BYU’s Mark Pope Lets Out Frustration From Baylor Loss On Water Bottle
Jan 10, 2024, 12:16 AM | Updated: 12:22 am
WACO, Texas – BYU basketball coach Mark Pope is getting a crash course on the challenges that come with life in the Big 12 Conference.
The once high-flying Cougars, at 12-1 out of nonconference, have started 0-2 in Big 12 play.
Mark Pope was called for a technical foul against Baylor
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BYU’s second loss was on Tuesday night against No. 14 Baylor in Waco. It appeared to be a friendly whistle to the home Bears as BYU was called for 24 fouls to Baylor’s 15.
Baylor ended up shooting 28 free throws, knocking down 21 of them. BYU attempted 14 and only hit 11.
#BYU coach Mark Pope was not happy with that fifth foul call on Dallin Hall.
Pope slammed a water bottle on the scorer's table, resulting in a technical foul.#BYUHoops
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) January 10, 2024
Safe to say, Mark Pope wasn’t thrilled.
Near the end of the game, BYU guard Dallin Hall was called for his fifth personal foul in a scrum that at first glance looked to be a jump ball situation.
Water Bottle Aftermath
Once the officials called the foul on Hall, with 54 seconds remaining in the game, Mark Pope grabbed a water bottle and slammed it on the scorer’s table out of frustration. The bottle sprayed water, causing a reaction from BYU’s radio broadcast team of Greg Wrubell and Mark Durrant.
Final: No. 14 Baylor 81, No. 18 BYU 72
Cougars fall to 0-2 in Big 12 play.#BYUHoops pic.twitter.com/rwDPJ19bO2
— KSL Sports (@kslsports) January 10, 2024
Durrant shared a picture of the bottle on X after the game.
Posted without comment… pic.twitter.com/owjPlDM1Fl
— Mark Durrant (@DurrantMark) January 10, 2024
After the loss to Baylor, when asked why BYU couldn’t keep Baylor off the free throw line, Pope responded, “That’s probably a question where I’d love to give you the answer I really think, but I won’t.”
Pope continued, “Our job right now is to really break into that and see how we could have done this better and kept them off the free throw line. There’s a ton of effort and a ton of energy on the floor. Our guys are playing really tough and really hard. What we’re going to do is really dig into the film and really try and find the avenue of how we can pacify the whistle a little bit and that can be a very complicated artistic thing sometimes.”
BYU continues its road trip this Saturday with another Big 12 battle against fellow newcomer UCF at 2 p.m. (MT).
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X and Threads: @Mitch_Harper.
