The Pope is finally coming to BYU

Everyone tweeting that Mark Pope is coming to Provo as the new Assistant coach for the BYU team.



Looks like his wife Anne works with ESPN (and used to work with Letterman)

Is he LDS?

Press release makes it official:



http://www.byucougars.com/Filing.jsp?ID=15665" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



He's 6'10", so I can only hope he is here to coach the bigs instead of Terry Nashif, right?

So get this. He played in the post with Kentucky to win the 1996 championship.



Did we finally pick up a guy who can coach Big Men??? Given the number of tall bodies on the roster for next season, this looks like a dynamite hire on paper to me.

I concur. A 6'10" guy with NBA experience will really help us coach up our bigs. I think Coach Rose recognized the BYU weakness and addressed it with this hire. The offense caters to guard play, but the bigs have to be better. This should really help us, and not just with coaching, but with recruiting bigs, too. Great hire.



By the way, Pope is LDS.

Great great great hire!!! Having an LDS big man with NBA experience will be great in developing our big guys. Excellent hire! Kind of sad it wasn't the Mad-Dog but hey, this is just as good in my opinion!

Great news and great hire! Looks like BYU is becoming a premium coaching staff!

Definitely LDS. He's in my ward here in NC. My wife and I went with Mark and his wife and one other couple to see Oklahoma! a couple weeks ago. Very nice, enthusiastic guy. His wife is Lynn Archibald's daughter, but I'm pretty sure she's a BYU fan because my wife mentioned that she joked about that one time.



There's definitely basketball bloodlines in that family. Although, they've got four daughters and no sons. Maybe that will work out for Jeff Judkins in a few years.

Finally a reason for big men to come, stay, play well, and expect a good NBA career

Worth the wait... Pope brings a ton to the table and for the 1st time, I see a guy that could actually replace Dave Rose should he ever bolt.



A national champion, an NBA guy, a big man, a smart dude (he went to med school at columbia for 2 years before deciding it wasn't for him... given this was after his basketball career) and someone that understands national recruiting



I like it very very much

He's played for and worked with some of the best and what a name for a BYU coach! I can see it now, "The Pope of BYU". Always excited to see a good Kentucky player do good. ;)



Go Pope!

Go Cougs!!



L Hatton

Louisville, KY

Just saw him over at the church, outside the stake president's office. Not sure what he was there for, but I congratulated him and wished him the best. It should be noted that he was wearing a WF shirt.



;)

I don't actually remember anyone mentioning him as one of the potential LDS BB coaches that were out there, but I like what I've read thus far. I've always wanted a big man coach. My only disappointment is that still leaves us without an AA coach, which balances us out more, but it's very hard to be disappointed whatsoever.



Let's welcome the Pope to Provo.

Mike Hall is still on staff and as a non-coach, he can probably have more contact with players than coaches.

Sweet! Maybe we can finally develop some big men now!

mizzoucoug wrote:
Sweet! Maybe we can finally develop some big men now!

We have been developing big men. Davies was better last year than the year before. We actually got quality minute, at times, from James Anderson. That's improvement. That's coaching. Hopefully, we'll see even more improvement with Pope however.

SpiffCoug wrote:

Sweet! Maybe we can finally develop some big men now!

We have been developing big men. Davies was better last year than the year before. We actually got quality minute, at times, from James Anderson. That's improvement. That's coaching. Hopefully, we'll see even more improvement with Pope however.

The Davies argument I get, but you're making a terrible reach with Anderson.

mizzoucoug wrote:

mizzoucoug wrote:
Sweet! Maybe we can finally develop some big men now!

We have been developing big men. Davies was better last year than the year before. We actually got quality minute, at times, from James Anderson. That's improvement. That's coaching. Hopefully, we'll see even more improvement with Pope however.

The Davies argument I get, but you're making a terrible reach with Anderson.

Did you see Anderson two years ago? Did you see him this year? A few years ago, he was a complete liability and couldn't sniff the court. This year, you didn't necessarily cringe when he went to the scorer's table. He wasn't great. I'm not saying he was. But he did get better and you pretty much knew you were going to get great effort and a solid contribution on the defensive end.

SpiffCoug wrote:

SpiffCoug wrote:

Sweet! Maybe we can finally develop some big men now!

We have been developing big men. Davies was better last year than the year before. We actually got quality minute, at times, from James Anderson. That's improvement. That's coaching. Hopefully, we'll see even more improvement with Pope however.

The Davies argument I get, but you're making a terrible reach with Anderson.

Did you see Anderson two years ago? Did you see him this year? A few years ago, he was a complete liability and couldn't sniff the court. This year, you didn't necessarily cringe when he went to the scorer's table. He wasn't great. I'm not saying he was. But he did get better and you pretty much knew you were going to get great effort and a solid contribution on the defensive end.

As Walter Hagen says on The Legend of Bagger Vance , "Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then." ;)

Then good thing JA found all his acorns in his last season!