After hearing the announcement that Mitch was hiring Mark Pope, my initial reaction was that of anger toward Mitch, shock, and disappointment. After sleeping on it, I have a few thoughts. First, anger toward Mitch is justified. He will be retiring soon and will not have to live with bad decisions. We, as fans, will. Hopefully, we won't have to. Second, this is not Mark's fault. He sees it as a chance to get back to the university that he loves and helped win a National Championship. It is also a step up in his profession and one that he feels he deserves after getting BYU competitive.
Next, I realized that Duke took a chance with Scheyer and that worked out okay for them. He certainly wasn't a household name and had no previous success in the NCAA tournament. We all have been saying that Kentucky was bigger than Cal and that it would go on without him. Well, now we are about to see, and if we do not do well over the next couple of years, at least it will be with someone who loves UK and will not use all the cliches, excuses, etc. He also will not worry about playing people who may or may not have their draft positions hurt. Mark's recruiting classes haven't been great but nobody is going to recruit top classes to BYU. Now we get to see if the UK brand is as strong as we all believe it to be.
Could we have done better? Possibly, but only time will bear this out and I am willing to wait and let it play out, then judge. Until then, I am going to support Mark, and the basketball team and hope for better days ahead. All the negativity and venom will not do one bit of good and only goes to show that these coaches that turned us down, made the right decision.
Next, I realized that Duke took a chance with Scheyer and that worked out okay for them. He certainly wasn't a household name and had no previous success in the NCAA tournament. We all have been saying that Kentucky was bigger than Cal and that it would go on without him. Well, now we are about to see, and if we do not do well over the next couple of years, at least it will be with someone who loves UK and will not use all the cliches, excuses, etc. He also will not worry about playing people who may or may not have their draft positions hurt. Mark's recruiting classes haven't been great but nobody is going to recruit top classes to BYU. Now we get to see if the UK brand is as strong as we all believe it to be.
Could we have done better? Possibly, but only time will bear this out and I am willing to wait and let it play out, then judge. Until then, I am going to support Mark, and the basketball team and hope for better days ahead. All the negativity and venom will not do one bit of good and only goes to show that these coaches that turned us down, made the right decision.
