No. 10 BYU faces Clemson in Jimmy V Classic

PROVO, Utah - No. 10 BYU heads to the Big Apple this week as the Cougars are slated to face off against Clemson on Tuesday, Dec. 9, at the Jimmy V Classic. Tip is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET at Madison Square Garden. 

WHERE TO WATCH
Tuesday's game will be broadcast on ESPN with Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas and Kris Budden on the call. 

WHICH CAT HAS NINE LIVES?
Tuesday's showdown at The World's Most Famous Arena will be the third all-time meeting between BYU and Clemson and the first since the 1990 NCAA Tournament. 

The Cougars are 0-2 against the Tigers including a two-point defeat, 49-47, in the first round of the 1990 NCAA Tournament in Hartford, Conn. Current radio analyst Mark Durrant got the start in that game finishing with two points and a steal in nine minutes of action as former NBA players Dale Davis and Elden Campbell combined for 17 points and 17 rebounds for Clemson. Their first-ever meeting actually took place in Utah, just 80.0 miles to the North at the Dee Events Center in Ogden, where Clemson upset the No. 3 seed of the West Region, BYU, 71-66.

EVERYBODY IN THE GARDEN... REPRESENT THE BYU COUGARS
BYU is 10-13 at Madison Square Garden since the beginning of the 1950 season, including winning both of its NIT titles at The Mecca (1951, 1966). The Cougars enter Tuesday's game with Clemson having lost seven straight at The Garden with their last win coming on Dec. 27, 1966, a 96-84 victory over St. Bonaventure.

Second-year head coach Kevin Young knows a thing or two about Madison Square Garden during his time as an assistant coach for the Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns. During his time in the league, Youngís teams went 10-2 at Madison Square Garden (7-1 with the 76ers and 3-1 with the Suns). 

BASKETBALL IS POETRY IN MOTION
AJ Dybantsa has scored at least 15 points in all eight of BYU's games this season, which is the second-most consecutive 15-point games to begin a career in Big 12 history, second only to Oklahoma's Trae Young, who did it in the first 26 games of his collegiate career. 

Potential No. 1 pick AJ Dybantsa with a lot of pro buckets tonight 👀

22 PTS | 10-15 FG | 5 AST | 2 STL | 25 MINS pic.twitter.com/K6gYw2c1D4

— B/R Hoops (@brhoops) December 4, 2025

The freshman enters Tuesday's matchup scoring a team-high 19.4 points per game after scoring a career-high 16 first-half points on Wednesday en route to the third 20-point game of his career, tied for the ninth-most by a freshman in program history. 

DON'T SLIDE INTO HIS DM'S, HE WILL BLOCK YOU
Keba Keita ranks fifth in the Big 12 and 40th in the nation in blocks per game (2.0/game) after his three-rejection performance against Cal Baptist. Keita's teams are now 10-1 when Keita has three or more blocks, including a seven-block performance in the win over Miami. 

THAT'S CALLED A WIN STREAK
The Cougars have won six straight games against ACC opponents, not including a win over North Carolina in an exhibition game at Delta Center in October. A win on Tuesday would give BYU its seventh straight win over the ACC  and first in a non-MTE setting since March 18, 2016, when they defeated Virginia Tech at the Marriott Center in the NIT. 

HE IS A WIZARD
Richie Saunders is averaging a career-best 18.9 points per game this season, having scored in double figures in seven of BYU's eight games. The senior is shooting 42.6 percent from 3-point range this season and is one of three players in the Big 12 to have multiple games with six or more 3-pointers (Iowa State's Milan Momcilovic, Texas Tech's Donovan Atwell). With his lone triple on Wednesday, Saunders moved up to 10th on the all-time list, passing Mike Rose. 

In 14 neutral site games during the Young era, Saunders is averaging 16.8 points per game while shooting 49.4 percent from the field, 39.2 percent from three and 89.3 percent from the free throw line. He has scored in double figures in 12 of those 14 games, including a season-high 29 points in the win over Dayton, where he went 6-of-10 from three with four of those makes coming in the second half.