...helping a team develop experience and build chemistry over multiple seasons. I understand what Pope and BYU are going through right now.

As seasons past i continued to recruit and reload young talent adding a player or two each season. As my older players and floor leaders aged out, my younger guys maintained continuity and helped carry our team's culture forward.

During one 5 season stretch we finished 2nd once, thena stretch of 3 consecutive seasons as champions and then in that 5th season finished near the bottom.

What changed between our 3rd championship team and the team the next year? Through unexpected circumstances i lost all my older players/floor leaders and had to overhaul/rebuild my roster. That season we struggled. Our team was young and had no identity because there was no continuity of experienced players to lead and maintain our culture.

It's taken a few seasons to rebuild a strong nucleus of returning players, develop their talent and build chemistry while refilling our pipeline and we're only now just becoming competitive again. Culture eats strategy for lunch everyday of the week and when it's lost it isn't rebuilt overnight. Takes time to establish and needs player continuity to carry forward.

At BYU it takes even longer due to many of the kids In our recruiting base serving 2 yr missions. I'm sorry to have to tell you that BYU isn't like the Dukes or Kentuckys of college bball who can win through a constant reloading of 5 star, top 25 level talent every year. If Frank Jackson or Jabari Parker had come to BYU they instantly would have legendary status and be the best players we ever recruited. At Duke they're part of a constant churn of top 10 recruiting classes...quickly forgotten.

BYU and Pope are on the right track with Fouss, AAA, SJ, Hall, Saunders and Robby. Toolson, Wahlin, Chandler and others can add to that and hopefully Pope can add a couple alphas to fill in the gaps.