Marriott Madness came with introductions, dunks, music and more than 5,000 people in the building on a Tuesday night. But the most useful part for BYU was not the spectacle. It was Kevin Young making an early pitch to the people in the seats: this team is going to need them.

“I want you to know how important [the fans] are for our legitimate home court advantage,” Young told the crowd, according to the Deseret News.

That can sound like standard October promotion until last season’s results are separated by location.

BYU finished 23-12 overall and 9-9 in the Big 12, but the official 2025-26 schedule shows a 12-3 record at the Marriott Center and a 3-6 mark in true road games. That is an 80% winning percentage in Provo compared with 33.3% on the road.

Conference play made the difference even clearer. BYU went 6-3 at home in Big 12 games and outscored those nine opponents by 40 points, an average margin of plus-4.4. Away from Provo, the Cougars went 3-6 and were outscored by 45, an average margin of minus-5.0.

BYU did not simply win more often at home. Its average scoring margin swung 9.4 points depending on the venue.

That is not proof that the Marriott Center crowd created nine points by itself. Opponent quality, travel, shooting variance and schedule order all influence those numbers, and 18 conference games are not enough to isolate a precise home-court effect. BYU beat Iowa State and Texas Tech at home but also lost there to Arizona, Houston and UCF. The Marriott Center was an advantage, not a force field.

But the difference is large enough that Young’s message Tuesday was more than promotion.

And BYU does not merely have home games this season. It has them at a particularly useful time.

The 2026-27 schedule gives BYU 17 regular-season games in the Marriott Center: eight before conference play and nine in the Big 12. Kansas, Utah and Arizona are among the conference visitors. Before any of those games count, Nebraska comes to Provo for an exhibition Oct. 16, giving Young an early look at how his rebuilt rotation functions in front of a real crowd.

That home runway matters because this is not the same team that finished last season.

AJ Dybantsa and Richie Saunders are gone. BYU added shooting, size and veteran transfers, but chemistry does not arrive with a transcript. Robert Wright III has to learn where Collin Chandler and Bruce Branch III want the ball. Young has to determine which lineups defend well enough to stay on the floor. New combinations have to learn how to communicate through switches, rotations and late-clock possessions.

Jaxon Kohler could be important in accelerating that process. His official BYU profile credits him with 8.9 rebounds per game as a Michigan State senior, third in the Big Ten. For a team trying to turn the Marriott Center into an accelerator, that matters. Finish the defensive possession, get the ball to Wright and a routine stop can become transition offense with an energized building behind it.

That is where home court can help a new roster without magically fixing it.

BYU’s first regular-season game against Ohio State will be at the Delta Center rather than on campus. After that, Omaha, Queens, Montana State and Northern Colorado come to Provo during a 13-day stretch. Those games should give Young repeated opportunities to experiment with rotations, clean up defensive communication and establish roles before the Maui Invitational, where the building will not rescue a loose possession or a quiet defensive stretch.

The schedule becomes even more favorable once Big 12 play begins. BYU hosts five of its first eight conference games.

For a team replacing major pieces, that is more than a scheduling footnote. It is an opportunity to bank wins while the rotation develops rather than spending January trying to recover from home losses that should have been avoided.

Nebraska will offer the first useful test, and the final score may be one of the least interesting parts of it.

Watch whether BYU finishes defensive possessions with rebounds. Watch whether Wright can turn stops into early offense. Watch how quickly the Cougars communicate when Young begins changing lineups. Watch what happens after a made 3 or a momentum-changing defensive play: does BYU turn the crowd’s energy into another good possession, or does the noise remain just noise?

Those are habits that will matter in Maui and on Big 12 road trips, where BYU will eventually have to prove it can function without the Marriott Center behind it.

Marriott Madness showed the audience is ready. Last season’s numbers showed why Young cares.

This rebuilt roster will eventually have to learn how to win away from Provo. But while Wright, Chandler, Branch, Kohler and the rest of the rotation figure out how all the pieces fit, BYU has one advantage it does not have to develop from scratch.

It already knows where thousands of people are going to be.