Utah Utes guard Mike Sharavjamts (25) and Brigham Young Cougars guard Egor Demin (3) fight for possession of the ball during a basketball game at the Marriott Center at Brigham Young University in Provo on Saturday, March 8, 2025. Tess Crowley, Deseret News
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+.

Bringing water to a boil on a hot stove takes just five to 10 minutes. Getting a basketball team to its boiling point sometimes takes a whole season — but once it’s there, the team is ready to cook.

“I know it’s a cliché, but it’s been our mantra of taking it game by game and day by day. This team has done well keeping a singular focus.”

It has been Kevin Young’s hope all along to have BYU playing its best basketball in March and his No. 17 Cougars enter this week’s Big 12 tournament in Kansas City as one of the hottest teams in the country.

Not only did BYU shoot way past its ninth-place preseason prediction to finish tied for third in the Big 12, but it is riding the second longest win-streak (eight games) in the league behind No. 2 Houston (10 games).

It was Houston that gave BYU a reality check on Jan. 4 when the red Cougars pounded the visiting Cougars blue — 86-55. The 31-point loss was BYU’s worst of the season, and the hangover lingered in consecutive defeats to Texas Tech in Provo and TCU on the road.