Why Mark Pope Is Confident BYU Basketball Can Bounce Back From Losing Skid

PROVO, Utah – BYU basketball is experiencing struggles they haven’t faced in a long time. The last time BYU had a four-game losing streak in league play, BYU was in the Mountain West Conference and Steve Cleveland was the head coach. That was in 2005, 17 years ago this winter.

This current four-game losing streak was unexpected for a variety of reasons. First, BYU head coach Mark Pope hadn’t lost back-to-back games since he became the coach in 2019. Second, BYU was overachieving and getting valuable contributions from young frontcourt players despite injuries to key frontcourt players in Gavin Baxter and Richard Harward. Then you add that Pope’s teams never lost to “bad” teams (Quad 3 or Quad 4 in the NET rankings). Being in the West Coast Conference, yes, there is the elite of elites in Gonzaga, but there are also a lot of teams that the metrics would deem a negative hit to postseason resumes.

BYU basketball in a rare spot

All of that has been turned upside down on BYU in this current four-game losing streak. The Cougars have lost a pair of games at the Marriott Center, a place they had only lost three times under Pope before last week’s losses to San Francisco and Gonzaga. Plus, they lost to a “Quad 4” team in Pacific. In the process, they appear to have lost their confidence.

WCC Standings through February 5th

Gonzaga 8-0
Saint Mary’s 7-1
USF 6-3
Santa Clara 6-3
San Diego 6-5
BYU 5-5
Portland 2-6
Pacific 2-6
LMU 2-7
Pepperdine 1-9#WCChoops @kslsports

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) February 6, 2022

Super senior guard Alex Barcello can only do so much for a BYU team that lacks consistent production from the supporting cast every night. Pope has expressed he might have to retool his lineup to figure out the best rotations or starting lineups to try and turn this thing around.

The answers aren’t coming quick enough for a team with a boatload of questions right now.

Surprising results from deep

Even when BYU had Baxter and Harward healthy, this was a smaller team than last year that featured WCC Defensive Player of the Year Matt Haarms. But the thought was that BYU could overcome the lack of size with a group of three-point shooters. From advanced analytic tools in ShotTracker and the NOAH Arc used by Virginia’s Tony Bennett, BYU was doing everything they could in the offseason to be the snipers from beyond the arc that everyone has grown accustomed to with Mark Pope teams. Unfortunately for BYU, the production from deep hasn’t shown itself this season.

BYU currently sits at 107th nationally in three-point field-goal percentage at 35.2% per game. In WCC games, BYU is fifth from beyond the arc, seventh in field goal percentage, and fifth in scoring.

Building a team that could also shut down opponents on the defensive end was also a top priority. And early in the season, they were pacing to be one of the BYU defenses of the past 20 years. That has suddenly gone away. Of course, you expect Gonzaga will overwhelm its opponent, but the effort from BYU defensively against the Zags has left many wondering, what has happened to this team?

Possible “UCLA moment?”

The always optimistic and energetic Pope isn’t giving up on his BYU basketball squad that currently sits at 17-7 overall, 5-5 in the WCC, and in the “First Four” in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracket. Pope is keeping that upbeat attitude and believes his team can have a “UCLA moment.”

If you remember, the Bruins were a team that received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament last year despite finishing the season on a four-game losing streak. The Bruins got into the field of 68 with a “First Four” matchup against heavy favorite Michigan State. The winner of the blueblood matchup was to face BYU in the round of 64.

#BYU drops to “Last Four In” territory. Season is on the line this week in Los Angeles. https://t.co/JleLodNM3K

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) February 6, 2022

Everyone in Cougar Nation was rejoicing that the Bruins upset Sparty to play BYU. Even the wise guys who care about such things thought BYU was a heavy favorite against a struggling UCLA team that featured an injured Johnny Juzang.

Juzang played against BYU, and the Bruins steamrolled the Cougars en route to a surprising Final Four appearance before falling to Gonzaga on a historic buzzer-beater by Jalen Suggs. So can BYU suddenly turn a losing skid that has everyone questioning them into triumph as UCLA did a year ago?

That’s the hope for Pope and his staff, who have used games against UCLA as benchmarkers before. The win over Mick Cronin’s Bruins in Maui in 2019 was a massive breakthrough to show what Pope’s program can achieve. They even have portions of practice that they refer to as “UCLA.”

Three things that give Mark Pope confidence for a turnaround

So what gives Pope the confidence that his third BYU basketball team can turn this rut around as the Bruins did a year ago?

Mark Pope gives three reasons why he believes #BYU’s issues can be fixed heading into the final stretch of the season.#BYUHoops @kslsports pic.twitter.com/nTr7yCltIV

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) February 6, 2022

“I think our belief in each other, which is certainly being challenged, but we’re working on, but I think it’s really important. I think that is the foundation of everything,” Pope said. “Our enthusiasm and love of this game is something that’s really important also. That’s what carries you through these moments. Then the third thing is the ability to write our own story. We get to write our own ending to this story, right? We can’t write the story that happened [against Gonzaga]. It’s already done. And we can’t write what happened the last 13 days before [Gonzaga] either. But we can write the next seven, the next one, and we can write tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday. So those three things combined is where we’re kind of living right now.”

The story could have an ending this week if BYU drops a game on this road trip coming up in Southern California against Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine. Lose one of those games; suddenly, the NIT becomes a real possibility for a team that appeared destined for another single-digit seed in the Big Dance during non-conference play.

But if they find a way to get some answers, the story could continue. After a four-game losing streak, that’s all BYU can ask for at this point.

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 him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper. 

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