasted No. 8 BYU in Lexington, Kentucky, 79-77.
A Cougar team that featured Keena Young (who scored a team-high 24 points against the Musketeers), Lee Cummard, Trent Plaisted, Austin Ainge and Jimmy Balderson couldn’t get past Xavier.
The key stat: The Musketeers outscored BYU 23-10 from the free-throw line in a game that was statistically even in every other category. Xavier also buried three 3-pointers during a crucial stretch at the 10-minute mark. That was the difference.
Deja vu vs. Texas A&M (2008, 2009)
BYU fell victim to another scheduling quirk in their return to the NCAA Tournament under coach Dave Rose — facing the same opponent in back-to-back years.
In 2008, BYU won the Mountain West regular-season title and received a No. 8 seed. They faced No. 9 Texas A&M in Anaheim. The Cougars fell behind 11-0 in the game’s opening minutes before losing 67-62 to the Aggies.
One year later, BYU once again received a No. 8 seed and were assigned to play No. 9 Texas A&M. The only difference? This matchup was played in Philadelphia.
Once again, BYU lost to the Aggies, this time by a score of 79-66.
As a result, the NCAA is more mindful of, and tries to avoid, repeating first-round tournament matchups from one year to the next.
First-round losing streak snapped, finally (2010)
For BYU to win its first NCAA Tournament game in 17 years, the Cougars had to wrestle Gators to remove a monkey off the program’s back.
Junior Jimmer Fredette scored 37 points while leading No. 7 BYU to a heart-stopping 99-92 double-overtime win over No. 10 Florida in the first round.
It was far from easy, but the Cougars outlasted the Gators 95-85 in Oklahoma City.
“We had a second life, or a third life, or whatever it was, and I just wanted to go out there and try to get it done,” Fredette said after the game.
It snapped BYU’s eight-game NCAA Tournament losing streak.
“This was a long time coming for our program, and it’s a big win,” coach Dave Rose said. “One of the most important goals we had at the start of the season was to get into this tournament and advance … I’m proud of our guys.”
The Cougars ended up losing 84-72 against No. 2 seed Kansas State two days later.
However, BYU, which finished with a 32-6 record, was setting the table for what was to come.
Jimmermania, the Sweet 16 — what might have been (2011)
By late February 2011, bracketologists projected BYU as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and one of the favorites to reach the Final Four, a place the program had never been before.
It almost seemed like fate. The Final Four that season was to be played in Houston, the hometown of BYU coach Dave Rose.
Jimmer Fredette’s scoring onslaught, including bushels of deep 3-pointers, sparked Jimmermania, which was sweeping the nation.
Days after No. 7 BYU knocked off No. 6 San Diego State and Kawhi Leonard on the road, BYU officials released a stunning announcement.
Starting center Brandon Davies, the team’s leading rebounder, had been suspended for the rest of the season due to an Honor Code violation. The news sent shockwaves throughout the country and created headlines around the world.
Because of Jimmer, there already had been unprecedented, widespread attention on BYU basketball. Davies’ suspension only amplified that attention and put the school’s Honor Code under a microscope.
As it turned out, the Cougars drew a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, tying its highest seeding ever (1980).
Led by the consensus National Player of the Year, Fredette, and playing without Davies, the Cougars had to reinvent themselves somewhat. They beat No. 14 Wofford in the first round in Denver, then pounded future West Coast Conference rival Gonzaga, a No. 11 seed, 89-67.
It marked BYU’s first Sweet 16 appearance in 30 years.
The Cougars’ run ended the following week in New Orleans, where they lost to No. 2 seed Florida 83-74 in overtime. The Gators avenged their first-round loss to BYU in the tournament a year earlier.
It remains one of the biggest “what-if” questions in BYU sports history.
What would have happened had Davies played with the Cougars in the 2011 tournament? With Davies, BYU, which finished with a 32-5 record, had a legitimate shot at not only the Final Four, but also the national championship, which was won by UConn and star guard Kemba Walker.
The Huskies beat Butler, the No. 8 seed, in the title game. Butler had beaten Florida in the regional semifinals to advance to the national semifinals.
There are a lot of people that believe, under different circumstances, that the Cougars could have gone to the Final Four.
First Four: Epic comebacks (2012, 2015)
While BYU has never been to the Final Four, it has a couple of memorable First Fours in its history. The two games were eerily similar, except for the fact the Cougars won one and lost the other, experiencing both sides of massive comebacks.
The NCAA created the First Four in 2011, when the tournament was expanded from 65 to 68 teams, with two play-in games held in Dayton, Ohio. The First Four consists of eight teams — the four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the four lowest-seeded at-large teams.
In 2012, a year after Fredette had moved on to the NBA, and BYU’s first season in the West Coast Conference, the No. 11-seeded Cougars were sent to Dayton, Ohio, for a First Four game against No. 11 seed Iona.
BYU trailed by 25 points in the first half before it staged a furious rally, recording the largest comeback in NCAA Tournament history with a 78-72 victory.
President Barack Obama attended the first game that night and watched Western Kentucky come back from a 16-point second-half deficit. But Obama left the building before the Cougars’ historic second-half comeback.
Three years later, the roles were reversed during the 2015 First Four in Dayton.
No. 11 seed BYU squandered a 17-point halftime lead and lost to No. 11 Ole Miss 94-90 in the final game for the Cougars’ all-time leading scorer, Tyler Haws. The Rebels shot 60% and scored 62 points in the second half.
“It was pretty similar to what happened (three) years ago,” said BYU coach Dave Rose. “It was a tale of two halves.”
Without Collinsworth, even Milwaukee connections weren’t enough (2014)
As a No. 10 seed, BYU entered the NCAA tournament, once again, short-handed.
Early in the second half of the Cougars’ loss to Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference championship game, a week before the NCAA tournament, sophomore star Kyle Collinsworth landed awkwardly on his right leg and remained on the floor for several moments, writhing in pain before he was helped to the locker room.
The next day, BYU announced that Collinsworth had suffered a torn ACL and was sidelined for the rest of the season.
BYU’s Tyler Haws drives the lane with Oregon’s Richard Amardi and Jalil Abdul-Bassit as BYU and Oregon play Thursday, March 20, 2014 in the second round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament in Milwaukee. Oregon won 87-68. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
That meant the Cougars would face No. 7 Oregon without Collinsworth, who was the team’s leader in rebounding and assists and No. 2 in scoring and steals. He had returned home from a mission to Russia a year earlier.
BYU, which was one of the last five teams invited to the Big Dance, and Oregon met at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. Cougar guard Matt Carlino’s roots ran deep in Milwaukee. His mom grew up there, and his uncle, Brian Brunkhorst, starred at Marquette in the 1960s.
Also, freshman Luke Worthington hailed from Mequon, Wisconsin, a Milwaukee suburb. Assistant coach Cody Fueger is a Milwaukee native.
As for the game, it was a rematch from earlier in the season. BYU lost 100-96 in overtime at Oregon in December.
In this matchup, the Ducks defeated the Cougars again, but this one wasn’t close. Oregon prevailed 87-68. BYU shot just 5 of 19 from 3-point range. Tyler Haws led the Cougars with 19 points while Carlino finished with 15 on 4 of 16 shooting. Eric Mika added 15.
The Ducks’ Elgin Cook scored 23 points off the bench and missed only one shot from the floor.
BYU ended the season with a 25-12 record.
Not long after that game, Carlino announced he was transferring from BYU — to Marquette.
Collinsworth made a quick recovery after his surgery to play the next season. He went on to become the NCAA’s triple-double king, compiling 12 career triple-doubles, an NCAA record, over his final two seasons.
The NCAA Tournament that wasn’t: ‘My heart’s broken for these kids’ (2020)
For BYU basketball, the stars seemed to be aligning during the winter of 2020.
The Cougars recorded an epic upset of No. 2 Gonzaga in the home finale at the Marriott Center on Senior Night on Feb. 22. Under first-year coach Mark Pope, they boasted seniors Yoeli Childs, T.J. Haws and Jake Toolson. BYU (24-8), ranked No. 14, was a trendy pick to get to the Final Four for the first time in program history.
But behind the scenes, COVID-19 was lurking.
Not long after the Cougars lost on a buzzer-beater to Saint Mary’s in the WCC tournament in Las Vegas on March 9, just days ahead of Selection Sunday, the NCAA announced the Big Dance was being canceled due to the pandemic.
Madison Square Garden is shown after NCAA college basketball games in the men’s Big East Conference tournament were cancelled due to concerns about the coronavirus, Thursday, March 12, 2020, in New York. | AP
When the news broke, on March 12, first-year BYU coach Mark Pope was in a team meeting with his players just before a practice. It was to be the Cougars’ first NCAA Tournament appearance in five years.
Suddenly, the season was over. COVID-19 busted everyone’s brackets. Obliterated them.
There would be no Selection Sunday, no bracket-busting Cinderella stories, no buzzer-beaters, no Sweet 16, no Final Four, no cutting down the nets, no “One Shining Moment,” no national champion crowned.
No March Madness.
Pope felt for his players.
“It’s devastating to them, especially my seniors,” he said. “It’s excruciating for these guys and it’s hard for us. If I could control everything in the world, we would find some way to have this tournament just because my heart’s broken for these kids.”
Never mind the Final Four. It was to be the first NCAA Tournament experience for Childs, Haws, Toolson and the rest of the Cougars. But those dreams were shattered.
“I will tell you this — I believe this is true. There was nothing that could stop this team this year,” Pope said. “The one thing that stopped this team is a pandemic. I do believe that this group was so committed that there was nothing that was going to stop them besides something otherworldly.”
No ‘Hoosiers’ moment for BYU (2021)
What made the 2021 version of the tournament distinct and unique was that, due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the entire Big Dance was held in sites around the state of Indiana, rather than sites throughout the country, with Indianapolis hosting the Final Four.
It marked the only time the tournament was held in a single state.
But for college basketball fans, they were just thrilled to have a tournament at all after the previous year’s was canceled.
BYU forward Matt Haarms (3) goes up for the tipoff with UCLA forward Cody Riley (2) during a first-round game in the NCAA tournament at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Saturday, March 20, 2021. | AJ Mast, Associated Press
With stars like Alex Barcello and 7-foot-3 Purdue transfer Matt Haarms on the roster, and with a No. 6 seed, BYU coach Mark Pope and the Cougars appeared poised to make some noise in the NCAA tournament.
BYU was assigned to play at Indianapolis’ historic Hinkle Fieldhouse — of “Hoosiers” fame, and known as “Indiana’s Basketball Cathedral” — to take on No. 11 UCLA, which knocked off Michigan State in the First Four a couple of days earlier.
For most of the night, it was the Bruins that played like the No. 6 seed, controlling the game from start to finish in a 73-62 UCLA victory.
Even more disappointing for the Cougars? In their bracket, No. 14 Abilene Christian upset No. 3 Texas. In the next round, the Bruins blew out Abilene Christian and ended up advancing to the Final Four.
UCLA fell in the national semifinals to BYU’s then-WCC rival Gonzaga on a memorable buzzer-beater by freshman Jalen Suggs.
That tournament, which required fans and media to wear masks, featured a record four teams seeded No. 13 or lower winning first-round games. There were a record-breaking 14 upsets throughout the tournament, breaking the original mark of 13 upsets in 1985 and 2014.
BYU was among several single-digit seeds to succumb to a double-digit seed in 2021.
Duquesne-d in Omaha (2024)
In its first season as members of the Big 12, and its first time in the NCAA tournament as part of a Power Four league, No. 6 seed BYU was dispatched to Omaha to take on lightly regarded No. 11 Duquesne of the Atlantic 10 Conference.
Not only did the Cougars fall 71-67, they led for just 29 seconds of the game.
The Dukes out-played, out-hustled and out-physicaled BYU in a result that Cougar coach Mark Pope called “devastating.”
As it turned out, it was Pope’s final game as BYU’s coach.
That same weekend, Kentucky got upset by No. 14 seed Oakland in the first round, prompting Wildcat coach John Calipari to resign. Pope, who won the 1996 national championship as a player with Kentucky, was then hired to replace Calipari.
BYU, meanwhile, hired Kevin Young, an assistant with the Phoenix Suns, to take Pope’s spot.
Another Sweet 16 berth — with the Tater Tot King (2025)
In coach Kevin Young’s debut season, BYU returned to the NCAAs and received, for the third consecutive tournament, a No. 6 seed.
At that point, the No. 6 seed seemed to be a curse after the Cougars lost in their previous two appearances with that seed.
But the third time proved to be the charm, as BYU defeated No. 11 VCU in the first round and No. 3 Wisconsin in the second round. Those games happened in Denver, the same place where the Cougars had clinched their previous Sweet 16 berth 14 years earlier.
Leading the way for BYU was Richie Saunders, a First Team All-Big 12 selection.
When it was revealed that Saunders’ great-grandfather, F. Nephi Grigg, co-founder of Ore-Ida Potatoes, invented Tater Tots, Saunders was crowned the “Tater Tot King.”
Ore-Ida provided him with an NIL deal.
Saunders poured in a team-high 25 points in the Cougars’ heart-pounding 91-89 victory over Wisconsin.
In the Sweet 16, held in Newark, New Jersey, BYU faced No. 2 seed Alabama. Before the game, actor and BYU alum Jon Heder, who played Napoleon Dynamite in the movie of the same name, appeared at the game to support the Cougars. He wore an Ore-Ida T-shirt and served Tater Tots courtside.
As for the game, the Crimson Tide served up a platter full of 3-pointers. They knocked down a tournament-record 25 3’s — shattering the previous record of 21 that LMU hit against Michigan in 1990.
In BYU’s biggest game in nearly 15 years, the Cougars were burned to a crisp, 113-88, by Alabama. Crimson Tide All-America guard Mark Sears drilled 10 of 16 3-pointers and finished with 34 points. BYU finished the season with a 26-10 record.
Sitting on the front row at the Prudential Center in Newark that night was BYU signee AJ Dybantsa, the No. 1 recruit in the nation.
Dybantsa chose BYU over Alabama the previous fall and he attended the game to support his future team, stating that his goal was to help the Cougars return to that stage in the NCAA Tournament.
Maybe beyond.
With another March Madness approaching, Dybantsa will get his chance to help BYU get back to the Sweet 16 and, maybe, somewhere it’s never been before — the Final Four.
The quest continues.
BYU Cougars head coach Kevin Young calls out to his players while guard Egor Demin (3) controls the ball against the Wisconsin Badgers during a second-round college basketball game in the NCAA Tournament held at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News
