Brigham Younger Cougars head coach Mark Pope yells out to his gamers as BYU and Washington State play within the NIT quarterfinals on the Marriott Heart in Provo on Wednesday, March 23, 2022. Washington State gained 77-58. Scott G Winterton, Deseret Information
LAS VEGAS — A yr in the past, BYU basketball had its worst end — fifth place — since becoming a member of the West Coast Convention in 2011-12.
And now, of their ultimate season as members of the WCC, the league’s coaches voted the Cougars to complete in a tie for third place with San Francisco.
Whereas BYU is ready to hitch what is taken into account to be the hardest league within the nation, the Massive 12, subsequent season, coach Mark Pope is targeted on what’s immediately in entrance of him.
“We’re spending little or no time interested by (the Massive 12). The WCC is giving us greater than we will deal with proper now. It is a nice league,” he mentioned. “There’s plenty of occasions that I feel that the highest half of the WCC is healthier than the highest half of a few Energy 5 conferences. I feel there are numbers to again that up. It’s not like we’re leaving a foul league and going to an awesome league. We’re leaving a very good league and going to probably the most dominant league in school proper now.”
A yr in the past, BYU completed behind Gonzaga — the perennial WCC champs — Saint Mary’s, Santa Clara and San Francisco with a 9-6 league report.
Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s and San Francisco went to the NCAA Event. BYU fell to USF within the WCC Event quarterfinals final March and ended up advancing to the quarterfinals of the Nationwide Invitation Event.
The Cougars suffered key accidents early within the season to Richard Harward and Gavin Baxter however nonetheless began with a 17-4 report.
Then BYU suffered a four-game shedding streak, starting with a last-second loss at Santa Clara, which modified the complexion of the season.
However Pope will not be wanting again, both.
“I don’t get the sense that our staff is spending any time interested by final yr. Our staff is considering this yr. We all know who we're. We’re actually younger and fairly undersized,” he mentioned. “Usually, that’s not an awesome recipe in school basketball. I actually imagine persons are going to come back to those video games and look out on the ground and say, ‘How are these guys doing this?’ I feel these guys are going to place collectively a very particular season. I feel they’re going to perform issues that no person thinks they will do. There’s nothing extra gratifying in sports activities than that.”
BYU has no all-conference gamers returning with the commencement of guard Alex Barcello.
The Cougars positioned one participant on the preseason All-Convention staff — sophomore ahead Fousseyni Traore.
Senior ahead Gideon George doesn’t appear to thoughts the low expectations from these exterior this system.
“I’ll inform you this — there’s plenty of dudes in that locker room which have plenty of canines in them,” he mentioned. “They wish to compete and so they wish to battle daily. At apply daily, everyone seems to be making an attempt to lock in and play laborious and play robust. That’s what I like about this yr’s staff.”
“All people is 100% dedicated, giving our greatest daily,” Traore mentioned. “That’s what I’m most enthusiastic about.”
The WCC might be pretty much as good because it’s ever been, headlined by Gonzaga, which is able to as soon as once more be one of many favorites to win the nationwide championship. The Zags, picked to win their eleventh straight league title, are loaded once more with stars Drew Timme, Julian Strawther and Rasir Bolton.
Gonzaga was the No. 1 total seed in final season’s NCAA Event and misplaced Chet Holmgren, who was chosen No. 2 total within the NBA draft.
Saint Mary’s, predicted to complete second, boasts Logan Johnson, Alex Ducas and Kyle Bowen. Tommy Kuhse has moved on, however the Gaels nonetheless have loads of expertise.
San Francisco and BYU tied for third within the preseason ballots with 57 factors. The Dons reached the NCAA Event for the primary time since 1998. USF is led by guard Khalil Shabazz, who has lit up the Cougars in previous seasons.
Pope is optimistic about what his staff can turn out to be in this system’s ultimate yr within the league.
“This returning group has gotten higher. Then we've all these younger guys and new guys which have grown week-to-week so quick,” he mentioned. “I really feel manner totally different about this staff than I did two weeks in the past earlier than we began two-a-days. I really feel far more assured that we’ll discover some method to be actually, actually aggressive … I feel there shall be occasions after I’m going to have a look at the court docket and say, ‘I’m unsure how these guys are successful however, man, their particular sauce is superior.’ That’s what I anticipate from them this season. I feel this staff shall be actually, actually enjoyable to observe and to educate. We’re going to take a large swing at this in our final probability within the WCC.”