Mark Pope is the new BYU men's basketball coach.

[frank ryan]

Wasn't Harward a 4-star guy and WAC Freshman OTY?

No, that was Lowell.

[KillerDog]

I met the coaching staff. They are a really compelling group of dudes. I like the words they are saying. I’m hoping they can get strong in-roads into Wasatch. The Bernardo thing doesn’t help but he isn’t really the key to Sissoko anyway. I like the resumes of these coaches. It is a veritable who’s who of coaches in the NCAA.

[Clark Addison]

I met the coaching staff. They are a really compelling group of dudes. I like the words they are saying. I’m hoping they can get strong in-roads into Wasatch. The Bernardo thing doesn’t help but he isn’t really the key to Sissoko anyway. I like the resumes of these coaches. It is a veritable who’s who of coaches in the NCAA.

WTF, they invited you before they invited us ex-players?

[KillerDog]

WTF, they invited you before they invited us ex-players?

Sorry, I think they are only inviting former players they like.

[frank ryan]

I met the coaching staff. They are a really compelling group of dudes. I like the words they are saying. I’m hoping they can get strong in-roads into Wasatch. The Bernardo thing doesn’t help but he isn’t really the key to Sissoko anyway. I like the resumes of these coaches. It is a veritable who’s who of coaches in the NCAA.

Do you agree with the Bernardo move?

[KillerDog]

Do you agree with the Bernardo move?

It’s not what I would have done but I’m not a D-1 coach. I understood that Bernardo was a kid BYU recruited partially on his personal ability and partially as a move to become more trusted by Wasatch Academy. The “mutual” separation doesn’t help that. I think BYU doesn’t get Lohner either. Mady is the best player there right now from an NBA prospect standard so I think whether we get him is the determination of whether anything worked.

[BlueK]

Outside of BYU and Gonzaga, I can't think of a single player in the WCC who decided to leave school early in the last 3 years to play pro ball. And it's not like other WCC teams, especially St. Mary's haven't had some non-NBA prospect players who could do fine in Europe. In Gonzaga's case, most if not all of them who have left early, either got drafted or probably had good reason to believe they'd get drafted by an NBA team. I'm thinking the recent phenomenon to leave school with the thought of probably ending up playing in Europe is pretty much not really a thing in NCAA basketball outside of BYU the last few years. That makes me think maybe Pope can have an impact on slowing that down.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Outside of BYU and Gonzaga, I can't think of a single player in the WCC who decided to leave school early in the last 3 years to play pro ball. And it's not like other WCC teams, especially St. Mary's haven't had some non-NBA prospect players who could do fine in Europe. In Gonzaga's case most, if not all of them who have left early, either got drafted or probably had good reason to believe they'd get drafted by an NBA team. I'm thinking the recent phenomenon to leave school with the thought of probably ending up playing in Europe is pretty much not really a thing in NCAA basketball outside of BYU the last few years. That makes me think maybe Pope can have an impact on slowing that down.

Let's hope so.

[KillerDog]

Outside of BYU and Gonzaga, I can't think of a single player in the WCC who decided to leave school early in the last 3 years to play pro ball. And it's not like other WCC teams, especially St. Mary's haven't had some non-NBA prospect players who could do fine in Europe. In Gonzaga's case, most if not all of them who have left early, either got drafted or probably had good reason to believe they'd get drafted by an NBA team. I'm thinking the recent phenomenon to leave school with the thought of probably ending up playing in Europe is pretty much not really a thing in NCAA basketball outside of BYU the last few years. That makes me think maybe Pope can have an impact on slowing that down.

If they aren’t paying them, the kids leave. BYU doesn’t pay. They leave.

[BlueK]

If they aren’t paying them, the kids leave. BYU doesn’t pay. They leave.

Does that even apply to schools in the WCC? I can accept the unfortunate thought that there is cheating like crazy going on at schools from the top 5 conferences. It seems a little harder to believe it is also happening in our league. But who knows. But just from a resources perspective it seems schools from leagues like the WCC wouldn't have the same type of booster networks or revenues to support a professional team.

[KillerDog]

Does that even apply to schools in the WCC? I can accept the unfortunate thought that there is cheating like crazy going on at schools from the top 5 conferences. It seems a little harder to believe it is also happening in our league. But who knows. But just from a resources perspective it seems schools from leagues like the WCC wouldn't have the same type of booster networks or revenues to support a professional team.

Our league is not different. They just have fewer alumni.

[jay santos]

If they aren’t paying them, the kids leave. BYU doesn’t pay. They leave.

We paid Emery. Look where that got us. What do you think happened? We're really dumb about how we pay? The NCAA unfairly picked on us?

[frank ryan]

I think Saint Mary's pays the entire nation of Australia money.

[BlueK]

Interesting article below about the mindset of the players over the last few years. Maybe Coach Pope has a more effective way of getting players to buy into team concepts. At least that is how it comes across in what he says and how he talks. We'll see. I think it's clear he was probably squeezing out the max from the talent he had at UVU. Someone on CB commented that some of the same selfish players are still at BYU. But people can also change when a new coach comes in and brings a new approach.

https://www.ksl.com/article/46557434...s-team-success

[jay santos]

Interesting article below about the mindset of the players over the last few years. Maybe Coach Pope has a more effective way of getting players to buy into team concepts. At least that is how it comes across in what he says and how he talks. We'll see. I think it's clear he was probably squeezing out the max from the talent he had at UVU. Someone on CB commented that some of the same selfish players are still at BYU. But people can also change when a new coach comes in and brings a new approach.

https://www.ksl.com/article/46557434...s-team-success

Take this to the bank. No matter the sport, no matter the team, every time there is a coaching change or a new year, there will be a narrative that the old team was selfish or not as unified and the new team is more team based and unified. It's a circle of life thing.