Provo • Five weeks on the job — which included a 27-hour flight to West Africa for a 90-minute home recruiting visit — hasn’t altered new BYU basketball coach Mark Pope’s vision for a program that many believe is institutionally shackled from rising to greater heights than former coach Dave Rose was able to take it.
“I am just dumb enough to think that we can accomplish everything that you dream about accomplishing in college basketball,” Pope said Thursday. “I believe we can do it right here.”
in an hour-long discussion with beat writers who cover the program on a daily basis, Pope said he has come to realize that he has a “monumental task” in front of him since taking the job on April 12 and hiring assistants Chris Burgess, Cody Fueger and Nick Robinson on April 24.