{"id":222533,"date":"2025-09-13T03:26:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T03:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/222533\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T03:26:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T03:26:12","slug":"turn-it-up-byu-mens-hoops-prepares-for-challenging-nonconference-schedule-news-sports-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/222533\/","title":{"rendered":"Turn it up: BYU men\u2019s hoops prepares for challenging nonconference schedule | News, Sports, Jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 \/ 3<\/p>\n

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BYU’s Richie Saunders (right) takes a shot over freshman AJ Dybantsa during summer workouts at the Marriott Center Annex on Wednesday, May 21, 2025.<\/p>\n

Photography by Nate Edwards\/BYU<\/p>\n

\u00a9 BYU PHOTO 2025
\nAll Rights Reserved
\nphoto@byu.edu (801)422-7322<\/p>\n

Nate Edwards, BYU Photo<\/p>\n

2 \/ 3<\/p>\n

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BYU men’s basketball coach Kevin Young (left) reacts during a 91-89 victory against Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.<\/p>\n

Courtesy BYU Photo<\/p>\n

3 \/ 3<\/p>\n

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BYU’s Keba Keita (in white) attempts a dunk against VCU in an NCAA first round men’s basketball game at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Thursday, March 20, 2025.<\/p>\n

Courtesy BYU Photo<\/p>\n

\u276e<\/a>
\n \u276f<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n
\n\t\t\t\tBYU\u2019s Richie Saunders (right) takes a shot over freshman AJ Dybantsa during summer workouts at the Marriott Center Annex on Wednesday, May 21, 2025.<\/p>\n

Photography by Nate Edwards\/BYU<\/p>\n

\u00a9 BYU PHOTO 2025
\nAll Rights Reserved
\nphoto@byu.edu (801)422-7322\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n
\n\t\t\t\tBYU men\u2019s basketball coach Kevin Young (left) reacts during a 91-89 victory against Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n
\n\t\t\t\tBYU\u2019s Keba Keita (in white) attempts a dunk against VCU in an NCAA first round men\u2019s basketball game at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Thursday, March 20, 2025.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n


<\/p>\n

The \u201cAJ Dybantsa Effect\u201d is in full swing.<\/p>\n

The nation\u2019s No.1 recruit chose BYU in December of 2024, making his decision public on ESPN\u2019s \u201cFirst Take.\u201d Since then, the impact on the Cougar program has been immediate and far reaching: Recruiting, tickets sales, merchandise sales and social media \u2014 as well as expectations \u2014 have all gone into hyper speed.<\/p>\n

Perhaps his greatest impact has been on scheduling, because everyone wants a piece of the Cougars and Dybantsa.<\/p>\n

BYU opens the 2025-26 season with an exhibition game at Nebraska on Oct. 18, beginning the most unique schedule journey in program history that includes two exhibition games against power conference opponents, four neutral site matchups and a trip to Florida for the Terry\u2019s Chocolate ESPN Events Invitational.<\/p>\n

Opponents include the aforementioned Huskers, North Carolina, Villanova, Wisconsin, UConn and Clemson.<\/p>\n

BYU assistant coach Chris Burgess has been at the forefront of the scheduling negotiations, along with new Director of Athletics Brian Santiago.<\/p>\n

\u201cAJ jumped on board, and I\u2019m not going to lie to you, every event organizer in the country reached out to Brian or myself or Coach (Kevin Young) or other assistants on our staff,\u201d Burgess said. \u201cAnything they got, they would forward it to me. We\u2019re very selective with what we\u2019re trying to accomplish with our scheduling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burgess recalled the Cougars competing in the West Coast Conference and the Mountain West Conference, where they were just trying to somehow get into the NCAA Tournament and make a run.<\/p>\n

Things have changed since moving to the Big 12 and hiring Young as head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunicating with Coach Young and Brian, we\u2019re not just trying to get in,\u201d Burgess said. \u201cWe want a seed. We want a top four seed. So we started doing a deep dive over the past five years-plus to figure out, \u2018What does it take?’\u201d<\/p>\n

BYU didn\u2019t have to look far to find a scheduling blueprint that worked for a higher seed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout going too far into the weeds, Arizona, at the end of the day, got a four seed last year,\u201d he said. \u201cWe tied their record in the Big 12 (14-6) and if you look at the last 10 games, we were actually the hotter team, if we\u2019re being honest. But their nonconference schedule was top 50 and ours was bottom 340. They didn\u2019t win one of those marquee games, they were zero and five. In a nutshell, that tells you all you need to know. You\u2019re punished for your schedule or rewarded for your schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Mark) Pope and Kentucky did a phenomenal job with that, right? They put together a great schedule and got a three seed (with 11 losses). They were another example of how you\u2019ve got to challenge yourself. They (the NCAA committee) are looking at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young and his coaching staff have assembled what they think is a very good team for 2025-26, adding Dybantsa and former Baylor point guard Robert Wright III to a roster that includes returning starters Richie Saundes and Keba Keta, as well as four other Division I transfers and Austrian sharpshooter Aleksej Kostic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted a good seed, and then everybody was trying to get AJ and the BYU brand at their event,\u201d Burgess said. \u201cWe started narrowing it down to who we wanted to play. You get Madison Square Garden. I got to play there a long time ago, but come on, man, it\u2019s super special. You get to play an ACC team (Clemson) and you get to play on the ESPN Network. That\u2019s what college basketball is all about. So we wanted that one and things started brewing more and more. There was a lot of talk back and forth. We didn\u2019t think it was going to happen, but we were able to lock down Boston Garden and a team that won two of the past three national championships (UConn). We knew it was going to be a big-time television game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BYU coaching staff recognized there would be additional travel for the neutral site games but decided the experience was worth it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was going to be the marketing and marquee games that BYU deserves and it was going to help our nonconference strength of schedule,\u201d Burgess said. \u201cThen we were searching for a marquee game at the Delta Center and Wisconsin came about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cougars were able to land the exhibition games at Nebraska and with North Carolina at the Delta Center due to changes in NCAA rules that allowed those events to take place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a two-year deal with Nebraska so they\u2019ll come back to the Marriott Center next year for an exhibition,\u201d Burgess said. \u201cThen Brian came with this North Carolina game. They kind of fell on, \u2018Hey, we\u2019ll come out there for one year but we want to do the Delta Center.\u2019 It was a no-brainer for us and for our fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key components of the scheduling, Burgess said, were the draw of Dybantsa and and the Sweet 16 finish in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s the BYU brand,\u201d Burgess said. \u201cIt\u2019s what we wanted to do in the nonconference and everybody wanted us as part of their ticket. The team we\u2019ve put together, and what we did last year, the run we made, everybody wanted us because of that. They know our fans travel and our fans are everywhere. We\u2019re a worldwide brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get it twisted: Burgess and the Cougars know they are embarking on a very ambitious adventure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be challenging, man,\u201d Burgess said. \u201cWe\u2019d love to go undefeated in those games, that\u2019s our goal. But at the end of the day, we\u2019re going to learn a lot about ourselves. We\u2019ve got to challenge ourselves. We\u2019ve got to prepare for the Big 12 because we\u2019re playing better competition. Kevin was talking to us and he said, \u2018Our nonconference schedule, it didn\u2019t help us last year. What we\u2019re trying to do every single year, we need to be challenged.\u2019 So this is what we\u2019re trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

BYU Men\u2019s Basketball 2025-25 Non-Conference Schedule<\/p>\n

Saturday, Oct. 18 at Nebraska (exhibition)<\/p>\n

Friday, Oct. 24 North Carolina (at Delta Center, SLC)<\/p>\n

Monday, Nov. 3 Villanova (Hall of Fame Series Las Vegas at T-Mobile Arena)<\/p>\n

Saturday, Nov. 8 Holy Cross<\/p>\n

Tuesday, Nov. 11 Delaware<\/p>\n

Saturday, Nov. 15 UConn (Hall of Fame Series Boston at TD Garden)<\/p>\n

Friday, Nov. 21 Wisconsin (at Delta Center, SLC)<\/p>\n

Thursday, Nov. 27 and Friday, Nov. 28 Terry\u2019s Chocolate ESPN Events Center<\/p>\n

Wednesday, Dec. 3 Cal Baptist (at Delta Center, SLC)<\/p>\n

Tuesday, Dec. 9 Clemson (Jimmy V Classioc at Madison Square Garden)<\/p>\n

Saturday, Dec. 13 UC Riverside<\/p>\n

Tuesday, Dec. 16 Pacific<\/p>\n

Friday, Dec. 18 Abilene Christian<\/p>\n

Monday, Dec. 22 Eastern Washington<\/p>\n

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Copyright \u00a9 2025 Ogden Newspapers of Utah, LLC | www.heraldextra.com | 1200 Towne Centre Blvd. STE 1058, Provo, UT 84601 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1 \/ 3 BYU’s Richie Saunders (right) takes a shot over freshman AJ Dybantsa during summer workouts at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":222534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-222533","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115194861033461914","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}