BYU men’s basketball enters AP Top 25 Poll at No. 23

PROVO, Utah – BYU men’s basketball has entered the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time this season, coming in at No. 23 in the poll for the week of Feb. 17. This marks the first time BYU has been ranked since the final poll of the 2010-11 season when the Cougars finished at No. 10.

In his first year at the helm, head coach Mark Pope has guided BYU to a record of 21-7 overall and second place in the West Coast Conference at 10-3. BYU is coming off back-to-back road wins at Loyola Marymount and San Diego and has won six-straight overall.

Among the most efficient teams in the country, BYU is No. 1 in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage, No. 2 in 3-point field goals per game, No. 3 in field goal percentage, assists per game and assist to turnover ratio, and No. 17 in points per game. According to Kenpom.com, the Cougars are No. 5 in adjusted offensive efficiency and No. 78 out of 353 teams in adjusted defensive efficiency.

BYU also measures well in several other polls and metrics, coming in at No. 19 at Kenpom.com, No. 19 in Andy Katz’ Power 36 on NCAA.com, No. 20 in Jeff Goodman’s Top 25 Rankings, No. 22 in the CBSsports.com Top 25 and 1 rankings, No. 23 in the NCAA Men’s Basketball NET Rankings and No. 24 in the NBC Sports Power Rankings. The Cougars are also receiving votes and are two spots outside the USA Today Coaches Top 25 Poll.

This week, BYU hosts Santa Clara (televised on CBS Sports Network) on Thursday at 7 p.m. MST and No. 2 Gonzaga (ESPN2) on Saturday at 8 p.m. MST. Tickets for the Santa Clara game are available at BYUtickets.com. The Gonzaga game has been announced as a sellout.