rosters "a handful" of Ainges every year (that's highly debatable), like other Blue Bloods, he does NOT have roster stability like BYU can have. Many more of his players either jump to the pros prematurely, or transfer out for bigger roles — than we should expect to happen at BYU (so long as our program is healthy & well-managed). If Pope can continue to land a strong core of LDS players (that means NOT sign mediocre LDS players in down years like Rose typically did) — & can continue to fill out that LDS core with talented players from the JCs, Portal, & HS as well — then we shouldn't think that BYU can't be a contender once, twice — or more times a decade.

A good coach --& a relentless recruiter-- can certainly do that for us. While the jury's still out on Pope being that level of coach, I certainly think that he might be.