BYU Needs To Move Quickly to Replace Mark Pope

In the last week, BYU basketball was projected in the top 25 by various national outlets. The Cougars, coming off a top five finish in the Big 12, appeared to be a program on the rise with a long list of players expected to return. That all changed on Thursday when head coach Mark Pope left BYU to become the coach at Kentucky.

Now, BYU is in the market for a new head basketball coach. Historically, BYU is slow to hire head coaches. It's a long, drawn-out process that requires a lot of boxes to be checked. While other programs will make hires in days, BYU usually requires weeks. This time around, however, BYU needs to move quickly.

BYU has never replaced a men's basketball or football coach in the transfer portal era. The longer the process is drawn out, the greater the risk of BYU's best players entering the transfer portal

BYU returns a solid core of players, including Dallin Hall, Richie Saunders, Fousseyni Traore, Aly Khalifa, and others. When Mark Pope was hired, he had to rebuild the program on the recruiting trail. Because of missions, it takes a longer time to build a roster at BYU than it does at other schools. Take Dallin Hall for example. Hall was one of the first big recruiting wins for Mark Pope. It wasn't until three years later, this past season, when Hall was back from his mission and playing like he was before his mission.

The transfer portal can only fill so many holes for BYU. Long-term success at BYU requires sustained recruiting success at the high school level. Retaining current players (and former signees) has to be a priority. BYU can't afford a complete rebuild in the Big 12. BYU will already be dealing with a head coach that is cutting his teeth at the P6 level. If BYU can move fast and help the next coach retain the roster, the more likely they are to have success in the next two or three years.

BYU has never moved fast, but that has to change. Times have changed in college athletics. Roster attrition can happen faster than ever before. BYU will need to keep up with the times.