Jumping ahead a bit, the Big 12 Tourney has a 12-team format where the top 4 seeds get a first round bye. While BYU will surely make the tournament, the extra rest could make a difference as it's potentially 4 games in 11 days. At this point we're on the cusp. As a fan, conference are tournaments are definitely exciting, but the extra wear before the NCAAs makes me nervous too.
And our tourney performance is important because outright winning might be our only shot at getting an invite. Our RPI is high due to our opponents, but we have no "good" wins. Some decent ties, but we're not beating tournament teams which seems to be an important criterium as of late. So better pray to beat Tech at the end of the season and at least one top-40 opponent in the tournament.