Let’s take a minute to recap some of the situations that have yanked your emotions around like a yo-yo:

Hope: Heading into the Big 12 tournament in 2024, the Cougars had won three of their last four games including stunning No. 7 Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas. The only loss was at No. 6 Iowa State.

Disappointment: After a win over UCF in BYU’s first Big 12 tournament game, the Cougars lost by 14 to No. 25 Texas Tech and then couldn’t rally and was upset, 71-67, by No. 11-seed Duquesne in the NCAA tournament.

Hope: BYU had reason to be optimistic with a lot of underclassmen who could return and make a run.

Disappointment: The college coaching dominoes tumbled across the country, resulting in Cougar head coach Mark Pope taking over at his alma-mater, Kentucky, and putting the Cougars in a state of uncertainty.

Hope: BYU got donors on board and made a big hire, getting Phoenix Suns assistant coach Kevin Young to accept the head-coach job. He was able to keep some veterans, add talent through the transfer portal and also made some early recruiting splashes that included Egor Demin and Kamon Catchings, creating a lot of buzz in Provo.

Disappointment: The Cougars didn’t make much of a splash in their weak non-conference schedule, notching an OK win over North Carolina State but falling to Ole Miss in OT and getting blown out by Providence.

Hope: BYU appeared to get a few things figured out and Big 12 play offered a lot of opportunities for signature wins.

Disappointment: The Cougars lost four of their first six conference games, including disappointing close-game defeats at TCU and at Utah (in OT).

Hope: BYU responded with four straight wins, including an OT home win over Baylor and a close win at UCF.

Disappointment: The positive Cougar vibes were damaged by a home loss to No. 20 Arizona and a poor showing at Cincinnati.

Hope: Things finally seem to be clicking for BYU as the Cougars have now won seven straight, including three victories over ranked opponents with two coming on the road (No. 23 Kansas, at No. 19 Arizona and at No. 10 Iowa State).

Disappointment: ?

It’s hard to blame BYU fans for having a little anxiety that something frustrating is going to happen, considering the roller-coaster ride of the last 12 months.

But will it?

If Tuesday night’s season-defining victory over the Cyclones in Ames, Iowa, is a reliable indicator, maybe it won’t.

How you view what happened, though, might seriously impact your optimism about what the rest of the 2024-25 season will hold for the Cougars.

I mean, how often can you expect to win when you:

• Give up 34 points off of 29 turnovers?
• Allow an opponent to erase a 21-point second-half deficit?
• Foul 23 times and send the other team to the line 31 times?
• Miss opportunities to put the game away at the end of regulation and the first overtime?

On the other hand, how can you worry about losing when you:

• Outrebound your opponent by 28 (52-24)?
• Get 13 more points from your bench (33-20)?
• Make 11 3-pointers?
• Seize the momentum by scoring the first four points in both overtimes?
• Have a game-changing chase-down block by Keba Keita on a dunk attempt?

I don’t know if that last item is really something that makes it impossible to be defeated, but it certainly was impressive. Man, Keita covered a lot of ground quickly to shut that one down.

The truth is that BYU did all of those things above and still got the 88-85 2OT victory, so the good outweighed the bad by a slim margin.

Still, no one should ignore just how easily the miscues could’ve resulted in things going the other direction.

And it may happen at a very inopportune time, either in the regular-season finale against the Utes in the Marriott Center on Saturday, in the Big 12 tournament next week or in the upcoming NCAA tournament.

But this Cougar squad has shown late in the season that it is versatile, resilient and adaptable.

Will that equal a national championship? Probably not.

A Final Four run? Still pretty unlikely.

A win or two in the Big Dance? Quite possibly.

I think BYU getting a home win over the Utes (pretty likely), not embarrassing themselves at the Big 12 tournament (at least a win in the first game) and one win in the NCAA tournament should be regarded as a highly-successful first season for Young.

Anything less would honestly be a little disappointing, but not entirely devastating.

So, Cougar supporters, I saw sit back, enjoy the ride … and enjoying hoping for more big things from BYU basketball.