There's been some focus on predicted final conference standings, but I'm honestly way more concerned about getting to the dance and hopefully winning at least a game if/when we get there.

I believe Q1 wins is a more important measure than final conference standings and BYU is going to need 5 Q1 wins to go dancing this year. Baylor was BYU's first Q1 win of the season putting BYU at 1-4 in Q1 and, for better or for worse, our remaining schedule is very, very heavy on Q1 games.

Q1 @UCF
Q1 AZ
Q1 @Cincy
Q1 @WV
Q3 K-State
Q1 Kansas
Q1 @AZ
Q1 @ASU
Q2 WV
Q1 @ISU
Q2 UT

The conference tournament will be a Q2 in the first round unless we moved into the top 4, so we're looking at 8 Q1 and 4 non-Q1 games ahead. With that gauntlet before us, we may only need to only go 6-6 over that span to get into the NCAA tournament as a bubble at-large team. That gets us 20 or 21 wins with 4-6 Q1 wins, which is basically TCU's resume last year (21-12, 5 Q1 wins). We probably need to do slightly better since the B12 is not as strong overall in NET rankings this year, but it's not like we have to win every game, or even most of our games, to still make the big dance.

7-6 through the rest of the regular season and conference tournament would put us squarely on the bubble. Another win or two beyond that either in the regular season or the tournament would basically guarantee a spot in the big dance. We don't need to place higher than 5th or 6th in the B12 to make it, the Q1 wins are more important.

I am optimistic, particularly based on recent progress by Demin and Catchings along with consistent contributions by our Veterans, that BYU will finish the season strong, but a few losses in this next stretch is to be expected and it won't kill the season if/when it happens.