alt=Jeff CallPROVO — When BYU hosts Gonzaga Saturday in the regular-season home finale at the Marriott Center, it will be a matchup between a pair of top-25 teams.
On Monday morning, BYU checked in at No. 23 in The Associated Press poll, marking the first time the Cougars have been ranked in the top 25 in nine seasons. The Zags maintained their No. 2 ranking this week, receiving 14 first-place votes.
BYU hasn’t been ranked in the AP poll since it finished No. 10 in 2010-11. At the end of that season, the Cougars fell to Florida in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
BYU (21-7, 10-3) has won six consecutive games and are fresh off a weekend road sweep of Loyola Marymount and San Diego.
BYU set a school record with 18 3-pointers in beating the Lions 77-54 Thursday night. On Saturday, the Cougars survived a major scare from the Toreros before Yoeli Childs scored on an alley-oop pass from TJ Haws with 11.1 seconds remaining in a 72-71 victory.
“It’s amazing. I’m just so proud of our guys. These guys deserve it. Just because you deserve something doesn’t mean you’re going to get it,” Childs said Saturday night. “But I love this team. We deserve it but we want to go take it. That was a battle. San Diego came out swinging and they played a great game. But I’m just proud of our guys and it feels great.”
BYU is ranked No. 23 in the NCAA’s NET rankings, No. 19 by Kenpom.com, No. 19 by Andy Katz in his weekly Power 36 and No. 22 in the CBSSports.com Top 25.
The Cougars are projected as a No. 7 seed by Joe Lunardi in his latest bracket projections.
BYU hosts Santa Clara on Thursday prior to the Gonzaga game Saturday, the latter is already sold out for Senior Night.
The Cougars have lost five consecutive games to Gonzaga and haven’t beaten the Zags in Provo in six years.
BYU will continue to be without the services of senior forward Dalton Nixon, who suffered a serious ankle injury at LMU. He could be sidelined for at least a couple of weeks.
“We miss Dalt. I miss him personally because he’s a security blanket for me. I know exactly what he’s going to give me because he’s so consistent,” BYU coach Mark Pope said. “He’s going to come up with 50-50 balls on offense. He’s going to multiply our ball movement offense by 10. He’s going to give me unbelievable post defensive rotations and give me two or three charges … all those things I miss.“
Fortunately for the Cougars, forward Gavin Baxter is back on the floor after missing the first 25 games of the season due to a shoulder injury.
“Gavin stepped up and played really well,” Childs said after the win over USD. “We’re all going to have to grow. We’ve been through this before and we’ve been through this a lot this season.”
Cougars on the air
Santa Clara (18-9, 5-7)
at No. 23 BYU (21-7, 10-3)
Thursday, 7 p.m. MST
Marriott Center
TV: CBS SN
Radio: 1160 AM, BYU Radio