It will be interesting to see if Pope makes any adjustments here from when he was at BYU

[morristhecar]

Main criticisms of him at BYU:

Reliance on portal players
Not developing HS talent
Burned bridges with high schools in UT and AAU

I personally like the idea of having a recruiting core that a coach developes and then bringing in selective players from the portal that fit actual needs, not just scorers or athletes.

He had no choice this year in building from the portal. I’m hoping he can show he can develop some of the young guys we have. That will go a long way in easing my apprehensions.

 

[Wildcat-in-STL]

Auburn, Alabama, Florida are all teams reliant on Portal Transfers, how is that a problem?

 

[TucsonCat]

Main criticisms of him at BYU:

Reliance on portal players
Not developing HS talent
Burned bridges with high schools in UT and AAU

I personally like the idea of having a recruiting core that a coach developes and then bringing in selective players from the portal that fit actual needs, not just scorers or athletes.

He had no choice this year in building from the portal. I’m hoping he can show he can develop some of the young guys we have. That will go a long way in easing my apprehensions.

Looking at his last BYU team
4 of the top 5 scorers were signed by BYU out of high school. And I think they were all from the state of Utah. Not counting Colin Chandler who was signed out of Utah but then went on mission.

 

[megablue]

Looking at his last BYU team
4 of the top 5 scorers were signed by BYU out of high school. And I think they were all from the state of Utah. Not counting Colin Chandler who was signed out of Utah but then went on mission.

Mormons may be more loyal to BYU than Catholics to Notre Dame … just a thought.

 

[UKWildcats1987]

Well he already won 2 more ncaa tournament games at UK than he did at byu. He will be fine.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

How could a guy like Pope burn bridges with local UT talent? I'd need to see some information on that.

 

[BIG BLUE GURU]

Mormons may be more loyal to BYU than Catholics to Notre Dame … just a thought.

I absolutely think Pope overachieved this year but if I could wish for some improvements it would be to figure out why this year's team showed up and balled their butt's off to only turn around and lose to a far inferior team. Next year's team needs to show up ready to ball and not take night's off. Hopefully next year we can avoid so many injuries and we really need to be a better defensive team.