No. 11 BYU’s Big 12 schedule ratchets up a notch, beginning late Wednesday night vs. surprising TCU

He wasn’t complaining or whining about it, but second-year BYU basketball coach Kevin Young created a little bit of a national stir Monday in his weekly press briefing when he questioned why the Cougars fell out of the top 10 of the Associated Press Top 25 college basketball poll after winning a pair of Big 12 games last week.

Cougars on the air

TCU (11-5, 1-2) at No. 9 BYU (15-1, 3-0)

• Wednesday, 9 p.m. MST
• At the Marriott Center
• TV: ESPN2
• Radio: 107.9 FM / BYURadio.org

The 15-1 Cougars dropped from No. 9 to No. 11, despite routing Arizona State 104-76 and winning on rival Utah’s court, 89-84, for the first time since 2021.

Winners of 12 straight games and 3-0 in the Big 12, BYU’s schedule gets even more difficult this week, as the Cougars play host to surprising TCU (1-2, 11-5) late Wednesday night at the Marriott Center before heading out to Lubbock to face No. 15 Texas Tech on Saturday.

Certainly, the Cougars won’t drop in next Monday’s poll if they can somehow manage to knock off the Texas schools as the second half of their schedule begins.

For context, Young made the remarks about BYU’s rankings slide after being asked about the upcoming gauntlet of Big 12 games.

“There’s no doubt that it’s the best league (in the country),” he said. “I think there’s, what, four in the top 10? Someone just told me we dropped to 11, which I still don’t get. I really don’t understand how the polls work, truly.

“I’m not trying to be funny. I mean, we have one loss (to UConn) by two points against the No. 3 team in the country, in their backyard, and we were down two starters,” he continued. “So I don’t understand how we dropped in the polls. But that’s neither here nor there.”

Obviously, Young knows that the AP poll is mostly meaningless, and just done weekly to drum up attention for the sport and create conversation and argument. What really matters is the NET rankings, and BYU is currently sitting at No. 9 there, with a 5-1 record in Quad 1 opportunities.

The Cougars are currently No. 11 in another important metric, Kenpom.

Two other Big 12 teams are in the top 10 in the NET, with 16-0 Arizona sitting at No. 2 and 16-0 Iowa State sitting at No. 3. Texas Tech is at No. 19 and Wednesday’s opponent, TCU, is at No. 42.

And there will be plenty of opportunities for BYU to rise in the NET. Of BYU’s 15 remaining Big 12 games, 10 are currently Quad 1 opportunities, and four are Quad 2 chances. The only remaining Quad 3 game for BYU is Jan. 24 when No. 131 Utah visits the Marriott Center.

“The bottom line is, our league’s really hard. Every night is a dogfight. The coaching is tremendous. The talent this year is even better than it was last year, across the board,” Young said.

The same could be said of the entire country. There are a lot of elite teams this year, most notably the two aforementioned unbeaten Big 12 teams, along with 14-1 Michigan, 15-1 Duke, 17-1 Gonzaga, 15-1 Purdue, 16-0 Vanderbilt and 16-0 Nebraska.

Still, Young has a point — BYU (3-0, 15-1) is the lowest-ranked one-loss team in the country. And in the 86-84 loss in Boston to UConn, starter Kennard Davis missed the entire game due to suspension and starter Keba Keita played just seven minutes, 50 seconds before sustaining a game-ending concussion.

Monday, Young conceded that the Cougars could have recorded a double-digit win over the Utes if they could have made their second-half free throws — they were 19 of 29 from the charity stripe — but acknowledged conference road wins over rivals are difficult to achieve, regardless of the fact that nearly half of the Huntsman Center was filled with BYU fans.

“If you make some of those (free throws) you obviously have a much wider margin of victory,” he said. “But I was just proud of the way that they were able to find a way to win. … There was so much emotion in it, so just finding a way to win was good.”

Young said Monday was all about preparing for TCU, which lost a 104-100 overtime heartbreaker at No. 22 Kansas last Tuesday and then fell at home 86-73 to No. 1 Arizona on Saturday. The Frogs’ other losses were to then-No. 6 Michigan (67-63 in Fort Worth), New Orleans, and Notre Dame (87-85 in overtime in Fort Worth).

Their best wins were over then-No. 10 Florida 84-80 and Wisconsin 74-63 at the Rady Children’s Invitational in San Diego in late November.

“They are good. They almost beat Michigan. … What they did at Kansas was impressive,” Young said. “I’ve watched a lot of their games. Coach (Jamie) Dixon is an experienced coach. Iowa State and Houston get a lot of credit in our league for being tough-minded teams defensively. I think (TCU) has a lot of the same characteristics, and that’s why they are in a lot of (close) ball games that they are in.”

“I’m not trying to be funny. I mean, we have one loss (to UConn) by two points against the No. 3 team in the country, in their backyard, and we were down two starters. So I don’t understand how we dropped in the polls. But that’s neither here nor there.”

—  BYU coach Kevin Young

The Frogs are averaging 80.4 points per game and holding opponents to 68.4 points per game. Forward David Punch leads them in scoring (14.1) and rebounding (7.8) and guard Jayden Pierre chips in 10.9 points per game. Guard Brock Harding averages 6.2 assists per game.

TCU’s roster includes two players with strong local ties — guard Tanner Toolson, who is averaging 18.3 minutes per game, and center Adam Stewart, who has appeared in only four games.

Toolson, the son of former BYU standout Andy Toolson, averaged 3.5 points in six games for BYU in 2022-23 before transferring to Utah Valley. He entered the transfer portal after two solid seasons at UVU and landed in Fort Worth after getting several other power conference offers.

Stewart is from Waller, Texas, but played high school basketball his junior and senior seasons at Salt Lake Academy in Utah. The 6-foot-11 sophomore served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Europe before joining TCU in 2024.

Coincidentally, Stewart’s parents — Rich and Rebekah — are now Young’s neighbors in Utah, the coach said Monday.

As for Tanner Toolson, who drew some BYU interest for the second time when he entered the portal out of UVU, Young said he knows the family well and “talked to him” before the 6-foot-5 guard from Washington state picked the Horned Frogs.

“He’s a tough young man. He plays really gritty. … Great young man, great family,” Young said. “He’s been a part of some of the big wins that they’ve had. So it’ll be fun to compete against him. I wish him the best.”

Except on Wednesday night.

TCU guard Tanner Toolson shoots during game against Kansas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Lawrence, Kan. | AP