Since Mark Pope joined BYU, the level of LDS talent isn’t the same. Collin Chandler is really elite and the highest rated recruit BYU has signed in the ratings era. Caleb Lohner was a highly rated recruit. Richie Saunders and Dallin Hall were solid three stars. Tanner Toolson was Mr. Basketball in the state of Washington. Jaxson Kohler went to Michigan State as a 4-Star kid and the biggest LDS kid BYU has missed on. Keanu Dawes was the highest rated LDS kid from the 2023 class, but elected to stay in Texas and go to Rice over several other P6 offers.
BYU has missed on guys like Kohler and Dawes, but overall BYU has recruited the LDS base pretty well. The problem is there isn’t nearly as many high-end caliber D1 LDS kids and the ones BYU is getting are mission bound, so it takes two years for them to even get in the program.
Pope has taken some big swings in the portal and ultimately missed. BYU was firmly in the mix for guys like Antoine Davis, Izaiah Brockington, Cam Shelton, Jordan Goldwire, and several others but couldn’t seal the deal.
BYU’s plan B and C guys the last two seasons haven’t worked out well enough. BYU got All-Conference guys the first two years from the portal, but none of the additions the last two years have been All-Conference. There have been some solid players, but not enough true difference makers.
This is where I think Pope can improve. He goes after all the top guys and shoots for the moon, but BYU’s talent evaluation can improve when they move on to the plan B and C players. Mark Madsen, for example, has done a nice job of that at UVU of this.
BYU will have two things going for it this next portal cycle: The Big 12 and Kahil Fennell. The 12 may have got some of those big players over the hump in the past, and it will no doubt help moving forward. 70+ other schools are also P6, so it’s not the end all be all. For Fennell, this will be his first full offseason recruiting in the portal for BYU. Having a non-LDS, racial minority on the staff will help recruiting.
Forcing out Connor Harding and essentially trading him for Seneca Knight was a mistake
Mark Pope will not be fired. BYU had a disappointing year, but he’s had good success at BYU at this last team was still top 75 nationally (out of 363 D1 teams). This isn’t a Louisville situation where they finished 4-27.
However, I would not be surprised if Pope sniffs around and takes calls from other schools.
Pope will outwork anyone on the recruiting trail, and in the back of his mind I believe he believes he would’ve got certain recruits if he was at another school.
In my opinion, building a roster at BYU in hoops is more difficult than football. Football has a larger built-in recruiting base with Polynesians, and lately there have been better LDS football players. For non-LDS players in football, they have 100+ other teammates they can rely on to have a community. In basketball, non-LDS players can feel more isolated. You only have 15 other teammates, and 6 of them could be married. It can be a lot more lonely for those players at BYU.
This one gets me. Moore was a 3/4 star recruit and he can't get playing time over walk-on Christensen? A 3.5 star recruit should not leave the program without at least seeing the court unless he has just been horrible in practices.Braeden Moore redshirted, and I would not be surprised if he moved on.
Statistics: Posted by byufan4ever — Thu Mar 09, 2023 12:36 am
Statistics: Posted by byufan4ever — Tue Mar 07, 2023 12:45 pm