Big 12 Basketball: Breaking down the 4 reported expansion candidates

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - MARCH 29: The Houston Cougars celebrate after defeating Oregon State Beavers in the Elite Eight round of the 2021 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium on March 29, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /

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BYU Cougars

BYU Basketball is another program that has an up-and-coming coach leading the way in Mark Pope. Since taking over in 2019, Pope has been able to turn things around for the Cougars and has gone 44-15 (.746). Pope was also able to lead the Cougars to their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2015 last season.

Not only has Pope shown promising signs on the court, but he’s also recruited at a very high level for a team in the WCC. Pope and his staff have landed multiple 3-star prospects since taking over and more impressively have navigated the transfer portal extremely well adding guys like Matt Haarms (Purdue) and Seneca Knight (LSU) in the last two off-seasons.

Adding to this, Pope has put up some very encouraging analytics since taking over at BYU. In the last two seasons, BYU’s adjusted offensive efficiency rating has ranked in the top-25 per KenPom. The Cougars defense has also been stout ranking in the top-60 the last two seasons in adjusted defensive efficiency per KenPom.

All of this said, BYU will certainly benefit from joining a conference like the Big 12 and they should be able to land better talent on a more consistent basis which will make Mark Pope’s job that much easier. BYU fans should feel good about the direction of this program, especially if they get into a power 5 conference like the Big 12.

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