Top 5 BYU Basketball Wins: Where does the Kansas Win Rank?
WHAT. A. NIGHT. BYU does what only 14 programs have done in the last 20 years: Walk into Phog Allen Fieldhouse and walk out with a win. Pay heed all who enter, BYU has themselves a squad. If there was ever a time for a highly emotional and reactionary list of all-time BYU moments, it’s right now. So lets do it: Top 5 BYU basketball wins of all time.
5. BYU 79-81 #1 Gonzaga
In a vacuum, this is the best BYU win of all time, but it’s not the biggest. BYU spoiled #1 Gonzaga's perfect season by overcoming an 18-2 deficit in the first 5 minutes of the game on the back of a 29 point, 11 rebound performance from Eric Mika. No one expected BYU to win. They already had the 30-0 snap chat filters and headlines prepared and everything. The problem was the win was essentially meaningless in the context of BYU’s season. BYU wound up missing the NCAA tournament and were bounced in the first round of the NIT. Still, beating the #1 team on the road has to be a top 5 win for every program in the country, let alone BYU.
4. Danny Ainge goes coast to coast to send BYU to the elite 8
Realistically, a win that propelled BYU to their deepest NCAA run should be higher on the list, but it happened almost 15 years before I was born, and I am a sucker for personal experience and recency bias. How good was this win? I still see Danny Ainge pop up on “greatest NCAA tournament moments of all time” lists 40 years later. Notre Dame was awesome that season. They finished 23-6 and finished #7 in the final AP poll. BYU was down one with 8 seconds to go when National Player of the Year Danny Ainge took the inbound 94 feet to pull of the greatest finish in BYU history.
3. BYU knocks off #2 Gonzaga on senior night
This one will always hold a special place in my heart as it was the last BYU basketball game I ever attended as a student. The moment was as perfect as I ever have felt as a BYU fan. BYU was ranked in the AP top 25 for the first time in a decade. An NCAA tournament bid was on the line. It was the final home game for one of the most iconic BYU trios ever in Yoeli Childs, TJ Haws, and Jake Toolson. Students, including me, camped out for 4 days just to get into the sold-out Marriott Center. The opportunity was there and BYU rose to meet it. The Cougs beat Gonzaga by 13 before welcoming 6,000 students onto the floor in the realization of a moment BYU fans and Mark Pope rehearsed before the season began.
2. BYU has their welcome to the Big 12 moment at #7 Kansas
It cannot be overstated how difficult it is to beat Kansas at home. Going into Tuesday, Kansas had a 319-17 record under head coach Bill Self. They had won 71-straight home games when leading at halftime and 19 straight overall. Kansas is such an iconic basketball program that they literally invented the sport. All of that changed last night. BYU outscored Kansas by 18 points over the final 18 minutes to pull off the upset. Despite playing with 4 fouls, Dallin Hall recorded 13 points in the final 7 minutes in what must be considered one of the greatest closing performances in BYU history.
The magnitude of this win cannot be overstated considering the state of the BYU basketball program just last year. Before the season, we were debating whether the football team would win more conference games than the basketball team. Fast forward six months and BYU just sealed their NCAA tournament bid as well as secured their 4th win of the season over an AP top 25 team for the first time in 40 years. Tuesday could be a program-changing win and easily BYU athletics greatest moment of their short Big 12 tenure. It’s hard to imagine it being topped any time soon.
1. The night Jimmer took over #4 SDSU, Kawhi Leonard, and all of America.
I’m not sure this will ever be topped. Jimmer Fredette put up 43 points on one of the best defenders the NBA has ever seen in a 71-58 win over #4 SDSU in front of a sold-out Marriott Center. The win not only propelled BYU to its highest AP ranking in program history and an sweet 16 run, but also launched Jimmer’s “player of the year” campaign after the greatest individual offensive performance in BYU history. Perhaps even NCAA basketball history. Marriott Center magic had never reached such a peak, and neither has my BYU fandom. I mean, were you even a BYU fan if “Teach Me How to Jimmer” wasn’t your most listened to song of 2011?
