OMAHA, Neb. — Perhaps the most challenging part of a college basketball coach’s job is making sense of a season.

Only one program gets to enjoy the euphoria of winning a national title. The other 361 have to have a conversation about why falling short was worth all the practice, pain and sacrifice.

That process started for Mark Pope and his BYU team moments after Thursday’s 71-67 upset loss to Duquesne in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

“Major congratulations to Duquesne, but I’m so proud of my guys,” Pope said in the post-game media news conference. “This is incredibly painful. But I know how this goes. It will dissipate to some degree and will be replaced with an insane amount of gratitude for these guys sitting here, what they’ve dedicated to each other and to BYU and the things that they were able to accomplish this year. That will stay with us forever.”

In 2022-23, BYU was 19-15 overall and 7-9 in league play in its final season in the West Coast Conference. Not surprisingly, the Cougars were picked to finish 13th out of 14 teams in their first season in the Big 12 Conference. A summer European tour was key in bringing the players and coaching staff together. BYU was 12-1 in the preseason and rose quickly up the NET rankings then forged a 10-8 mark in Big 12 play, getting quality wins against Iowa State, Texas Tech, Texas, Baylor and a huge victory at Allen Fieldhouse against Kansas.

BYU opened the Big 12 Tournament with a victory against UCF (its third time beating the Knights) before losing to Texas Tech in the second round.

That disappointment went away quickly since the Cougars knew they were easily in the NCAA Tournament field, though a No. 6 seed was a least one spot, maybe two below what they’d earned because of the Sunday play issue.

A somber, frustrated BYU locker room was a tough place to be after Thursday’s loss, a game the Cougars trailed for all but 29 seconds.

“It’s a terrible time,” Pope said about his conversation with the players after the game. “Just seeing the locker room universally devastated, and there’s nothing to do to fix it, and there’s not another game to go make it better. So I just very briefly expressed how much I love these guys and how grateful I am for them and everything that they’ve done for each other this year and I’m grateful for the ride that they’ve taken us all on. It’s been beyond incredible and I’m just profoundly sad that it’s over.”

More physical?

Going through the rugged 18-game Big 12 slate should have prepared BYU for Duquesne’s physical play, but the Cougars struggled to match it. Consistent toughness was key for the Dukes. The Cougars displayed their own toughness by battling back from double-digit deficits in both halves, but down the stretch Duquesne made all the right plays.

“I think our execution on the scout, defensively, we didn’t execute things we went over,” sophomore guard Dallin Hall said. “Mentally, we weren’t as physical as we should have been. Ultimately we had a tight ball game, so that’s no excuse. We’ve just got to execute down the stretch. We tip our hats to Duquesne. They played a great game. We didn’t put our best foot forward, which is super frustrating. Luckily, we’ve got a lot of young guys, so we’ll learn from it.”

3-YU

The Cougars generally won this year when they made 3-pointers and lost when they didn’t. Against Duquesne, BYU made just 8 of 24 (33%) from distance and 16 of 33 (48%) from 2-point range, including 11 of 22 (50%) at the rim.

“I thought they were super pressed up,” Hall said. “They were really grabbing and holding us on all of our cuts. So that forced us to cut to the rim a lot. But the second half when we were on our toes and on attack and getting in the lane, we got really good looks. Some of them didn’t fall but I thought we got good looks when we were playing like us.”

Crafting a roster

It won’t take long for Pope and his coaching staff to begin creating a team for 2024-25. In today’s volatile world of the transfer portal and NIL, the Cougars could retain much of its roster or completely overhaul it. There’s good evidence that retaining much of the roster would be an advantage, but there are no guarantees that will happen.

Spencer Johnson’s career at BYU is over but leading scorer Jaxson Robinson has some important decisions to make in the coming months. He’ll go through the NBA evaluation process and based on the input decide if he wants to come back to Provo for one more season or begin a pro career. His 25-point performance in the loss to Duquesne provides some nice momentum as he heads into those workouts. It’s also possible Robinson could be offered a big NIL deal to play for another program.

The Cougars add one of Utah’s top recruits from two years ago in former Farmington standout guard Collin Chandler, who returns from his church mission to West Africa this summer. Chandler was a top 30-rated prospect by ESPN his senior season. BYU also welcomes 6-foot-7 forward Isaac Davis, a gifted, physical scorer who led his Hillcrest (Idaho) team to two state titles. Adam Stewart, a 6-11 forward who played at RSL Academy and Paora Winitana, a 6-6 shooting guard from American Heritage, return from missions and could join the team as a walk-ons. Returning walk-ons could also include current Cougars Jared McGregor, Townsend Tripple and Tanner Hayhurst.

A 2024 recruit, Texas wing Brooks Bahr, is expected to serve a church mission starting this summer.

The roster will be in a state of flux over the next few months as Pope and his staff work to re-recruit current players. Center Aly Khalifa was never truly healthy all season long and can use the off-season to recover and get into playing shape. Dawson Baker, a transfer scoring guard from UC Irvine, will also try to overcome health issues to become an important contributor next season. Forward Noah Waterman has received his medical hardship and has one more year of eligibility. Forward Marcus Adams Jr. is a former four-star recruit with a ton of potential who originally committed to Kansas. Guards Dallin Hall, Richie Saunders, and Trevin Knell are expected to return along with forward Fousseyni Traore but the futures of guard Trey Stewart and big man Atiki Ally Atiki are a bit cloudy after their playing time decreased significantly over the course of the season.

Pope and his staff have already made contact with a handful of players who entered the transfer portal just this week including forwards Sam Alexis (UT-Chattanooga) and Amari Williams (Drexel) and guards Jalen Leach (Fairfield), Toby Okani (Illinois-Chicago) and Dakota Leffew (Mount St. Mary’s).

The first-round loss can be a big motivator for whoever plays on next year’s squad.

“It sucks,” Waterman said. “I hate losing, everybody hates losing. The season’s over and I can’t really process too much right now just thinking about the loss. But we’ll be back here next year.”

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