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The BYU men's basketball team reacts to the NCAA Bracket announcement at the Marriott Center Annex on Sunday, March 15, 2026.

Courtesy BYU Athletics

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BYU forward AJ Dybantsa (3) shoots during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Houston in the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 Conference tournament Thursday, March 12, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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BYU head coach Kevin Young is seen on the sidelines during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against West Virginia in the second round of the Big 12 Conference tournament Wednesday, March 11, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo.

Charlie Riedel, AP Photo

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It seems the NCAA Tournament is always a “good news, bad news” situation for the BYU men’s basketball team.

First, the good news: The Cougars have been invited to the Big Dance for the third straight season while playing in the Big 12, the third consecutive year they’ve secured a No. 6 seed. Considering the challenges the team has faced, a No. 6 seed seems pretty fair. In addition, BYU is playing on the West Coast (Portland) which should bring a lot of Cougar Nation to the Moda Center on Thursday.

“Obviously, going into the season, you wanted to be a higher seed,” BYU freshman AJ Dybantsa said. “But as long as you’re in the tournament dancing, that’s all that really matters. We had a lot of adversity through this year with injuries and everything like that. The 6-11 game is going to be a hard game, a special game, so for us even be a six seed, we’re proud of that.”

Now, the bad news: BYU won’t know who it will play until late Tuesday evening, a distinct preparation disadvantage compared to most other teams in the tournament. The Cougars opponent will be the winner of the First Four game between a pair of No. 11 seeds, Texas and North Carolina State.

“I’m just excited as far as the seed,” BYU head coach Kevin Young said. “I don’t really get caught up in all that. You play who you play. In terms of preparing for two teams, it is what it is. We would have liked to know who for sure we were playing. But I’m a optimistic-type thinker, so I think the positive side there is it gives you less time to overthink it.

“I think there’s actually a lot of power in that, focusing on yourself right now, trying to just get better at the things that make us good and have made us good during this little resurgence that we’ve had. I think it’ll be a good time to do that. It forces you to just get to the point when it does come time to introduce the opponent to the guys, which I think has actually helped our team this year when we just keep it simple and keep the main thing the main thing.”

The main thing offensively has been Dybantsa, the nation’s leading scorer at 25.3 points per game, and sophomore guard Robert Wright III (18.2).

“We’ll try to allow Rob and AJ to do what they do at a high level, without kind of getting in their way,” Young said. “But at the same time our team is different than it was and we have experimented with certain things. Those are still areas I feel like we have a lot of room to improve on the offensive end, just given the different players that we’re playing. We’ll see how that kind of unfolds.”

On the defense, the Cougars seemed to have landed on some stability with Dominique Diomande and Khadim Mboup getting more minutes coming off the bench.

“We’ve definitely found our identity on the defensive side,” Dybantsa said. “Playing a team like Texas or NC State that comes from a different conference, we’re definitely going to try to impose our will in the defensive end, leading our defense to kind of translate into our offense.”

After two straight seasons opening NCAA Tournament play against a school from a mid-major conference (Duquesne in 2024 and VCU in 2025, both from the Atlantic 10), BYU will face a team from a power conference in the first round for the first time since 2021 when it played UCLA.

Not you again

If BYU gets past its first round opponent, a likely second round matchup looms against former West Coast Conference nemesis Gonzaga, the No. 3 seed in the West Region.

The Bulldogs (30-3 overall, 16-2 WCC) won their sixth WCC Tournament in seven seasons and 12th in the past 14 years with a 79-68 victory against Santa Clara at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas last Tuesday. Gonzaga is leaving the WCC for the revamped Pac-12 next season.

The Bulldogs are 25-7 all-time against the Cougars, though BYU did win three in a row in Spokane from 2015 to 2017.

Well prepared

Including exhibition games against Nebraska and North Carolina, BYU has played 15 teams that made the NCAA Tournament field: 1 Arizona, 2 Houston, 2 Iowa State, 2 UConn, 4 Nebraska, 4 Kansas, 5 Texas Tech, 5 Wisconsin, 6 North Carolina, 7 Miami, 8 Villanova, 8 Clemson, 9 TCU, 10 UCF and 13 Cal Baptist.

By comparison, when the Cougars competed in the WCC and made the tournament in 2021, they had played just five schools that qualified for the Big Dance: 1 Gonzaga, 6 USC, 6 San Diego State, 11 Utah State and 16 Texas Southern.

Scouting Report

BYU is 5-2 all-time against Texas, including an 84-72 victory in the Marriott Center when both teams were in the Big 12. The Longhorns left for the SEC the following year and have gone 15-21 in two seasons in that league. Texas (18-14 overall, 9-9 SEC) had a five-game winning streak in February but has lost five of its past six games, including a 76-66 loss to Ole Miss in the SEC Tournament. Xavier transfer Dailyn Swain leads the Longhorns with 17.8 points, 7.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game.

The Cougars are 2-4 against North Carolina State all-time and won the last meeting 72-61 at the Rady Children’s Invitational in San Diego last season.

The Wolfpack (20-13 overall, 10-8 ACC) won six games in a row in January and February but have lost seven of their past nine contests, dropping an 81-74 decision to Virginia in the ACC quarterfinals. Three players average around 14 points a game for NC State, including former Texas Tech standout Darrion Williams (13.8 points per game).

Texas and North Carolina State have already met once this season, a 102-97 Longhorns victory at the Maui Invitational in November.

BYU women No. 1 seed in WBIT

The Cougar women’s basketball team (22-11) just missed out on an NCAA Tournament bid — they were listed as the “First Team Out” by Charlie Creme on ESPN’s Bracketology — but received an invitation to play in the Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament. BYU will be a No. 1 seed and will host Southwestern Athletic Conference regular season champion Alabama A&M (22-10) on Thursday at the Marriott Center.

“Despite being left out of the NCAA Tournament field, I am grateful for the opportunity that our team has to continue our season in the WBIT,” Cougar head coach Lee Cummard said. “Earning a spot in the postseason is always the goal for our team, and getting the opportunity to play in the Marriott Center again is always a blessing. We look forward to facing a good Alabama A&M team on Thursday and getting back to playing BYU basketball.”

A win in the first round would set up a second-round home matchup against the winner of Missouri-Seton Hall.

Utah, Texas A&M and North Dakota State join BYU as No. 1 seeds.

The semifinals and finals of the 32-team tournament will be at Koch Arena on the campus of Wichita State University.