Why BYU basketball will be a popular Cinderella pick in the NCAA Tournament

There are few activities more enjoyable for college basketball fans than filling out their NCAA Tournament bracket and falling in love with this year’s Cinderella school. Completing a bracket where most of the Sweet 16 consists of highly-seeded blue bloods might be practical, but it’s also boring and not always effective.

Almost every year there are No. 12 seeds that knock off No. 5s. Just last year 11-seed North Carolina State advanced to the Final Four after upsetting 6-seed Texas Tech and 4-seed Duke. In 2023 15-seed Princeton shocked 2-seed Arizona then knocked off 7-seed Missouri to make the Sweet 16. In 2022 it was 11-seed Michigan pulling two upsets to make the Sweet 16.

 As the NCAA Tournament approaches, another Cinderella will almost certainly slip on her gown, put on her glass slippers, and turn heads at the big dance.

For many college hoops fans, this year’s Cinderella will be the BYU Cougars.

The case for BYU as Cinderella

If you care enough about BYU basketball to be reading this, you already know Kevin Young’s squad is objectively one of the hottest teams in the country. The Cougars have pulled off seven straight conference wins, including a blowout victory at home over a No. 23 Kansas team and two impressive road victories at No. 19 Arizona and No. 10 Iowa State.

Torvik rankings recently pegged the Cougars as the sixth-best team in the country during this incredible stretch of victories, placing BYU among teams that will likely have very high seeds in the NCAA Tournament:

Kansas coach Bill Self had similarly high praise for BYU after the Cougars beat the Jayhawks by 34 points last month, stating “I think BYU could have beaten anybody tonight.”

The Cougars will be a popular Cinderella pick because they won’t have a top seed in their tournament draw. If they end up with something like a No. 7 seed, they would definitely qualify as a Cinderella if they were able to make a deep run. In that scenario they would be favored against the 10 seed in their first round matchup, but in the Round of 32 they’d likely face a No. 2 seed. Then, to make the Sweet 16, BYU would likely need to beat a No. 3 seed.

That’s a Cinderella run right there.

And Kevin Young’s team has already shown they can beat elite teams like Iowa State on the road. If this team gets hot, they can beat just about any team on a neutral court.

Throw in the fact that BYU’s roster is full of experienced veterans – many of whom want to exercise the demons from last year’s embarrassing tournament loss – and that’s a formula for a Cinderella.

BYU has also been in the national media a lot lately between the outstanding football season, their recent Big 12 success, and by signing No. 1 overall recruit AJ Dybantsa. Casual college basketball fans who don’t follow the sport closely but still fill out brackets have probably been hearing more about BYU over the past six months than normal, so the Cougars may feel like a comfortable pick to make a deep tournament run.

Don’t be surprised if a lot of March Madness fans anoint BYU as this year’s Cinderella pick.

Let’s just hope the clock never strikes 12.