PROVO, Utah – Possibly BYU’s biggest draw yet this season, the Arizona Wildcats prompted students to camp out for up to two days outside the Marriott Center to get the best seats for Tuesday’s late night ESPN show.
On a normal winter evening on the 4,551-high campus, that might mean shoveling snow out of the way, bringing out portable heaters and holing up in a well-insulated sleeping bag.
This time? It was nothing. Juniors Seth Nabrotzky and Conner Prusse simply wore BYU No. 25 jerseys and a white Smurf hat, enjoying the blast of springtime air that wasn’t all too different than what they know from their Gilbert hometown
“Last game it was freezing,” Prusse said of BYU’s Jan. 28 matchup with Baylor.
From left, Jay Dalton, Seth Nabrotzky, Conner Prusse and Mac Jones — all from Gilbert — camped out for two days to get the best student seats for Tuesday's game between Arizona and BYU. They had a Smurf vibe going on for the game.
But while the BYU students enjoyed the mild weather, it wasn’t a crazy campout scene. Mostly just an extended study session.
“Lots of homework,” said Mac Jones, another BYU student from Gilbert.
Section of distraction
BYU doesn’t unveil crazy fans with a curtain behind the visitors’ second-half basket as ASU does. They have one in just about every seat.
BYU’s “ROC” student section – short for Roar of the Cougars – has 5,000 fans with statistical evidence that they make a difference.
BYU students pose for a photo before a game against Arizona Feb. 4, 2025, in Provo, Utah.
Well, at least until Tuesday.
Before Arizona made 13 of 14 free throws in the second half against the BYU student section — walk-on Addison Arnold had the only miss — BYU opponents had shot consistently worse against the student backdrop in the second half over the past five seasons when fans have been allowed in the arena.
Not counting the 2020-21 season when fans weren’t allowed because of COVID concerns, BYU opponents other than Arizona have shot 69.6% in the first half but just 65.4% in the second half, when they face the student section.
Marriott Sugar Shack
While Cincinnati has full-on bars all over Fifth Third Arena, and other Big 12 schools have concourses dotted with beer kiosks, BYU of course does not sell beer or other alcoholic drinks at the Marriott Center.
Instead, BYU offers plenty of ways to indulge the sweet tooth.
Among the items offered Tuesday: “Bundtlets” from Nothing Bundt Cakes, 12 flavors of licorice from Provo-based Rop’d (including sour mango), Karie Ann’s Italian Ice and Custard, cinnamon roasted almonds and locally flavored ice cream specialties from the BYU Creamery.
BYU doesn't sell alcohol, but it does sell a lot of sugar.
Even the generic Dippin' Dots made a concession to BYU’s concessions, offering something called “BYU Blast,” a concoction mixing blue raspberry ice with vanilla ice cream.
Cougar Tail culture
But the star of the Marriott Center concessions is the Cougar Tail, a 15-inch long maple donut bar that sells for $7.50.
The concourse featured several stands dedicated to selling the unique confection, each sold in a blue cardboard sleeve that reads “inseparable from the game,” and baked just 100 yards away by BYU students. The donuts are not sold outside of BYU athletic events.
BYU sells about 1,200 Cougar Tails for men’s basketball games, according to BYU concessions manager Joshua Isaksen, or about one for every 15 fans in the building. For football games, he said, the average is between 10,000 and 12,000.
“They’re an institution around here,” Isaksen said. “We like our sugar.”
Stacks of Cougar Tails, a 15-inch maple donut bar that goes for $7.50, stand waiting to be sold before Arizona's game at BYU on Tuesday. BYU's concessions manager says 1,200 of them are sold for an average basketball game.
Born in 2003, the Cougar Tail was a smash success resulting from BYU Dining Services’ goal of creating something unique. According to BYU’s dining services website, managing director Dean Wright struggled with the idea until he saw a taxidermized cougar inside a BYU building.
“Something about the cougar’s tail stood out to Wright, and inspiration struck,” the website said.
Curtain drop
Instead of holding the customary pregame video on the Marriott Center videoboard, BYU dropped a white curtain down from the rafters all the way to the floor and instead showed the pregame video against that backdrop.
When the video was over, the curtain dropped around BYU cheerleaders who had been standing inside it.
Cougar-style halftime
BYU’s halftime show included multiple tie-wearing guys elevating off trampolines to dunk the ball, while somebody with a Cougar head played the violin at midcourt.
Steve Kerr sighting
Since striking up a friendship over the past few years, Warriors coach Steve Kerr and Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd have made a habit of catching each other’s games when possible.
So it was no surprise when Kerr showed up Tuesday and sat three rows behind the Wildcats’ bench. The Warriors are scheduled to play at the Utah Jazz on Wednesday.
Evening prayer
Before the national anthem and player introductions, BYU held a pregame prayer, which asked to bless players, coaches and referees and keep everyone safe.
All tied up
BYU leads Division I in most married players with four: Richie Saunders, Max Triplett, Trevin Knell and Dawson Baker.
Creighton, Hawaii and Utah State are the only other D-I schools with multiple married players.
Always intimidating
How tough has BYU historically been to play at?
The Cougars went 0-16 in the WAC in 1996-97 when UA assistant coach Steve Robinson brought Tulsa into Provo as the Golden Hurricanes’ head coach. Tulsa won 72-56 en route to a 12-4 conference finish that season, but Robinson said he remembered a tough environment anyway.
“It was loud, and their fans were into it,” Robinson said. “We got the win and got out of town.”
Round-the-clock hoops
Arizona followed an 11 a.m. tipoff at ASU on Saturday with the 9 p.m. tipoff Tuesday, while BYU has been scheduled to play as early as 12:30 p.m. this season, often at 7 p.m. but with three games at 8:30 and Tuesday’s at 9.
BYU coach Kevin Young embraced Tuesday's 9 p.m. tip.
"I think it gets you ready for the postseason,” Young said. “Anything can happen there. We’ve had a myriad of different start times, so our guys will be ready to go.”
