There was a moment in the second half of BYU’s upset of No. 11 Baylor on Tuesday where the Cougars gathered around head coach Mark Pope near midcourt on the Marriott Center floor.

At one point, Pope told the players, “You guys talk about it,” and walked away.

Having a team that can communicate well enough to solve some of their own problems is a rare gem that Pope appreciates.

“Every coach in the world complains about the same thing: That we don’t have any leadership on our team,” Pope said. “But what are we doing to grow, teach and empower leaders? We’ve been frustrated the past couple of years with our communication. The coaches would say, ‘If our guys could have their (cell) phones on the court, they would communicate better.’

“If communication is that important, it should really be important for our practice. In practice when we finish a drill, the guys will huddle up and the coaches aren’t allowed to say anything. We started doing that this summer and with our foreign tour. We have smart guys, high IQ guys.”

Pope said he’s fascinated that sometimes during time outs, during big moments in a game, his players don’t know exactly what they should be doing.

“I’d ask them, ‘What is your No. 1 focus right now?’ And a lot of times they don’t actually know. They’ve got so many thoughts going through their minds with the fans and what they just did and what they want to do. Them talking is way more powerful than me talking. They speak things into existence.

“So for all those reasons, it’s a real gift to have a group that as part of their team training is to communicate with each other because what they say is way more real than when I say it to them. I dig it, actually. It’s new for me but I like it. I like how our guys have bought into it. It’s pretty cool and it’s comfortable.”

Pope also told a story about a recent practice. The Cougars were finishing up a drill and Pope blew his whistle to end the drill. But junior Trevin Knell refused to stop the drill — twice, in fact — telling his teammates they needed to do one more to “get it right” before they moved on.

“It’s the leadership within the team that responded (to the loss to Oklahoma State),” Pope said. “It’s what’s inside these players. It’s pretty cool to witness and watch.”

Expecting

Senior guard Spencer Johnson and his wife, Issy, are expecting their first child. Issy went into labor Thursday and Pope said he wasn’t sure if Johnson would be joining the team for Saturday’s game at Kansas State.

“This is an incredibly exciting time right now for Spencer,” Pope said. “He’s been on FaceTime with everybody on the team multiple times. It’s just incomprehensible. Baylor Tuesday, first-born son Thursday, Kansas State Saturday and Kansas on Tuesday. Like, could you have a better life? It’s pretty exciting.”

Honored

Pope has been named as one of 15 candidates for the 2024 Werner Ladder Naismith Men’s Coach of the Year award.

In its first season in the Big 12, BYU is 19-7 overall and 7-6 in league play heading into the final five games of the regular season. The Cougars have regular season wins over three different AP Top 25 opponents for the first time since 1988.

Since making its debut in the AP poll on Nov. 27 this season, BYU has been ranked for 13 consecutive weeks. That is the fifth longest streak in a single season in program history.

Scouting Report

BYU beat Kansas State 72-66 in Provo on Feb. 10 but now must travel to Manhattan to take on the Wildcats Saturday. Kansas State is 4-2 in Big 12 play at home with wins against then-No. 9 Baylor and then-No. 4 Kansas.

“It’s a double-edged sword because you’re familiar, right?” Pope said. “But you’re not familiar on the road. And so in essence, you’re familiarity is really positive because everyone’s got a basic sense of some of the action and some of the personal strengths and weaknesses of the scout. But in this league, certainly, home-court advantage has been so strong so you don’t want to take anything for granted. Everybody in this league performs at a different level at home than they do on the road.”

Kansas State has three high-level scorers in Cam Carter (15.2 points per game), Tylor Perry (15.1) and Arthur Kaluma (14.5). Kaluma scored 18 points to lead the Wildcats against BYU last time. Carter scored 14 but was just 6 of 16 from the field (0-5 from the 3-point line) and Perry was 2 for 11 (1 for 9 from 3) scoring nine points.

Kansas State has lost seven of its past eight games, including the past three by a total of 15 points.

“Kansas State is just incredibly incredibly dangerous.” Pope said. “It’s funny because you can play great basketball in this league and lose a game. They have three of probably the most talented scorers in the league. And that’s not an overstatement. So they’re they’re super talented. They have unbelievable rim protection. They had six blocks here in our gym against us. They play a great pace.”

Pope said the Cougars will travel home after the Kansas State game (noon MT start on Saturday) before heading out to play No. 9 Kansas in Lawrence on Tuesday.

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