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Spokane, Wash. • It's simple, really.

The BYU Cougars can end all the talk about where they sit on the NCAA Tournament bubble, and whether their RPI of 56 and their Ken Pomeroy rating of 30 and their Basketball Power Index (BPI) rating of 27 means they should be dancing in March, or not.

All they have to do is beat No. 3 Gonzaga on its home court on Saturday night in front of national television audience (ESPN2) and 6,000 crazed Bulldog supporters. If the Cougars win at The Kennel, where they've never won and where the Zags enjoy a 41-game home winning streak, they will almost certainly punch their ticket to March Madness, most bracketologists say.

It is a mighty big if. It is close to impossible, some might say. Pomeroy gives the Cougars a 12 percent chance of winning, and even that seems high. It is as tall of a task as a Dave Rose-coached team has ever been tasked with, considering Gonzaga is 29-1 and eyeing a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament if it doesn't slip up in its likely four games between now and Selection Sunday.

Yeah, the Zags won't lack for motivation. They've already wrapped up the West Coast Conference regular-season title and, although they appeared to be mildly disinterested for large parts of Thursday's 59-39 win over San Diego, BYU always has coach Mark Few's team's full attention.

Gonzaga leads the all-time series 8-3 and has defeated BYU by scores of 84-69, 83-63 and 74-63 at McCarthey Athletic Center since the Cougars joined the WCC.

"It is going to be exciting," BYU guard Skyler Halford told KSL radio after scoring 19 points off the bench in the Cougars' 82-69 come-from-behind win over Portland on Thursday. "This is the most exciting time of the year for a college basketball player, and March Madness is coming up. From here on out, every game is like a tournament game, and we are playing for it all. We are just going to give it all we got. We are really excited about it."

The Cougars (22-8, 12-5 WCC) are playing their best basketball of the season, and Rose's tinkering with his starting lineup and rotations — forced by a slew of untimely injuries as much as anything else — has produced a 10-11 player rotation hungry to make amends for the midseason losses to Pepperdine and San Diego. Those three setbacks have the Cougars trending toward the NIT.

Gonzaga's 87-80 win over BYU in the WCC opener in Provo on Dec. 27 still stands as the Cougars' worst loss of the season.

"They are pretty similar [to how they played in December]," Rose said. "You watch them, they are pretty much the same. I think that [Domantas] Sabonis is playing a lot more minutes, and they play Sabonis and [Przemek] Karnowski a lot together. But his guard line is deep, his front line is deep, and they have been really consistent. We are looking forward to it. I think our guys will be really excited and hopefully we can go in there and something good will happen for us."

Whatever the case, BYU's bubble status remains a hot topic nationally. It's been that way in late February every year the Cougars have been in the WCC.

On Thursday, ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi called BYU's game at Gonzaga "gold for a bubble team" and acknowledged it is a de facto play-in game for the Cougars.

The front page of ESPN.com's college basketball section on Friday featured a report from Eamonn Brennan called "The Curious Case of BYU" and Brennan argued that BYU's high RPI will probably keep it out of the tourney.

"Analytically, BYU is a much better team than its current bottom-of-the-bubble status suggests," Brennan said. "….But as some point, you've got to beat somebody. BYU hasn't."

Gonzaga would certainly fill that bill.

Twitter: @drewjay —

BYU at No. 3 Gonzaga

P At the McCarthey Athletic Center, Spokane

Tipoff • 8 p.m., MST

TV • ESPN2

Radio • 1160 AM/102.7 FM

Records • BYU 22-8, 12-5 WCC; Gonzaga 29-1, 17-0 WCC

Series History • Gonzaga leads, 8-3

Last Meeting • Gonzaga 87, BYU 80 (Dec. 27, 2014)