It’s no surprise that the BYU basketball program has struggled this season — anybody that has been paying attention could have seen this coming.
After the 2021-22 season, the Cougars lost three-year starter Alex Barcello to graduation and a handful of other key players, like Caleb Lohner and Seneca Knight, to the transfer portal while guard Trevin Knell has been sidelined this year after undergoing shoulder surgery.
“What’s impressed me most is their commitment to getting better. It’s hard when things aren’t going well. It’s easy to get discouraged. These guys have refused to get discouraged.” — BYU coach Mark Pope
Coach Mark Pope added four freshmen and several transfers to offset the roster turnover. And he made it clear early on that this season would be a big challenge in BYU’s final campaign in the West Coast Conference, while preparing to join the nation’s top college basketball league — the Big 12 — next year.
“I don’t like having a young team. I’d prefer to never have a young team,” Pope said in late September, weeks before the season tipped off. “Young teams don’t win very often. But I’m super excited about working with this team.”
On top of that, the WCC is the strongest it’s ever been, top-to-bottom, with programs like Santa Clara, Loyola Marymount, Pacific, San Francisco and Portland rising up in recent years.
The Cougars are 16-12 overall and 6-7 in WCC play. Going into Thursday’s home game against Santa Clara, BYU sits in sixth place in the league standings.
Yes, there have been a lot of growing pains along the way. But Pope likes his players’ attitude and what it all means for the program’s future.
“What’s impressed me most is their commitment to getting better. It’s hard when things aren’t going well. It’s easy to get discouraged. These guys have refused to get discouraged,” Pope said recently. “They’ve refused to get discouraged. That’s actually super key. There’s going to be a huge payoff.
“We’re going to get massive payoff for their refusal to get discouraged and their commitment to keep getting better. I’m really proud of them for that because that’s not easy to do. It could go a lot of different ways. Most times, it doesn’t go that way. But these guys are taking it that way.”
The Cougars have suffered some humbling losses this season, such as a neutral-site loss to South Dakota and a home loss to Utah Valley University.
On the other hand, they’ve recorded some surprising victories, beating No. 18 Creighton in Las Vegas and Utah at home.
BYU nearly knocked off San Diego State, currently ranked No. 21, on the road.
In WCC play, BYU lost a pair of one-point games against No. 13 Gonzaga and No. 17 Saint Mary’s at home. The Cougars were in position to spring upsets in both games, only to watch the Zags and Gaels hit game-winners in the final seconds.
Saturday at Gonzaga, BYU led the Zags with four minutes remaining before falling 88-81.
A learning process
“These lessons will be emblazoned on their souls and this is what changes you over time,” Pope said after Saturday’s loss. “Right now, we’re just grateful for the opportunity to learn these lessons.”
Meanwhile, the Cougars have turned in some disappointing performances in road setbacks against Santa Clara, San Francisco and Pepperdine.
Heading into the final few weeks of the regular season, with the WCC Tournament tipping off the first week of March, BYU will likely finish in the lower half of the league standings.
But the Cougars are trying to make the most of what’s left this season.
“It doesn’t prevent us from giving our all right now. That’s the goal. We want to win now. A huge step in the future is not getting complacent,” guard Dallin Hall said. “We want to push each other and our team to new levels that it’s never reached before. A big part of that is keeping ourselves healthy and not being complacent. Those are two big keys for us.”
Despite the losses that have piled up, Pope has been pleased with the effort and attitude of his players. Overall, the Cougars have been solid defensively and when it comes to rebounding.
“I feel like we’re really going to compete on the glass and we’re going to try to compete on the defensive end, although explosive guards have been complicated for us at times,” Pope said. “... I feel like our guys are super resilient because their focus is in the right place. I feel like our guys are going to show up every single night and they can take a hit.
“They can take hits during the games and during the season. I have a lot of confidence in that. I have a lot of confidence in the character of our locker room right now. There were a lot of times during the season when we could have wasted some time being discouraged but we haven’t. I haven’t felt that ever with this group.”
A different bubble
Unlike most seasons, BYU has not been included on NCAA Tournament projections. Instead of being on the NCAA Tournament bubble, the Cougars have been teetering on the NIT bubble. Pope and his staff haven’t been paying much attention to the NCAA’s NET rankings or the WCC standings.
It’s been much different this season.
“I have not as much time this year looking at numbers because it’s kind of what you do when you’re in the hunt. Over the last three years, we’ve lived and died by every national statistic and prognostication and everything,” Pope said. “Right now, we feel super overwhelmed with this job of trying to get better.
“Any energy wasted on thinking about other stuff or ruminating about other stuff or feeling sorry for yourself about other stuff, it really is generally wasted energy.” — Mark Pope
“You count the guys that were in and out of my office today before practice, starting from early this morning, all day long. In terms of reviewing film one-on-one, talking about individual games and trying to lift up guys’ hearts and spirits,” he continued. “That’s swallowed all of our oxygen right now. We’re just super hungry to get better and that’s consuming us. That’s what you do when you’re trying to build.
“Any energy wasted on thinking about other stuff or ruminating about other stuff or feeling sorry for yourself about other stuff, it really is generally wasted energy. With the job we have in front of us, we try to stay super disciplined and not waste that energy.”
As part of the improvement process, players have been spending extra time learning from their mistakes.
“We’re always watching film together. When you get an opportunity to be one-on-one with coach Pope in the film room, it’s really special,” Hall said. “If you’ve seen the Kobe Bryant ‘Details,’ coach Pope has a very similar approach. He’s one of the greatest basketball minds I’ve encountered. Any opportunity to pick his brain, he’s always so willing to help us young guys. It’s a big help. We’ve just got to continue to use his knowledge and then implement it out there on the floor.”
“A big thing we preach every day is getting better,” said freshman Richie Saunders. “Taking it as a learning opportunity is super hard. We feel like we’re fighting. We just want to win. We’re trying our best to get better to provide wins for the future. (The losses are) in the past and we can’t change that.”
It’s been a tough season, to be sure, for BYU. But the Cougars are hoping that these struggles will pay dividends in the future.
“Coach has talked about how every champion has been in a hard spot before,” Hall said. “And it feels like we have been throughout this year. We’re going to learn from it, grow with it and prove ourselves as champions.”