BYU Basketball is in the Middle of the Big 12 Standings with an Opportunity to Climb

On Saturday evening, BYU held off a late rally to beat Kansas State. With the win, BYU improved to 5-5 in conference play. We're just past the midway point of the Big 12 basketball season and every Big 12 team has at least three losses in conference play. BYU is right in the middle of a logjam in the Big 12 standings.

Team	W-L	Pct.	Home	Away
Houston	8-3	.727	6-0	2-3
Iowa State	7-3	.700	5-0	2-3
Kansas	7-4	.636	6-0	1-4
Baylor	6-4	.600	4-1	2-3
Texas Tech	6-4	.600	4-1	2-3
Oklahoma	6-5	.545	4-2	2-3
BYU	5-5	.500	3-2	2-3
TCU	5-5	.500	3-2	2-3
Texas	5-6	.455	2-4	3-2
Kansas State	5-6	.455	4-1	1-5
Cincinnati	4-6	.400	2-3	2-3
UCF	4-6	.400	3-2	1-4
West Virginia	3-7	.300	3-2	0-5
Oklahoma State	2-9	.182	2-3	0-6

Houston, Iowa State, and Kansas stand atop the Big 12 standings. Those three have one thing in common: they have protected their home courts. Those three teams are a combined 17-0 at home. That’s the difference between those teams and the rest of the conference. Every team, except Texas, has a losing road record in conference play..

The next batch of teams, including Baylor, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma are 12-4 at home in conference play and just outside of first place.

Then there's TCU and BYU who are both 5-5. Both TCU and BYU have dropped two conference home games, and that has prevented them from competing for first place in the standings. After those two, there's a group of teams with six losses: Cincinnati, Texas, Kansas State, and UCF.

On one hand, BYU is just a few games away from having a chance to be a top four seed in the conference tournament. That's significant - the top four seeds in the Big 12 tournament will have to double byes to the quarterfinals. On the other hand, BYU is a few games away from going into the tournament near the bottom of the conference standings.

From here on out, every game matters. BYU must capitalize on the lighter schedule it has over the next two games. BYU hosts UCF on Tuesday night before taking on last-place Oklahoma State on Saturday in Stillwater. A 2-0 record in those two games would position BYU nicely for both the conference tournament and NCAA tournament.

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