This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
How big is the BYU basketball team's game at Gonzaga on Thursday night? For the Cougars' fading NCAA Tournament hopes, it is gigantic. Odds aren't in BYU's favor, however. The Cougars are 10-11 point underdogs. It appears that the most prominent bracketologists — ESPN's Joe Lunardi and Andy Glockner of SI.com are my favorites — have the Cougars on the outside looking in after BYU went 1-1 last week, losing at home to Saint Mary's before handling San Diego quite easily. Lunardi has BYU among his "First Four Out" and has Saint Mary's among his "Last Four In." Glockner has BYU among his first four out. Oddly, he is saying the WCC is now a one-bid league and does not have Saint Mary's in the picture at all. BYU's best prospect for April's NFL draft is obviously defensive end/linebacker Ziggy Ansah. He's generating quite a buzz and garnering lots of publicity this week as prospects train for the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala. Here are some links to a couple stories about Ansah from newspapers in Florida and Tennesee. Also today, the Mountain West Conference board of directors approved playing the football conference title game on Dec. 7. That's when BYU was supposed to play at Hawaii (a MWC member), so obviously that game is now in limbo and will most likely be moved to an earlier date or not played at all.