BYU basketball had a good season in 2019-20, finishing the year with a 24-8 record and knocking off then-No. 2 Gonzaga with a resounding victory at the Marriott Center in February. The Cougars lost to Saint Mary’s in the WCC tournament but seemed a lock to make their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2015. A big part of the resurgence in BYU’s basketball program can be attributed to first-year Cougar head coach Mark Pope, who took a BYU team that had gone 19-13 last season and improved them by five games.
While the Cougars — along with the rest of college basketball — were denied a spot in the Big Dance after it was canceled due to COVID-19, the future looks bright for Pope in Provo.
Matt Norlander of CBS Sports ranked Pope as the best new hire in college basketball this season.
“We’ve got a crowded field of candidates — which is refreshing — but no one can say they had a better first season with their school than BYU’s Pope. He tops the list. Unlike a couple of other coaches listed below, Pope didn’t win a regular season or postseason conference championship (Gonzaga and all), but his Cougar team’s 24-8 record helped its No. 13 KenPom ranking to be best among all teams with a first-year coach. BYU was projected as a No. 11 seed at the time of the season’s halt. Pope, 47, was helped by having the best 3-point-shooting team. BYU’s 41.9% clip from beyond the arc aided the Cougars to their best conference finish since 2010-11, when Jimmer Fredette was on the roster and the team landed a No. 3 seed,” he wrote.