BYU has quickly turned into one of the more interesting programs in the country

Over lunch with a former teammate in late June, Alex Barcello came to understand how everything could be different for BYU men’s basketball while nothing changed at all. The senior-to-be guard revisited a superlative but abbreviated 2019-20 season with Yoeli Childs, talking through the various pitfalls faced and then traversed, reexamining how that group never went astray despite dealing with problems that other teams deal with far less successfully. And whatever they discussed came back to The Boys.

Yes, yes, that happened: They called themselves The Boys. However, it sounds to anyone on the outside, every BYU player dedicated himself to what was best for The Boys. There were no setbacks. They weren’t allowed. Setbacks let down The Boys, so the search for solutions never stopped. Not every collection of individuals submits itself to the greater good, and not every team hits the national rankings even if it does, but it’s the one approach that can be universally positive no matter who’s in the room.

“It just reassured me,” Barcello says. “This is one of the main reasons we went so far. We really felt something special every single day we came in here to work.”

No conversation about the most intriguing teams in college basketball for 2020-21 is complete without BYU. A charismatic coach with a hyper-entertaining offense, significant roster turnover, a gargantuan fleet of big men and a couple of small veteran guards, some of the most impactful and high-profile additions of the offseason, from a 7-foot-3 transfer to a coveted in-state high school prospect … it’s undeniably interesting. It could go all kinds of ways, and it could define the trajectory of a program for years to come.

The challenge comes in recreating an environment where something special is what everyone is after, all the time, when almost everyone is new in their own way, and everyone has been waiting for their chance. “It’s a beautiful stew,” BYU coach Mark Pope says. “If we can season it right, it’ll be awesome.”

The big question

Season to season, with a coaching transition and various personnel absences for various reasons in between, BYU’s offense spiked. Its adjusted efficiency number leaped nearly 40 places nationally (46th to seventh), no doubt largely due to a 249-spot jump in 3-point shooting. Do not adjust your screen. Two years ago, BYU was the 250th-best long-range team in the country; in Pope’s first season, it set the pace with 42.3 percent accuracy beyond the arc, the only team in college basketball to crack 40 percent. Now starters and key rotations pieces who accounted for 69.4 percent of the team’s made shots (659 of 949) are gone.

So can the offense be anywhere near that good again?

“I have an unbelievably good feel for the pieces I have,” Pope says. “I just don’t have any feel for putting them together yet.”

The coaches, of course, helped foster the improvement and shooting sea change of 2019-20. Any evaluation of what’s next begins with giving them the benefit of the doubt: They seem to know how to coach good offense. And the core principles and approach won’t change. As Pope puts it, he brought with him “a very specific way we approach shooting the ball,” which essentially forgoes concerns about makes and misses and instead emphasizes rejecting hard shots and even turning down some looks that traditionally might be considered pretty decent.

Pope recited his favorite refrains — finish every shot and own every shot — in more or less every shooting session last season. He has no plans to rewrite the chorus this season. In theory, the results from last season prove the functionality of the approach. In theory, that means returnees benefit from the consistency of teaching. In theory, newcomers will assimilate quickly too, because everyone was new to it a year ago and look what happened.

Eventually, though, the theory is tested in the details. What lineups flow and what combinations are a bad fit? How do the Cougars space the floor? What actions do they go to, either more frequently or less frequently? How intently can they chase transition scores? Carryover is crucial. But implementation will remain an open question for a while. “We talk about pace, space and the extra pass every day and that will never change so long as these people are crazy enough to let me coach,” Pope says. “Maybe the focuses will shift a little bit in terms of how hard we go at certain things.”

Roster analysis

Guards

Officially, Alex Barcello stands 6-2 and weighs 180 pounds. So says the latest available BYU roster. These measurements do not make him a preposterously small guard, but they also do not confer upon him the ability to rely on physical gifts over due diligence. So he goes to the gym a lot. Much to Barcello’s delight, on one of the first summer days this was even possible, Brandon Averette had beaten him there. And the incoming senior grad transfer — all 5-11 of him — didn’t fall behind BYU’s most proven returning piece during the ensuing practice session. “I was like, man, this dude works,” Barcello says.

How Barcello and Averette work together might determine how everything else falls in line. To date, the dynamic is best expressed by fans apparently referring to them as “ABBA.” (Presumably hoping this is more of a “Money, Money, Money” outcome and not a “Waterloo” scenario.) It falls to both the players and the staff to go beyond cute sobriquets and find a way for two similarly built components to coexist and thrive. The idea of deploying two jet-quick playmaking guards who can pick up defensively for 94 feet might be too much for Pope to ignore, especially when he has plenty of options for length and finishing ability at other spots.

“They could be really fun as kind of a run-and-jump feel with a little bit of freedom,” Pope says. “I’m trying to get those guys to work together and play together so they can get to know each other and feel each other out in a really short window, see if they can find some synergy where they do some things that aren’t necessarily coached.”

Scoring has to come from somewhere, however, and most put Barcello square in the middle of that somewhere. Some figures recommend him in that role. He shot a preposterous 48.6 percent from 3-point range as a junior. His 1.092 points per possession, per Synergy Sports, ranked in the 95th percentile nationally and led all regular BYU starters. The first question is how translatable the efficiency is. Barcello’s usage rate (14.5 percent) was notably tiny for someone who logged the third-most minutes on the team, and his scoring on a per-40-minute basis (12.4 points) ranked seventh among the regulars. He’s going to be out there a bunch because Pope likes his defense and his decision-making, so the opportunity should present itself. “He was kind of born and bred as a ball-screen, ball-handling guard,” Pope says. “There’s a lot of his game that’s valuable to us that just wasn’t necessary to be highlighted last year, just because of the personnel around him.”

The other question is how much Barcello envisions himself in that role. He’s prioritized mental improvement in the offseason, knowing a good deal of tone-setting would fall to him, devouring books such as “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” and another called “The Fred Factor,” which purports to teach how “passion in your work and life can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.” He’s diving into Steve Nash and Damian Lillard film clips, examining their reads off of screens and how they control the game; given that Barcello’s .789 points per possession as a pick-and-roll ballhandler ranked in the 63rd percentile nationally, per Synergy, it’s not a bad course of study. All in all, the senior sounds like a guy who wants to take on more, while not taking it upon himself to do everything.

“I want to be that leader that gets the most out of my guys and also has fun with it,” Barcello says. “When I find the time to read, I like to take it slow. I start thinking, how can I benefit the team with this? And then I’m like, man, I gotta read this again because I got sidetracked thinking about the team.”

Presumably, Averette’s presence is complementary and not redundant, and presumably, Pope knows how to ensure the right fit. He was the Utah Valley coach during Averette’s sit-out season there, following a transfer after two years as an Oklahoma State backup. A career effective field goal percentage of 48.3 suggests Averette might benefit from whatever pixie dust the staff sprinkles on its shooters, though it’s worth noting he scored at a decent clip at a high-major (13.3 points per 40 minutes in Stillwater). He has been a solid enough distributor (4.7 assists per 40) over his three seasons and will play on the attack, so having well-schooled big men and better shooters around him might amplify that aspect of his game.

It’s probably a good sign that the first backcourt component Pope mentions after his two senior guards is Trevin Knell, at least if you’re Trevin Knell. Especially because Knell’s first college basketball season consisted of grand totals of 108 minutes played and 29 points scored. But lump the 6-5 sophomore in with all the other curiosities. He was a Cal signee in the Class of 2016 but received a release during a mission abroad, so he certainly has the maturity and size to give BYU the option of going to a different look in the backcourt. Pope extolls Knell’s physicality and ability to get a driving line off a screen.

How much Knell can elbow his way into the mix, or if it’s another development season behind other big guards who gobble up playing time, most likely depends on the acceleration in his decision-making and how much his shooting ability manifests in actual on-floor production. “This kid, he’s one of those players who can sprint off a stagger and fade it and catch and shoot on a dime, where you just can’t take away his shot,” Pope says. “You can run an end-of-game play for Trevin Knell and he’s getting a shot off. He’s been with me for a year, understands the pace and urgency that we play with. He’s a super interesting piece.”

Likewise, the peripatetic Spencer Johnson makes the trip down I-15 from Salt Lake Community College with some intrigue but something to prove before he accrues heavy minutes. BYU is Johnson’s fourth stop — he signed with Weber State, transferred to Utah Valley, then to junior college, and now matriculates in Provo — after graduating in the Class of 2016. (He also went on a mission between high school and Weber State.) At 6-5, he’s another option for a bigger backcourt, and his 2019-20 numbers (13.2 points per game, 37.1 percent shooting from 3) were solid. But can Johnson go from second-team all-region at a junior college to meaningful, efficient minutes for a potential Top 25 team? “He’s got a really, really high IQ feel on the court in terms of his decision-making,” Pope says. “He’s surprisingly long and athletic as a defender. He’s got great feet, his quickness and his explosiveness on the defensive end has taken a huge jump over this last year as we watched him. It’s just a matter of how quickly a guy can make the jump from junior college to this level.”

Hunter Erickson, a 6-3 guard, was a three-star prospect in the Class of 2018 signed by the previous coaching staff and will alight in Provo after a mission abroad. He was a fairly prolific scorer at Timpview (Utah) High School, averaging 22 points per game as a senior, and Pope has been somewhat surprised by Erickson’s athleticism. But how long his legs last after the two-year layoff is the key. “He’s a rookie, right?” Pope says. “So we’ll just see.”

Wings

This might be a bit of an artificial sorting mechanism: BYU doesn’t have wings as much as it has guards and slightly bigger or much bigger guards.

Take, for example, Connor Harding. Debating what box Harding belongs in gets to the 6-foot-6 junior’s value. He already has been an important piece on a team that won at a high level, playing in 32 games and averaging 22.2 minutes a season ago. He made empirically provable contributions — 44.2 percent shooting from 3-point range, 1.104 points per possession per Synergy, nearly six rebounds per 40 minutes, taking on defensive assignments ranging from opposing point guards to power forwards — and others that defy measurement. “In some ways, he was the heart and soul of our team last year, in terms of his selfless approach,” Pope says.

Harding managed all that even as knee issues hampered his explosiveness. Where he fits in this season and where he fits in coming seasons might be two entirely different propositions. If Barcello and Averette prove to be an unassailable combo, and Knell justifies Pope’s excitement, then Harding might serve this group best off the ball as a swingman, working off the playmakers up top. He did average 1.202 PPP on spot-ups (94th percentile) last season. But Pope hastens to note Harding’s upside with the ball in his hands, strongly hinting at an evolving role that takes advantage of his versatility. “Ultimately, when it’s all said and done, he could actually move to more of a point guard position,” Pope says. “I don’t know if that’s going to happen this year, but I think in the next couple of years, he’s got a chance to do that.”

Harding has averaged 6.1 points and 3.1 boards per game during his first two seasons. (Jeffrey Swinger / USA Today)

Nothing stokes heavy breathing like a good, old-fashioned recruiting win at the expense of an in-state rival, so it is understandable why the late addition of Caleb Lohner creates heightened expectations both for the incoming three-star freshman and BYU as a whole. Lohner signed with Utah in November, asked for and received a release — reportedly much to the surprise of the Utah coaching staff — and then last week made his expected commitment to the Cougars public. Any soap opera surrounding all that isn’t worth rehashing here; what matters is how a 6-foot-9 forward with an apparently college-ready frame, who can swing between positions and shoot it from every level, fits into the rotation.

The answer is: Somewhere, assuredly. Lohner hadn’t signed when Pope spoke to The Athletic for this piece, which meant the BYU coach couldn’t publicly comment on him per NCAA rules. Suffice it to say Lohner was and is expected to play a significant role now and moving ahead, neatly fitting a program that emphasizes shooting and certainly could use size on the wing, especially down the line. Once Lohner’s signing became official, Pope used phrases such as “deadly stroke” and “intense competitiveness” and “steely determination” and “unique persona and swagger” in the school’s news release, so here’s guessing everyone at BYU believes Lohner is someone BYU can use right away.

Meanwhile, maybe no one in Provo exemplifies the wide spectrum of possibility quite like Gideon George. “A wild card,” as Pope puts it. He’s another incoming transfer, from New Mexico Junior College. He averaged 14.5 points and eight rebounds in just 22.7 minutes per game there. He’s 6-6 with a 7-2 wingspan. Pope believes George might be, on a team of giants, the best rim protector on the roster. That Cougars faithful might assess George as a perfect fit on the wing, to fill a variety of roles and duties, is no surprise.

It’s also not guaranteed. Just because George’s ceiling is high doesn’t mean he’ll transition swiftly enough to meet it. Or he might! No one, not even his coach, can be sure. “I have no idea if he’s going to be a starter for us or if he’s going to be a redshirt for us, but I do know the end picture for this kid,” Pope says. “He’s got a chance to be really good because his insides are golden.”

Bigs

Yeah, BYU’s size is kind of ridiculous.

“We definitely meet the eye test,” forward Kolby Lee says.

This assumes, of course, your eyes are directed up. The roster features three players who are 6-9; one who’s 6-10; one who’s 6-11 and one who’s 7-3. It is a frontcourt a former center would love, but Pope’s excitement isn’t based on his ability to make direct eye contact. The presence of these mammoth bodies means one of BYU’s biggest issues a season ago should vanish. The Cougars finished 213th in the nation in rebounding percentage in 2019-20. If you think that ranking 344th in offensive rebound percentage means the team more or less gave up on the notion of second-chance points … well, you’re pretty much correct.

Not so this season, when a weakness might become a strength. What’s more, the abundance of rim protection gives Pope more options to extend the defense, knowing he has multiple back-end bodies to account for mistakes. “We’re going to have to adapt,” Barcello says, “just because we didn’t have this many bigs last year.”

When BYU landed Matt Haarms — the aforementioned 7-foot-3 guy — it almost seemed gratuitous. We’ll expand on Haarms’ role in the Spotlight section below, but there’s one line Pope used in reference to his grad transfer big man that is key to understanding it all. “There’s just not many people walking around like him,” the coach said, and indeed upon closer inspection, this isn’t hoarding as much as it’s mad science. Pope’s mind is open to all manner of machination.

There are, of course, bigs who are bigs. Richard Harward is 6-11 and weighs about 275 pounds, per his coach. He is not difficult to define. He is big and acts accordingly. “If you watch these Marvel movies, he’s like The Incredible Hulk,” Pope says. “He just wants to run into walls. He loves it. He just loves to go hit people.”

Harward sat out the 2019-20 season after transferring in from Utah Valley, so he now has three years of experience in Pope’s system at two stops. His appeal is plain. He didn’t start a game in his two seasons at Utah Valley, but Harward rebounded at a rate of 14.7 boards per 40 minutes. He finished at the rim, with 1.548 PPP on offensive rebounds and 1.560 PPP off screen-and-roll feeds. Pope calls him one of the best verticality defenders he has coached; Harward apparently has a 35-inch vertical leap to go with the massive frame and is pretty adept at challenging drivers with maximum obfuscation. “Guys just kind of bounce off him and he doesn’t budge,” Pope says. He is, for sure, the traditional five-man option, the guy who wipes the glass clean and dissuades penetrators and finishes when the playmaking guards cut into the lane and throw it up for grabs.

Though Lee’s 28 starts last season make him among the most known and reliable quantities BYU has, he also presents a challenge for the staff: finding more playing time for him. As a sophomore, the 6-foot-9, 240-pounder was extremely efficient with the minutes he logged, finishing fourth on the team in scoring (16.1 points) and rebounding (7.4) on a per-40-minute basis, and his 62.5 percent raw shooting led all rotation regulars. His 1.8 PPP on pick-and-rolls ranked in the 100th percentile nationally, per Synergy; essentially no one anywhere was better finishing in those scenarios. But, in the end, seven Cougars saw more playing time than Lee over the course of the season.

“I’m just a dude that, wherever they need me, I’ll fulfill the role,” Lee says. “We need those glue guys. Some games they might start. Some games they might not play as much. But they’re always ready to go. They’re always energy guys. I could start every game, I could not play as much, it doesn’t matter to me. I just want to win.”

The object of Lee’s offseason, nonetheless, was to leave the coaches without much of a choice. Once the season ended and the team dispersed into respective quarantines, the coaches distributed individualized workout programs; Lee immediately found a church gym he could access in Idaho and completed every workout as assigned. He honed bread-and-butter staples such as his jump hook — “The only one who can stop it is me,” Lee says — and he set out to shoot at least 300 3-pointers a day to boost his confidence as a long-range threat. If he can enhance his mobility, it might be near impossible to keep him on the bench. “He’s done a nice job, but he’s got to get better and better and better and better,” Pope says. “His ability to have active enough feet to where he can get a hit and go pursue the ball on the defensive glass is an area that he can continue to grow. He’s got to carve out a lot of space because he’s not really vertical.”

What better time than the summer for hyperbole? Thus we bring you Pope’s assessment of what Gavin Baxter, at full health, can grow into. “Clearly just take this down about 20 notches,” the coach says, “but if Gavin reaches his absolute ceiling in a bunch of categories, he’s got this little feel to him like a low-level Giannis (Antetokounmpo). He’s a fun player to figure out.”

The 6-9 junior hit a wall in 2019-20 when a preseason shoulder injury required surgery and wiped out nearly the entire campaign; Baxter volunteered to shed his redshirt and bolster frontline depth by appearing in seven games late. How he responds physically will determine if he can measure up to being “one of the elite athletes in all of college basketball,” as Pope puts it, while also developing into a 40 percent shooter from long distance. Baxter’s freshman-year output was promising enough (30 games, eight starts, 12.7 points and 8.3 rebounds per 40 minutes). He’s both 100 percent healthy and maybe seven pounds shy of a goal playing weight of 228 pounds. If it all comes together? Well, you pretty much can’t have enough long, strong players who can finish if you want to recharge an offense while staying flexible and switchable at the other end.

Similarly, there might be more than meets the eye to Wyatt Lowell, who played one year at Utah Valley for Pope before transferring in and sitting out the 2019-20 season. Lowell is 6-10 and shot 37 percent on 109 3-point attempts during his freshman season. And this is where Pope’s mind begins to race. “In his heart of hearts, his game starts with him being an elite shooter, and I don’t know what he is,” Pope says. “I don’t know if he’s a two or a three or a four. He’s not an extraordinary playmaker, but he’s a fascinating playmaker off ball screens because he’s so long he can just pass over the top of everybody. You think about Wyatt Lowell handling the ball off a ball screen and passing over the top to Rich Harward at 6-11 or Matt Haarms at 7-3, it just gets really interesting to see if you can find a way to make it work.”

One of the most highly coveted grad transfers available this offseason, Haarms chose BYU over Texas Tech and Kentucky. (Justin Casterline / Getty)

Spotlight on: Matt Haarms

As you’d expect, the coaching staff began preparations to sell Haarms on the school by watching what he did at Purdue. The film revealed the obvious, like the way Haarms runs for a player his size, his proficiency attacking the offensive glass and the elite rim protection he provides. It also underscored high-end nuances to his game, in particular the way he could seal a defender and duck into the lane, and then change the seal as the ball moved around to remain available as a target. “He comes with a ready-made skill set that’s probably coached by Purdue better than we can coach it,” Pope says.

What remained, then, was to show Haarms how BYU could help him with what he didn’t already know or do expertly well. The relationship has a chance to transform Pope’s vision into a reality maybe no other team is equipped to deal with.

The short version: BYU envisions Harms as a space-the-floor power forward. It wants to play to what it believes his strengths are, and it will create those strengths if need be. Haarms won’t be expected to work primarily off the low block; he’ll usually operate from the elbow out. If he is down low, BYU believes its emphasis on “quicks” — getting the ball to a big and then the big getting the ball to the rim as fast as possible — better suits Haarms than an offense requiring him to bowl over defenders and finish through their chins. Haarms made 18 3-pointers in his Purdue career and shot 10-of-32 overall from long range last season. There, Pope sees room for “incredible growth” and bets on the program’s track record of shooting improvement to impact Haarms accordingly.

Then there’s BYU’s foundation of continuity offense with a ton of screen-and-roll action that Pope sees as a perfect fit for Haarms. “It is the heart and soul of what we do, and he’s just a massive problem,” the coach says. “Him rolling to the rim as a 7-3 target — with his length, the way we play and the way we coach, it’s going to be really fun.”

A small and mobile lineup with Haarms at center? A big and freakishly physical and long lineup with Haarms at the four? Haarms working with anyone from a sub-6 foot guard to a 6-10 wing off a screen-and-roll? It’s all plausible, according to the vision BYU set forth for him. The clock is ticking on making it more than just a sweet dream.

Recruiting

Because we know how the incoming parts fit, and why Pope wanted them, let’s cast a glance at the overarching philosophy at work. The 2020 haul represents BYU recruiting at all levels, for all timeframes. It’s fitting that Haarms and Lohner are the two most notable gets; the former Purdue big man bolsters the roster in the immediate and hedges against any downside in the development of other frontcourt pieces, while Lohner is a high-major recruit who can help now but also impact multiple seasons. In all, the coaching staff didn’t put itself in a position to have to chase one-year stopgaps every offseason; freshmen and transfers with multiple years of eligibility ensure some level of continuity, assuming it all works out.

Pope readily concedes the success of last season helped him as a salesman. “Every single call was returned,” he says of ventures into the transfer portal, particularly. Like any coach, he’ll be at the mercy of future results when reaching out to future recruits. How that goes is unknowable. But what’s clearly defined is the staff’s approach to anyone on its radar. So far, it’s working.

“We are ridiculously aggressive in trying to show guys who we are,” Pope says. “There’s a lot of dudes who talk to me two times on the phone and they’re like, That dude is freaking way too O.C.D. and in my face. I don’t want to play for him. Actually, that’s important for us, because we can’t afford to have guys that don’t work out. We tell kids: You come here and you’re going to work harder, we’re going to demand more of you, we’re going to be challenging you in a way that maybe you don’t like, more than anywhere else you go. If you don’t want that, don’t come. If you want that, man, this is the place you should be. It’s a nice filter for us. It’s a fearless filter. It’s not like there’s one person out there where we say, ‘We have to say whatever it takes to get this player.’ That doesn’t work for us. It’s more like, this is what we are, this is how we roll. You want to jump on, let’s go. If you don’t, tell us; we’ll go to the next guy.”

Schedule analysis

If a rotation overhaul would steer some programs to the path of least resistance, schedule-wise, well, this doesn’t appear to be one of those programs.

Nothing is officially official, but the Cougars reportedly will have a November game against Oregon as part of a Phil Knight Invitational doubleheader. The Ducks are most likely a borderline Top 25 outfit in the preseason, so that’s a nice test of how BYU’s expectations match up with reality. Possible opponents in the Junkanoo Jam aren’t overwhelmingly exciting; Tulsa won 21 games last season, but George Mason and Boston College were middling at best and pretty bad at worst. (A BYU spokesman, meanwhile, clarified the Cougars will play only two games in the Bahamas, even though it’s listed as a round-robin event.)

Pope and his staff seemingly tried to account for that. Maybe Utah Valley and Weber State look like nonconference layups, but home games against Boise State and Utah are at minimum quality challenges. Same for trips to Utah State and San Diego State; while significant personnel departures mean those might not be the same teams that combined to win 56 games last season, those are nevertheless bonafide challenges. Facing Arizona State and mega-recruit Josh Christopher in the Jerry Colangelo Classic — a neutral-site game in the Sun Devils’ backyard — will be a high-profile opportunity for a statement before league play begins. In short, if BYU has to make a case for an at-large bid, it’s at least giving itself a chance to build that case.

Helping matters is a West Coast Conference rotation that preserves two games apiece against Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s — in fact BYU gets home-and-away chances against all of the other five teams that finished .500 or better in the WCC last season. The one road-only tilt is against Loyola Marymount, a program under the direction of first-year coach Stan Johnson; BYU gets a winnable game and avoids a second meeting with a team in transition that might drag down the metrics.

The ceiling

If everything comes together as planned, BYU still might not have enough to unseat Gonzaga during the regular season. That also might not matter. Formidable depth, and an unusual roster composition, can be a massive asset in the postseason. If you’re a problem to prepare for, that works to your advantage when the time between tip-offs is limited. And if this is a group with enough to finish in the top three of the conference, then it’s probably a group with enough to win the WCC tournament and secure an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, while also probably having a strong case for an at-large bid regardless. And then making the field of 68 might feel like hitting open water; at least WCC teams will have familiarity with BYU and know what’s coming. Not so much for the teams across from BYU on an NCAA Tournament bracket line.

There’s experience, but very little experience playing together and no truly singular, transcendent talent on board. That’s a lot to overcome to make the grandest daydreams a reality. Reaching the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament and seeing what happens from there seems like a fair goal and a way to maintain program momentum early in Pope’s tenure.

The floor

BYU should have sufficient depth with enough options for lineup permutations to withstand an injury that submarines the season. It won’t be able to overcome those puzzle pieces proving to be a bad fit collectively. Pope and his staff need as much time as possible to evaluate who can do what and when, consistently and under duress, and they’re simply not going to get it. Or at least not as much as they would get under normal, non-pandemic circumstances. If players have the best of intentions but aren’t comfortable in roles, and therefore underperform or fail to make expected and needed breakthroughs as a result, missing the NCAA Tournament is on the table.

It’s hard to imagine BYU having a bad season. Still, there’s enough uncertainty in a condensed calendar to expose the Cougars to some scuffling that limits their upside.

Final report

Provo might be home to the most curious team in the country. Unbridled imagination rules the days leading up to whatever the 2020-21 season looks like. The possible lineup permutations, the raft of unknowns or semi-knowns, the good vibes stoked by an analytics-savvy, self-effacing, personality-plus head coach on the rise … all of it could go every which way. And whatever way it goes, will define Pope’s trajectory. “I can actually sum this up for you beautifully,” Pope says, like he’s been teed up by the straight man to deliver a punchline. “In terms of personnel, resources and facilities and fan base and exposure, there’s no question. If we just had a better head coach here, we would be rocking and rolling, man. That’s what I keep telling the administration. You bring a real dude in here, this place will blow up.”

Those with a vested interest in BYU men’s basketball indeed insist upon the long-range potential of BYU men’s basketball. It’s an overstatement to say that’s at stake this winter. There’s enough personnel carryover built into this roster that 2020-21 isn’t an all-in bet. If the results leave everyone to conclude the program took too many hits to make another big run, that’s hardly catastrophic.

But should Pope and his staff coax another top 25-ish, NCAA Tournament-worthy performance out of this group, given all the turnover and newness and general uncertainty about everything, it would validate belief in a way that could build on itself for years. If BYU is really good again after all it’s lost? Imagine that.

(Top photo of Alex Barcello: Bob Kupbens / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)