BYU Basketball is 6-3 currently without Yoeli Childs in the lineup.
If you had told me two months ago that BYU Basketball would be 6-3 with wins over UCLA, Houston and Virginia Tech I would have said you were lying. After all, the Cougars without Yoeli Childs or Gavin Baxter were nearly completely depleted at the forward/center position and are in their first year with a new coach.
Yet here they are 6-3 overall with Yoeli Childs smelling blood in the water as he prepares to make his season debut against Utah.
While there are still plenty of questions and possibilities this season, it will be very interesting to see how the NCAA treats BYU at the end of the season. In the end, the NCAA's job is to get the best 68 basketball teams in the NCAA Tournament...at least that is what they claim.
It is fair to say that with Childs in the lineup, the Cougars would almost certainly be 8-1 currently with their only loss coming to a top five Kansas team. That kind of resume would undoubtedly be worthy of an NCAA bid, especially if the Cougars continue to win.
But will the NCAA view it that way?
Obviously the Cougars have to continue to win. The most likely scenario is that BYU will go 1-3 against Saint Zaga this season and 5-1 in the remainder of the non conference schedule. I also believe that the Cougars will drop a game somewhere in conference play that they shouldn't due to a bad shooting night.
That would put BYU with eight losses going into the WCC Tournament. That would be a 22-8 overall record and likely a 24-9 or 25-9 record after the tournament. Normally that -kind of resume would put BYU on the outside looking in. But if BYU was 26-7 or 27-7 with the kind of schedule they had, it would be enough.
The key is going to be whether the NCAA views BYU as their record shows or how they actually are, a team that has the talent to win 25 games but was unable due to the suspension.
In my experience with the NCAA I can already tell you that they look for every excuse to have P6 teams in the tournament and reasons to keep non P6 out. The NCAA wants to make money and having WCC teams in the tournament gets in the way of that. If you don't believe this is true, look at the current Bracketology. Currently, there are only four teams in non P6 conferences as "at large" teams. In other words out of the 200+ non P6 teams only four are seen as good enough to be an "at-large" team compared to the 33 "at large" P6 programs (over 50%).
Again, BYU has to get near 25 wins first, but if they continue to play as well as they have, but now with Childs in the lineup, it will likely happen. So NCAA, this is your chance to prove me wrong. Look at BYU as they are, not as their record shows.