Pope's Assistants

Slowly things get a slight bit clearer, but nothing totally known as of today.



https://www.sltrib.com/sports/byu-cougars/2019/04/15/byus-mens-basketball-team/



Interesting note concerning Quincy Lewis in the article:



"Lewis, the former Lone Peak coach, had told BYU administrators that he wasn’t interested in any position but head coach, so he obviously won’t join Pope’s staff now."



It sounds like the players really liked Lewis. It's really hard for us fans to truly gauge the effectiveness of the assistant coaches. I'd not heard much about his impact on the program, but subsequent to Rose retiring, we've now heard how 2 of the 3 recruits were pulling for him to be named coach and now Seljaas gushing in this article about how great of a coach he was.



I'm not certain why he would have leveled that degree of a ultimatum to BYU to hire him as a coach. The article makes it sound like none of Rose's staff will be retained.



While I liked some, I leave it totally in Pope's hand to determine who he believes will best serve him. This will be interesting.

Yeah I kinda would have liked Lewis to stay to be that bridge with the current players. But I can't fault him for wanting to be head coach and hopefully he aggresively pursues that and gets that experience somewhere. I want someone as an assistant that has that kind of fire and drive. Not someone who will just drop out of coaching if it doesn't work out at BYU.

Given the "complacent" (Rose's word, not mine) nature of the past few seasons at BYU basketball, I 1000% support a white-wash of the assistant coaching positions--I don't think we want continuity, we want a reset/reboot.

Poor Worthington had been extended a GA position for next season. Now I don't know where that will go. I hate to see Luke be given his walking papers and it sounds like his presence, according to Seljass, was good.



I can't remember if it was Fueger or Lewis that some article or sports radio host mentioned last week that if they didn't get the UVU job they were in contention for some position at a Idaho school.

Quincy Lewis really needs to go somewhere where he can take the wheel as a HC at the college level. He was successful at LP, but high school and college level are two different animals. It simply would have been more risky for TH to have selected Lewis in light of where BYU basketball has been the last few years. I understand completely that he needed to not take the risky option in this scenario or Lewis might have been given the chance. Picking Pope who already has success and experience at HC in college should have left Lewis with sour grapes either, so their is possibilities down the road if he gets some HC college experience.

Does anyone have any understanding why it is taking this long to process Pope's assistants? He said in his original presser that he had started the week before working with Brian Santiago on his assistants. He said it would take a few weeks, but on the radio again this week he said it's probably a couple of weeks out.



This is the stuff that makes BYU look foolish. What are they doing, waiting for universities to send in transcripts? I can't imagine what else would delay the process this long. You can call former places of employment and verify that without much challenge. Surely they don't have to check with SLC on the hiring of assistants. It's frustrating to watch. I imagine it's just as frustrating to the people that they're vetting now. I wonder if Madsen will be able to get his assistants on before Pope does?

EM_Puma wrote:

Does anyone have any understanding why it is taking this long to process Pope's assistants? He said in his original presser that he had started the week before working with Brian Santiago on his assistants. He said it would take a few weeks, but on the radio again this week he said it's probably a couple of weeks out.



This is the stuff that makes BYU look foolish. What are they doing, waiting for universities to send in transcripts? I can't imagine what else would delay the process this long. You can call former places of employment and verify that without much challenge. Surely they don't have to check with SLC on the hiring of assistants. It's frustrating to watch. I imagine it's just as frustrating to the people that they're vetting now. I wonder if Madsen will be able to get his assistants on before Pope does?

All faculty members at BYU have a four- or five-step interview process: one interview with the college dean, one with the department chair, one with the vice president, some have an additional interview with another higher level Vice President, and then all have an interview with a general authority.



These are all separate interviews instead of one group interview, and anyone in the process can veto the hire. You have to 5-0 (or 4-0) to get the spot.



My guess is that an assistant coach hire needs an ecclesiastical endorsement, interview with Pope, interview with Santiago (Asst. AD over hoops), interview with Holmoe, meet with Richardson, probably meet with Worthen, and then have to meet with a GA who is on the BoT. That's five or six interviews to get lined up for each candidate Pope wants.

In an interview with Ben Criddle Pope said the hiring process at BYU takes a little bit longer. Basically because of what Sno said although Pope did not go into those details. He alluded that he had selected all of his staff but that they were just going through the BYU hiring process.

I know someone who got a job at BYU and the hiring process took a few months. It was a professional position (not a student job) but it wasn't anything glamorous. It was in the library. BYU just moves slowly because they don't see the need to move faster.

BYU's unique hiring process is also why I chuckle anytime I hear Holmoe or a coach say that the coach gets to choose his own assistants.



That may be true, but after 4+ other people higher up in the administration meet with the candidate and don't disagree.

Well...as I said...this is the stuff thats make BYU look dysfunctional that that many people have to be part of a process--it is totally asinine. I understand it a bit more when you're picking a HC, but not assistants. They don't have that many people review callings for a bishop or stake president for heavens sake.



Look out if they ever lose a HC during a season. The season could be over by the time they got around to getting all these loony ducks in a row.



I'm sorry, but I just don't do stupid very well.

I know several people hired on as professors at BYU. It wasn't just gauntlet of interviews. BYU took their sweet time getting offer letters together, signings, moving packages, etc.



I two guys that basically had to get started on their curriculum and syllabuses because the semester was starting soon and they hadn't even received their official offer letters.

And I had the opposite experience when switching companies and moving from MO to UT. From applicaiton to two interviews to job offer was about a month and then they wanted me to start in about 3 weeks and I had to actually push back on them saying I needed more time to get my house ready to sell and move across the country plus it was almost Christmas time and we already had plans to drive to the East from MO.



When a company is motivated, usually by profits, they move very quickly. Non-profit orgs like the government or schools, don't have that type of motivation. Why should they move quickly?

Judging by recent articles (especially Jay Drew's article yesterday) and Pope's interviews with media, it sounds like his preference is to bring all his assistants over from UVU and they are just waiting on them to clear the interview process.

snoscythe wrote:

Judging by recent articles (especially Jay Drew's article yesterday) and Pope's interviews with media, it sounds like his preference is to bring all his assistants over from UVU and they are just waiting on them to clear the interview process.

One from Portland.

Mars wrote:

Judging by recent articles (especially Jay Drew's article yesterday) and Pope's interviews with media, it sounds like his preference is to bring all his assistants over from UVU and they are just waiting on them to clear the interview process.

One from Portland.

Appears that way and I'm okay with it, especially is Quincy Lewis is saying he won't accept an assistant's position. Otherwise, I'd like him to have stayed.

hawkwing wrote:

I know someone who got a job at BYU and the hiring process took a few months. It was a professional position (not a student job) but it wasn't anything glamorous. It was in the library. BYU just moves slowly because they don't see the need to move faster.

I work at BYU and I've had to push two different people through the hiring process in the last couple of years. It's not just the fact that they don't see the need to move faster. There's an enormous amount of red tape at BYU and everything has to be approved by certain groups that meet a limited number of times per year. The bureaucratic bloat at BYU is not much different than most schools, but the specific ways that bloat manifests itself is sometimes mind-boggling. And like many bureaucracies, it is an impenetrable system, and unlikely to change.

Would the Pope’s assistants be called Cardinals??

Hell's bells! It will have been two weeks tomorrow since Pope was put at the helm and he said he'd been already working on the assistants situation that prior week. Let's get this process finished. I'll be really PO'd if Mark Madsen announces his assistants before Pope does, but, if he did, it would tell us a bit more about Burgess and Fueger.



I don't remember this situation when Dave Rose was hired. I don't know if I cared as much about the assistants as I do now.

Madsen may be going after some of the same assistants.