BYU basketball: Mark Pope has Cougars right where he envisioned them

When BYU and UCF wrestled to a dramatic, gasp-filled finish last Tuesday, it was classic, deep-in-the-weeds Big 12 basketball.

It was passionate, combative to the end, never-give-up hoops made for TV.

Afterward, BYU coach Mark Pope told a KSL NewsRadio audience what those who watched the game had seen was akin to a minotaur, centaur or unicorn.

“When I say this, please understand I’m saying this massively complimentary to UCF, but what they did in the last 54 seconds of this game, they will actually have never done before and will never be able to reproduce again, ever — it was one of those anomalous games that was so spectacular what they did … and we still won.”

Pope continued: 

“And that, I’m telling you, that is a huge deal — when you can take a once-in-a-lifetime effort in the closing minutes of a game, and still come out with a W, it’s just super special, because it never happens. You don’t win the once-in-a-lifetime efforts (from the opponent), and we got it tonight. Couldn’t be prouder or more happy with our team.”

This, is where BYU basketball is today, the No. 19 team in the nation and a skin-thin win heading to Oklahoma State on the road Saturday.

But back when Pope was hired?

BYU hoops was kind of in a funk.

It was weeks after former coach Dave Rose retired, April 2019. BYU had left the WCC tournament in Las Vegas embarrassed.  

BYU deputy athletic director Brian Santiago brought Pope to the Marriott Center to discuss what could be.

It was called a scene-setter.

“We want to keep it going,” said Santiago when I asked to review that part of the job interview with Pope.

These two men had spent their entire lives competing as athletes, college stars, Pope at Washington and Kentucky and Santiago at Utah Technical College, now UVU, and Fresno State as a guard, a 3-point bomber. They’d played the game and understood triumphs and losses.

On that day, Santiago was courting and selling, Pope was listening and envisioning what he could bring to the table.

At that time, BYU was struggling to chase Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga in the WCC.

“From Day 1 in 1997 when Dave Rose and I were on the staff, we used to talk about getting to the Final Four,” Santiago said of that moment. “We were a free throw away from making that dream become a reality in a very tough situation with one of our players (the suspension of Brandon Davies). We felt it back then and we feel it now.

“We feel like this is a special place that’s got an incredible history and an incredible future and we wanted coach Pope to feel that from the first moment we started talking about the possibilities of becoming a new coach for BYU.”

Looking at the vast cavern of the Marriott Center guts, the empty seats, the rafters that hung the jerseys of Kresimir Cosic and Danny Ainge, Pope and Santiago discussed how it looked and felt when filled. How wins would feel, what the potential could be.

Both men had the same dream for the program, that the NCAA Tournament be on the horizon, not just once but many times.

It was important to Santiago that he and Pope were on the same page with what was expected of him, his staff and his players.  

Fast forward to today. 

Now the stakes are much higher, playing in the toughest basketball conference in the country. Predicted by the league’s coaches to finish 13th out of 14, BYU is more than halfway through the Big 12 schedule and has overperformed by a significant margin.

Santiago, Pope and BYU basketball are chin-deep in Big 12 drama. 

BYU’s offense is one of a kind in the league — this 3-point volume approach.

Also, Pope believes he has used more starting lineups than anybody else in the conference.  That poses problems for opposing scouting efforts, but also “our misfortune has been our blessing,” Pope said on Thursday.

Pope’s team is praised for its offense, and has received kudos for its defense, which is considered underappreciated.

Down the stretch in Big 12 play, BYU has chances for good things, if it can play at a high level and stay healthy. Pope knows BYU has to adapt and change as the Cougars now play teams for the second time.

“But I like it. I actually dig it,” he said.

“I like living on the edge because it pushes everybody.”

The past few home games, the occupants of courtside seats included faces of celebrities, as well as former NFL and NBA players. The student section, called the ROC, was filled with screaming fans moving in unison with uniform chants. 

It had the feel of big-time college ball. BYU has the largest average attendance of any school in the nation’s best basketball league at 16,869, more than college blue blood Kansas’ 16,300.

This week BYU’s No. 19-ranked team was featured in The Athletic in a piece that highlighted the school’s unique challenge that Pope has tried to address by recruiting players from multiple continents. 

The team stands at No. 14 in KenPom, No. 9 in the NCAA’s NET with fellow Big 12 teams Houston at No. 1 and Iowa State No. 8.

At 18-6 overall and 6-5 in Big 12 play, the team is headed for Oklahoma State for a noon game in Stillwater with the Cowboys.

Some bracketologists have BYU a lock for the NCAA Tournament, while others postulate a No. 5 or 6 seed. Joe Lunardi has BYU as a five seed. Bracket Project, a matrix of 106 simulations has BYU an average 5.31 seed with a high of four and low of seven. 

It remains to be seen how Pope’s squad will finish the regular season Big 12 play.

But the state of the program right now is smack in the middle of what Pope and Santiago envisioned on that scene-setter day in 2019. It is something Rose almost did in 2011 on the back of his Jimmer Fredette-led Sweet 16 team.

Plans and dreams, reality and challenges.

This is why Pope and Santiago have loved this game their entire lives.