NCAA commentary: Tournament will define BYU's season

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Denver is a good destination for traveling BYU fans this week as the Cougar basketball team prepares to test its mettle in Colorado against the rest of the NCAA tournament field, first against Wofford (21-12). The seeding played pretty much to form as bracketology101, Rivals and Sports Illustrated pegged the Cougars as a No. 4, while ESPN predicted they would land a No. 3.

However, starting with Utah State's seed and including a lot of strange selections around the bubble teams, this wasn't the selection committee's best moment. CBS's Jay Bilas may have summed up it best when he said on air: "We have never come in here and said they didnt do a good job. This is not a good job."

That may or may not include BYU getting a little higher seed than deserved, but the Cougars were not complaining. "We were very excited to get a No. 3 seed, in Denver, which is close," said guard Jimmer Fredette. "We should have a good amount of fans there. We've had a great year, and the selection committee saw that and wanted to reward us for that."

After one of or perhaps the best ever regular season in the school's history, this BYU team will be ultimately remembered for what it does in the next week or, it hopes, weeks.

While that may not be fair, it is true. The season Fredette had will not be lost to many BYU fans' memories, but attached to the career that is certain to become part of Cougar lore will be either the memory of penetrating deep into the tournament with the blue-bloods of college basketball or the lament of what could have been if the team falls short of expectations.

Danny Ainge, central to any discussion of BYU basketball history, is most remembered for his full-court drive to defeat Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 and not for all the WAC and NCAA records or other accomplishments he piled up in his four years in Provo.

With a highest-ever bracket positioning for the school, No. 3 seed (just like 1980) BYU carries with it high hopes and high pressure as it faces a Wofford squad that actually admitted it wanted to play the Cougars.

"I think our style of play matches up well with them," Noah Dahlman told the Associated Press Sunday. The 6'6" senior forward, who averages 20 points and five rebounds, will be a handful for the depleted Y. front line. But he wasn't the only Wofford player woofing about the Cougars.