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BYU head coach Mark Pope watches his team compete during the NCAA Tournament game against Duquesne in Omaha, Neb., on Thursday, March 21, 2024.

Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo

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BYU head coach Mark Pope watches his team compete during the NCAA Tournament game against Duquesne in Omaha, Neb., on Thursday, March 21, 2024.

Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo

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BYU head coach Mark Pope talks to his team during the NCAA Tournament game against Duquesne in Omaha, Neb., on Thursday, March 21, 2024.

Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo

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BYU head coach Mark Pope talks to his team before the NCAA Tournament game against Duquesne in Omaha, Neb., on Thursday, March 21, 2024.

Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo

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BYU head coach Mark Pope talks to director of athletics Tom Holmoe after the NCAA Tournament game against Duquesne in Omaha, Neb., on Thursday, March 21, 2024.

Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo

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I have been a fan of Mark Pope ever since he joined the BYU men’s basketball team as an assistant coach under Dave Rose in 2011.

It was just his second coaching job after being director of basketball operations for Georgia and an assistant for Wake Forest in the two previous years.

Honestly, he’s tough not to like. He has an energetic personality and a way of making everyone feel important when he is in the room.

I got to know him particularly well during his four years at Utah Valley from 2015-19 when he got his first chance to be a head coach before he returned to the Cougars in 2020.

During the last 13 years, I’ve watched in him action countless times as well as had a number of great conversations. I’ve had the pleasure of covering his daughters when they played high school sports.

I think he is a charismatic individual who is passionate about both his players and the programs he works for. Players for both BYU and UVU have greatly benefitted from his direction.

But for all his strengths, Pope has one glaring hole in his coaching résumé: The postseason.

He found some great players when leading the Wolverines, including getting UVU to 25 wins in 2018-19. His squads finished second in the WAC in two straight years and had a phenomenal record at home (30-2).

But everyone in the league knew that the only way to reach the NCAA Tournament was to win the WAC Tournament to secure the automatic bid — and none of Pope’s four teams were able to get past the semifinals.

But, some would say, that was at UVU where everything has to go right for a college basketball team to reach the Big Dance. In many ways it is harder than in a bigger conference.

And they would be right.

So when Pope took over at BYU, his opportunities to win some big-time postseason games increased.

And he has guided the Cougars to a pair of NCAA tournament bids, in 2021 and now 2024. He likely would’ve added a third trip in 2020 if the playoffs hadn’t been cancelled due to efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

But in five years in Provo, how many league titles have Pope’s teams won?

Zero.

How many NCAA tournament games have they won?

Zero.

The latest tourney disappointment, Thursday’s 71-67 upset loss to No. 11-seed Duquesne, saw BYU again end up on the short end as the favored team.

The Dukes had played great down the stretch of the season but certainly had plenty of question marks. Some felt the Cougars might have the easiest of the No. 6-No. 11 matchups.

I’m sure as Pope watches film from the loss, he will see things he wish he had done differently.

Maybe he would’ve elected to bring in junior forward Fousseyni Traore in earlier in the first half when he saw how Duquesne was playing with very little respect for BYU’s post game as it built an early 12-2 lead.

Perhaps he would’ve tried harder to get junior Jaxson Robinson a few more shots down the stretch, since he had the hot hand (25 points).

I could see him thinking he should’ve guarded the Duke player inbounding the ball in the final minute, since he was their best foul shooter (guard Dae Dae Grant) and Duquesne simply tossed it back to him when BYU had to foul to stop the clock.

Every game has dozens of coaching decisions that either look brilliant or costly, whether it’s using timeouts or calling plays or making substitutions or adjusting to what the opponent is doing.

And as much as Pope can do from the sideline, the bottom line is he can’t make shots or box out on free throws or avoid throwing sloppy passes. All those things have to be done by the Cougar players and certainly played a big role in the defeat.

But I have no doubt that Pope wants to do more to put his team in position to be successful in these high-pressure postseason contests.

Look, every school would love to have a Dana Altman who has never lost a first-round game at Oregon or North Carolina’s sparkling 30-2 first-round record under three different coaches or Mark Few’s eight straight Sweet 16 appearances with Gonzaga (hoping to make it nine this year).

Those, of course, are the exceptions. Most college basketball programs, even good ones, have ups and downs.

BYU fans just keep waiting for the ups to return.

It’s been 13 years since a player named Jimmer Fredette led the Cougars to their last non-First Four NCAA tournament win. Fredette’s teams won March Madness games in 2010 and 2011, but before that BYU hadn’t won a tournament game since 1993.

That means that with the Jimmer years (and the First Four win over Iona in 2012), the Cougars have just four tournament wins in 31 years.

I’m sure Pope knows this and is determined to change that narrative — but he hasn’t succeeded yet.

Now it is back to the drawing board for Pope and BYU.

Maybe 2025 will be the year both the Cougars and their head coach finally get that big win they’ve been starving to get for so long.

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