When have we had a 7’3” senior center since Bradley? We have a great team and they are highly competitive young men. Deepest team ever.
Yeah, that’s a great concept and idea, if it were true it would be even better. I am hopeful that Pope has the right perspective about it and it actually happens.
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If you know anything about youth sports, high school sports and in many cases college sports, it just never works out that way. I have seen it played out over and over through the years.
Seen what play out? Competition separates the men from the boys. Coaches find out who wants to really get better as a player and a team. And, sometimes the one with more talent doesn’t make it because they weren’t willing to put their heart into competition. Not everyone is competitive. The Jordan’s of the sports world are. So it is so in academic world as well. The competitive workers get ahead.
While I understand your view here, let me ask you a question: “Did you think BYU would do what they did last year with a new coach”?
I am optimistically reserved on next year basketball. I think if anyone can move the program forward it is Pope. I think he brings a different mindset and ability to help move the program forward.
The truth is in the details, I think Pope is focusing on the minute details to turn this program around.
Just my view.
Ericson is a local, true, but how many cougs on the roster are now that Pope is the man? That crap has ended when Rose left.
Take a look a the new comers, espcecially at Tripples’ highlight film and ask yourself this. When Tripple scored 28 on Wasatch Academy, he played against two future Cougs……Lohner and Saunders. And more then held his own, now think about what Im about to say…… Tripple is a walk on!
And Lohner and Saunders were highly recruited, high stars. Tripple is walking on at least in part because he didn’t get much recruiting.
I would be really excited about him if he were coming back from his mission. He is a one and done Mormon style…one year, mission, then mission recovery, physical and competitively… a lot never get across that chasm. Thanks to the Haws family pioneering, I think, the physical part is becoming more common…but get back from a mission. find a wife, get on with your life, the NBA is clearly not happening…so the dreams change.
Mika is a rare outlier that I hope makes it.
Been away from posting but following BYU hoops news closely, as always. This should be obvious to all, but I’ll say it anyway: kids just want to play for Pope, and his personality is infectious. He’s the perfect modern day recruiter–top 100 recruit himself, NCAA champ, legitimate pro career, awesome communicator, and loved by all. Lohner, Averette and Haarms are all big-time gets for BYU. Lohner is muscular and has huge hops, but the highlights of him handling the ball and shooting 3s off the dribble have to have Pope salivating…and Averette is a REALLY good player at both ends with EXTREME athleticism. And I’m laughing at watching some guy coming into the paint to score with Haarms with his athletic 7’3" coming from one side and Baxter with his 100 inch vertical from the other to swat that stuff away…I can’t remember another BYU team having TWO PGs quick enough to stay in front of the fastest guards…And Gideon George is also a supremely talented athlete and championed by his Juco coach as an elite defender–whether he can defend a D1 guy is still to be seen, but Pope could turn this into one of the best defensive teams we have seen at BYU.
- I predict Pope stays and becomes a legend at BYU. To stay he will have to turn down offers from bigger programs almost every year, but my understanding is that he AND his family LOVE this job and that he is 1000% convinced he can recruit and coach a perennial NCAA tournament team.
- To your question, I have been lobbying for Pope for almost 5 years and am his biggest fan, but not even I anticipated what he did last year. He made Kolby Lee a legitimately good D1 player!!! Anything else? Oh yeah, he raised TJ Haws practically from the dead to become a true star in his senior year. More? Oh yeah, literally every single guy on the team played better individually than the year before. More? Oh yeah, that whole “100% buy in” cliche that we coaches preach but can rarely experience? Pope made it look EASY.
- I’m more than optimistic about this next season and every season with Pope.
I have to agree with Larimer here. There is no denying that he made Lee into something he definitely wasn’t. Same with the other guys you mentioned Tom… Haws was fading.
I don’t know exactly how he did it but the thing that I noticed most was the CONFIDENCE factor. Those guys believed they were good players and they showed it. It must be his coaching skills because Lee, in my opinion, had very limited talent yet he was effective when he was on the floor.
I agree, Pope is quite the coach. From what I have heard he does love the area and what he is doing so hopefully he stays for awhile.
All 3 of my daughters have worked in the athletic department. Two are now graduated and one still works as a tutor. My oldest was the academic mentor for the basketball team for 3 years when Pope was an assistant. He treated her and everyone else like the most important person in the room. I got to know several of the players fairly well. They loved Coach Pope. He has a special skill to make every person feel valued. I think you are right–Pope simply makes you feel 10 feet tall and your confidence soars. I happened to be in Boise the evening of the Idaho state championship game and saw Kolby Lee play. I said to myself, “there is no way this guy is a D1 player–can’t run, can’t jump, can’t shoot, and can’t defend.” What does Pope do? Turns him into a guy who shoots 62.5/50.0/71.1, including shooting 12/14 in 4 conference games against GU and SMC! Seriously? Pope is a genius.
I hope so. ESPN Cougar radio spent 30 minutes talking about how HOT pope is nationally, He is the “IT” coach right now and will have many P5 offers fly in this year alone. They all speculate that Pope has his eye on Kentucky. For now though, Pope has Holmoe sleeping Gooooood.
More like Rose as fading. Haws and I are buds and his motor never changes. Pope finally got all the pieces in place for Haws to shine. Barcellos, Toolson and Childs, including Nixon, Lee, Harding and Seljaas made that team special. Had Baxter not been injured, SMC would have never smelled a win. I marvel at how durable Haws was his entire career. That skinny body got pounded, don’t remember him missing many games in 4 years.
Lastly, with Lohner and Averette joining the team, Pope has to salivating. He may start slow with so many new faces, but BYU will have the talent to Dance deep
Any word on his professional next steps? That are public enough to air on this forum?
I haven’t heard that one before… 
Who knows if anyone will be dancing ever again. Just when you think the weirdness of life is moving toward normal something pops up and makes it weird again.