The BYU men’s basketball team’s scorching start to the season has garnered plenty of national attention, with head coach Mark Pope becoming a true household name among fans of the sport.
Pope recently joined CBS Sports college basketball insider Jon Rothstein on his “College Hoops Today” podcast to discuss his team’s early success and the road ahead.
“We have a recipe where we’re gonna have the chance to be really proud of what we accomplish here at BYU,” Pope told Rothstein, the man famous for Pope’s “keeping the faith” tagline.
Here are some of Pope’s other notable quotes during his appearance on “College Hoops Today.”
On having such a balanced scoring attack spread out across the roster
“Just knowing that you have a bunch of guys who on any given day or in any given situation can just step up and really carry you for a few minutes on the offensive side is really great. To have that type of situation, you have to have a ball protection team or an assist team, and our guys have been excellent in both those areas. It makes it really fun to play that way, and our guys enjoy it,” Pope said.
On sixth man Jaxson Robinson, the team’s breakout star and blossoming NBA prospect
“He’s special, his trajectory is what’s really astonishing. ... (He) says things to me like, ‘I don’t care if I start or come off the bench, I just wanna go have a huge impact on this game and help us win.’ I don’t know if there’s a lot of coaches in the country that have the luxury of bringing their leading scorer and maybe most talented player off the bench, and he’s just really embracing it. It’s working for us, it’s been great for our team, and that’s the luxury of coaching big time human beings like Jaxson Robinson is,” Pope said.
On dynamic big man Aly Khalifa, the ‘Egyptian Magician’
“He’s been really special for us,” Pope said. “He’s a really unique, beautiful talent that if you watch us play you can’t help but fall in love with the way he plays.”
On the long-term effort to prepare BYU for the Big 12
“We were very intentional last season. We felt like going into the Big 12 with all the new that we were going to face, we didn’t want to have a new roster, so we did the thing you’re not supposed to do in college basketball and went super, super young last year. I think it’s been a real gift for us to have those guys back, and now it’s year two and our guys are so much better,” Pope said.
He continued, “College basketball is rarely patient enough to build something, but I’m blessed to be here at BYU where we can actually do that with the support of our admins and fanbase. We actually have the opportunity to build things. Last year was really exciting for us, we felt like with a bunch of newbies on the team we felt like we had a ton of success and felt like we wanted to take a swing at growing a program over multiple years, which is impossible to do now with transfer rules and NIL, but our guys are bought in. ... We’re still in the infant stages of trying to grow this, because we understand that for us to be competitive in this league that’s the way we’re gonna have to do it.”
On beginning Big 12 play this weekend
“We’re approaching this league really humbly. We understand. This gauntlet, I don’t know if it exists anywhere else in college sports right now. You just go through this 18-game gauntlet and every single one is a toss up. We’re coming into this league super humble, we understand that we’re the new guys, and it’s really exciting. We know we’re gonna be punched in the face a little bit, and it’s all about how we respond and how resilient we are.
“Every athlete and every coach wants to be in the most competitive league in the country. For all the good and bad that comes with that, that’s what you want as an athlete, you wanna go play with the best and do the hardest thing possible. ... We have a lot of confidence in our ability to grow our program here and we’re excited to be in the mix,” Pope said.
On BYU’s fanbase
“We just played Wyoming on the 30th of December, there’s no students here and school is shut down, and we had 18,000-plus in a sold out arena just going crazy. This is a special place. Our fanbase is voracious and demanding and they care. Here it means something more than just basketball. The chance to play and coach and represent this fanbase is really special. As young players, you dream of playing in an environment like this,” Pope said.