Iowa St. vs BYU Cougars Prediction & Picks - NCAA Men

Prediction published on 3/12/25, 3:55 PM  by Matt Lowrimore | Modified on 3/12/25 at 11:02 PM in NCAA Men Picks

The Big 12 tournament has already provided a tone of excitement and that is only likely to continue as the quarterfinals will get underway on Thursday. The first of these quarterfinal games will see the 13th-seeded Cincinnati Bearcats/5th-seeded Iowa State Cyclones take on the 4th-seeded BYU Cougars. Let's break down the match statistics and predictions for this quarterfinal game between the Cyclones and the Cougars.

Iowa State enters this game with a record of 24-8, beating the 13th-seeded Cincinnati Bearcats in the second round by a score of 76-56. Projected to be a 3rd seed in the NCAA tournament, the result of this game will not change much for the Cyclones but if they continue to win, they may be able to move up onto the two seed line.  

BYU enters this game with a record of 23-8, finishing 14-6 in the Big 12. Because the Cougars entered this tournament as the 4th seed, they received a double-bye, making this their first game of the tournament. The good news for BYU is that they are comfortably into the NCAA tournament field.

Per ESPN's Joe Lunardi, the Cougars are projected to be a 5th seed. However, if BYU can win a few games in the Big 12 tournament, there is a good chance they will improve their NCAA tournament seeding, which would help them with potential matchups. The most recent game for BYU was an 85-74 win over Utah this past Saturday.