Pope

I know it is still early, but I think Holmoe hit a home run with Pope. Losing Baxter and then having Yoeli for less than half the games and yet seeing how competitively good they are is remarkable. Defense is improved. Shooting is improved. I’m quite impressed.

I wonder if he'd help out in football.

I had reservations. I'm a fan. Been a while since I felt every game was winnable. Even going up against Kansas, I was like, given how they are hustling, we could win this thing.



The effort Pope has these guys playing at is amazing. Again, look at a guy like Seljaas. Completely different player under Pope. Nixon...look how much we're getting out of Nixon. It's fun.

Defense has definitely improved. When Rose first started as HC at BYU, his forte was defense and then all of a sudden no one at BYU played it at all. Nice to see it back.

I'm really liking him too and his interviews before/after the game are fun to listen to while I'm driving to/from the games. Now, let's hope he can continue this after the honeymoon phase is over and he can bring in some good recruiting classes.



And I know every team has to deal with injuries, but dang, if we had Baxter and Childs from day 1 we really "could" be undefeated...

byufan4ever wrote:

I'm really liking him too and his interviews before/after the game are fun to listen to while I'm driving to/from the games. Now, let's hope he can continue this after the honeymoon phase is over and he can bring in some good recruiting classes.



And I know every team has to deal with injuries, but dang, if we had Baxter and Childs from day 1 we really "could" be undefeated...

Recruiting has to improve. A lot of kids will want to play for Pope.

nuk13 wrote:

I'm really liking him too and his interviews before/after the game are fun to listen to while I'm driving to/from the games. Now, let's hope he can continue this after the honeymoon phase is over and he can bring in some good recruiting classes.



And I know every team has to deal with injuries, but dang, if we had Baxter and Childs from day 1 we really "could" be undefeated...

Recruiting has to improve. A lot of kids will want to play for Pope.

No way would Rose had been able to keep Childs. Recruiting will go up and transfers will decrease. Players will also stay longer.

I’ve been very impressed so far. The energy and vibe Pope and his staff provide is palpable. It will be interesting to see if the effort and quality play continue night in, night out throughout conference play. It is so hard to do in basketball, and this season it is being manifest nationally on an almost nightly basis. An unexpected “bad loss” is almost a given at some point in time. I sure hope that won’t be the case with this team. It will be very interesting to see how competitive this team will be Saturday night at Gonzaga.

Ok. I'm ready to give pope a max contract.



Wasn't sure about the hire. BYU is looking 100% better this year.



Kolby lee could be our best true big in a generation if he continues to progress as he has this year.



The energy is there.



BYU bball is fun again.

BroncoBot wrote:

Ok. I'm ready to give pope a max contract.



Wasn't sure about the hire. BYU is looking 100% better this year.



Kolby lee could be our best true big in a generation if he continues to progress as he has this year.



The energy is there.



BYU bball is fun again.

First, what do you mean by max contract, lol? Second, hold your horses. I too like what I see SO FAR. But let's get a complete season under his belt, shall we? Let's see where we end up in the conference standings and what kind of class he actualy brings in before we start declaring him the GOAT coach (not your exact words).

Gunk wrote:

Players will also stay longer.

I believe they may too, and I also believe this has been a huge Achilles heal for BYU.



It's been so long since we've had a senior laden team, like we used to. The college landscape changed and it probably affected BYU more than the next because of our RM players that get married and want to support a family. Last year San Diego was a force in the WCC, this year they aren't. All their seniors are gone. It's not always that they were stud players, but there is something to say about a player that has been around for 4-5 seasons, if he red-shirted. BYU has had transfers, early retirement, players leaving for pro opportunities causing us to barely have had any seniors over the last half decade and now you can see the difference. Dalton Nixon is one huge example. Was always adequate, but this year, his senior year, he's finally blossomed.

byufan4ever wrote:

Ok. I'm ready to give pope a max contract.



Wasn't sure about the hire. BYU is looking 100% better this year.



Kolby lee could be our best true big in a generation if he continues to progress as he has this year.



The energy is there.



BYU bball is fun again.

First, what do you mean by max contract, lol? Second, hold your horses. I too like what I see SO FAR. But let's get a complete season under his belt, shall we? Let's see where we end up in the conference standings and what kind of class he actualy brings in before we start declaring him the GOAT coach (not your exact words).

1. Get the man what he needs to keep him here.



2.

Nixon. Completely different player this year.

Seljaas. Completely different player.

Toolson. Completely different from the player that he was at BYU years ago.

Lee. Has made huge improvements. Improvements I haven't seen at BYU before in a big.

Team playing as a team.

Team playing with intensity.

Team plays defense.

ByU projected to dance.

No one expected BYu to even compete for the 2nd spot in WCC. I think they get the 2 seed this year despite the setback at SMC. And they've done it most of the year without Yeoli.

Coach Pope made $200K/year at UVU. I'm sure BYU pays him substantially more, but have no idea on his BYU salary.



I do know that the top-25 coaching salaries top $2.8M/year...Mark Few makes about $1.8M/year. Utah pays its coach about $3.5M/year.



https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/mens-basketball/coach/



I hope BYU is ready and willing to eventually pay Coach Pope at least Mark Few kind of money to keep him around.

Anyone else have some lingering concern in the back of their mind about the number of players missing time due to shootaround injuries lately?



I like the intensity Pope is instilling, but do we need to dial it back in shootarounds, or is this just a fluke or acceptable risk?

snoscythe wrote:

Anyone else have some lingering concern in the back of their mind about the number of players missing time due to shootaround injuries lately?



I like the intensity Pope is instilling, but do we need to dial it back in shootarounds, or is this just a fluke or acceptable risk?

I say acceptable risk.



If it raises the intensity of the whole team, I am fine with that.

YNot wrote:

Coach Pope made $200K/year at UVU. I'm sure BYU pays him substantially more, but have no idea on his BYU salary.



I do know that the top-25 coaching salaries top $2.8M/year...Mark Few makes about $1.8M/year. Utah pays its coach about $3.5M/year.



https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/mens-basketball/coach/



I hope BYU is ready and willing to eventually pay Coach Pope at least Mark Few kind of money to keep him around.

When Pope was hired I believe it was Ben Criddle who had sources that said Pope was getting about $600K. The boosters (I think that's the correct term) were going to double the salary that BYU offered. Basically, BYU offered $300K and it got doubled to $600K. If I remember correctly The Mary's coach makes about $500K.

With the kind of money brought in by BYU football and BBall, coaches salaries should never be in the bottom 75% of salaries. Maybe they should give Pope his $600k base salary and bracket it up according to how much the BBall team brings in for the year. If he wins the WCC tournament another $100k? Wins a game in the NCAA tournament another large bonus? If we are bringing in the same amount of money or more than a majority of BBall schools, then we should make sure our coaches are getting paid accordingly.

BYULV wrote:

With the kind of money brought in by BYU football and BBall, coaches salaries should never be in the bottom 75% of salaries. Maybe they should give Pope his $600k base salary and bracket it up according to how much the BBall team brings in for the year. If he wins the WCC tournament another $100k? Wins a game in the NCAA tournament another large bonus? If we are bringing in the same amount of money or more than a majority of BBall schools, then we should make sure our coaches are getting paid accordingly.

Remember though that football and men's basketball are helping to fund all of the other sports that lose money. And if I remember correctly I do think $600K is his base salary with some incentives.

BYULV wrote:

With the kind of money brought in by BYU football and BBall, coaches salaries should never be in the bottom 75% of salaries. Maybe they should give Pope his $600k base salary and bracket it up according to how much the BBall team brings in for the year. If he wins the WCC tournament another $100k? Wins a game in the NCAA tournament another large bonus? If we are bringing in the same amount of money or more than a majority of BBall schools, then we should make sure our coaches are getting paid accordingly.

Get it done. I think Pope is exactly what BYU needs.

BroncoBot wrote:

With the kind of money brought in by BYU football and BBall, coaches salaries should never be in the bottom 75% of salaries. Maybe they should give Pope his $600k base salary and bracket it up according to how much the BBall team brings in for the year. If he wins the WCC tournament another $100k? Wins a game in the NCAA tournament another large bonus? If we are bringing in the same amount of money or more than a majority of BBall schools, then we should make sure our coaches are getting paid accordingly.

Get it done. I think Pope is exactly what BYU needs.

See post above. Top-25 coaching salaries are in the $2.5M range. We will need more than $600K base and some $100K performance bonuses. Probably more like $1-1.5M base with some $250-$500K bonuses.