‘Ready to take the world on’: No. 23 BYU’s confidence soaring heading into Big 12 tournament in Kansas City

BYU’s men’s basketball team has not won a conference tournament championship since 2001, but that history of postseason failures means absolutely nothing to first-year coach Kevin Young and this year’s particular group of players.

After they routed rival Utah 85-74 in front of 17,978 at the sold-out Marriott Center on Saturday night to move into a tie for third place in the Big 12 and add an eighth-straight win to their collection, the Cougars to a man expressed confidence that they are far from finished proving all the critics wrong.

If nothing else, Young has his No. 23-ranked crew believing it is as good as any team in the country, which is quite the mindset to have heading into postseason play.

“I feel like they are mentally in a space where they are ready to take the world on, which as a head coach is a good feeling,” Young said.

Next up for Young’s team is another huge test — the Big 12 tournament at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.

BYU (23-8, 14-6) earned the No. 4 seed and will play on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. MDT against either No. 5 seed Iowa State, No. 12 seed Oklahoma State or No. 13 seed Cincinnati.

Oklahoma State and Cincinnati will square off Tuesday morning to open the tournament, and the winner will meet Iowa State on Wednesday.

That means a rematch of BYU’s 88-85 win over the No. 10-ranked Cyclones is a distinct possibility on Thursday, and ISU will have a huge crowd advantage because its fans turn T-Mobile Center — a little more than three hours away from Ames — into “Hilton Coliseum South.”

Bring it on, the Cougars said late Saturday night after leading Utah 34-30 at halftime, pushing the lead to as many as 19 points and then coasting home as the Utes made a late run to gain some respectability.

Utah got the No. 11 seed in the Big 12 tournament and will face No. 14 seed UCF on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. MDT.

“Our group is confident because of the (eight consecutive) wins. … But also because of the way they work,” Young said. “The practice that we had yesterday (Friday) was one of the most impressive things I’ve seen since I have been coaching. I am not trying to say that with exaggeration. These guys were so dialed in and so intense yesterday.”

From where does that confidence spring?

Junior guard Dawson Baker, who led the Cougars with 15 points off the bench against Utah, said BYU’s depth and trust in the coaching staff to make the right adjustments has made it a team of believers.

Those wins over nationally ranked Arizona and Iowa State on the road and victories they scratched out over West Virginia and Utah after sluggish first halves have fueled the self-belief.

“We are on a high right now which is good, and we are rolling and we got to experience a lot of big wins,” Baker said. “Those (made) us battle-tested and will prepare us big time come postseason.

“In games where it gets rough, we know that we can make adjustments through the course of games, and we can change games through our energy. Our bench energy has been really good, so I think we are all super excited and eager. We know how last year went for us, and so we just really want to make an impact and continue to win.”

Last year, the Cougars won their first-ever Big 12 tournament game, beating UCF 87-73 in the second round before getting thumped 81-67 by Texas Tech in the quarterfinals.

Of course, the Cougars earned a six seed in the Big Dance and were upset 71-67 by Duquesne in the first round in Omaha, Nebraska.

Baker’s fellow backup guard Trey Stewart, who noted after the Cougars’ first win over Utah since 2022 that he hates the Utes “with a burning passion” despite having friends Caleb Lohner, Jake Wahlin and Hunter Erickson on Utah’s roster, said guys who were on last year’s team haven’t forgotten the disappointing finishes in both tournaments.

“Experience is so huge when it comes to postseason play, and again, we have a lot of people with experience on this team so we kinda know the environment,” Stewart said.

“We have been to Kansas City before, we played UCF and then we came around and had that Texas Tech game and coming back was difficult, so we are very motivated to learn from that experience and do better this time.”

Some national analysts are starting to believe in BYU, too.

ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi moved BYU up to a No. 5 seed in his latest projections on Sunday, and has the Cougars facing UC San Diego of the Big West in Denver.

Sunday, the Cougars had a NET ranking of 26 and were No. 24 in Kenpom.com. That’s heady stuff, considering they were picked to finish ninth in the Big 12.

“I have a weird relationship with expectations,” Young said. “I think they are very limiting and so I never really put a benchmark on what I thought we could or couldn’t do, but it became pretty obvious for me early that I felt like we could be a good basketball team, and the more I saw other teams in the league, and in the country, I felt like we had what it takes to be one of the best teams in the country.”

The Cougars enter the Big 12 quarterfinal Thursday having gone 15-2 at home, 6-5 away, and 2-1 at neutral sites this season. Fifteen home wins ties Young with Roger Reid for most home wins by a first-year BYU head coach.

“I am proud of the fact that we started out 1-3 and then 2-4 (in Big 12 play) and then didn’t melt down,” Young said. “We just came in and went to work every day and tried to be a solution-oriented type of group.

“Led by me, and then out staff, and our players, they bought into that, and I told them, ‘Look, the sun is still coming up the next day’ when we had that poor record. It is a real testament to just staying the course.”

Cougars on the air

No. 23 BYU (23-8, 14-6) vs. Iowa State/Cincinnati/Oklahoma State

Thursday, 10:30 a.m. MDT

At T-Mobile Center

Kansas City, Missouri

TV: ESPN or ESPN2