Depth and effort: Mark Pope's 3rd season at BYU opens with promise, athleticism and two-a-day practices

PROVO — There were days when the BYU men's basketball team was beat last year.

The Cougars weren't perfect and went 20-7 overall with a 10-3 mark in West Coast Conference play. Though they made it back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years, the Cougars' 73-62 loss to UCLA in the first round and humbling defeat on the floor of the historic Hinkle Fieldhouse was also a reminder of how much further they still have to go.

There were ways they had to get better. Head coach Mark Pope hit the transfer portal, re-opened recruiting, and tried to pull back as many seniors from last year's squad to make another go at it.

And then he went to work.

That was one of Pope's first messages to the 2021-22 squad when the Cougars opened practices Tuesday night in the on-campus Richards Building, away from their new state-of-the-art Marriott Center Annex.

"Hard work separates us from everybody else," a wired-up Pope told his team as the Cougars opened practices for the season.

BYU wasn't a finished product after Tuesday night. But they got better.

And most important for Pope: the effort was there.

"Every single day, when you sit down to grade your guys, the first thing and the last thing you grade and the middle thing you grade is effort," Pope told BYUtv, which aired the second of two practices live. "And our guys' effort is so good. That takes you a long way.

"Those are probably the most important ingredients to having a chance to be a really good team. We have a lot of really talented pieces — we're not close to being functional yet. But I'm really hopeful for this team, that we can accomplish a lot of great things."

The Cougars open a season of potential promise — their penultimate in the West Coast Conference before joining the Big 12 — in search of another NCAA Tournament after breaking a five-year drought last March. They're also seeking to replace Matt Harms, the 7-foot-3 West Coast Conference defensive player of the year who averaged 2.5 blocks per game in his lone season in Provo before signing a professional contract in Germany.

That's a lot of production — especially defensively — to replace.

But what Pope brings back may be even bigger. Take, for example, this line that the Cougars showed off during their open practice:

• Alex Barcello, G, Sr., 6'2"
• Te'Jon Lucas, G, Sr., 6'1"
• Gideon George, F, Sr., 6'6"
• Caleb Lohner, F, So., 6'8"
• Richard Harward, C, Sr., 6'11"

That's as strong of a starting lineup as most in Division I men's basketball. And yet, it might not be the final list of starters for Pope because it doesn't include Gavin Baxter, the bouncy 6-foot-9 senior who is still making his way back from a devastating knee injury a year ago; and Seneca Knight, the graduate transfer who recently received a waiver for immediate eligibility that averaged 17.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game two years ago at San Jose State en route to third-team All-Mountain West honors.

Add to it Atiki Ally Atiki, the 6-foot-9 freshman from Tanzania, and Fousseyni Traore, the 6-foot-6 forward from Mali who prepped at Wasatch Academy, and Pope has developed legitimate depth in the program as he enters his third season as head coach.

"This might be the most athletic team BYU has ever had," director of basketball operations Bobby Horodyski said, citing a list of vertical leaps that included a 40.5-inch mark, a 39-incher and four 38-inch posted at a recent combine the team held. "There are some unbelievably athletic guys out here. And we also have some unbelievable lengths that are going to allow us to do some things defensively that we haven't in the past."

BYU may have one of the deeper guard lines in the country, led by returning fifth-year senior Barcello. The 6-foot-2 point guard from Chandler, Arizona, has become one of the biggest fan favorites in recent Cougar history since he transferred from Arizona, and when the NCAA offered players a chance to come back for another season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he jumped at the chance.

Barcello is joined in the returning backcourt by returning guards Spencer Johnson from American Fork, Trevin Knell from Woods Cross, and Hunter Erickson from Timpview.

But Pope also loaded up on new guards this season, led by Knight, who passed on LSU to re-enter the transfer portal en route to Provo, and Lucas, who played at Illinois before transferring to his hometown Milwaukee and earning all-Horizon League honors.

"They're both phenomenal players and phenomenal dudes," Barcello said of the two newcomers. "They are a joy to be around off the court.

"I haven't been on a team that hangs around so much together off the court. But on the court, they are both players. It's going to be fun this year to be able to play with them."

The front court is led by Harward, the 6-foot-11 Orem High product who averaged 6.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game a year ago in his first season after transferring from Utah Valley.

Lohner is back a year after leading the team in offensive rebounds, starting 13 of the 27 games he played as a freshman and averaging 7.0 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. George brings his long wing plays, as well as nine starts' worth of experience that included 5.4 points and 3.5 rebounds in 13.7 minutes per game a year ago.

Then, of course, there's Baxter, the 6-foot-9, 228-pound Timpview High product with a 7-foot-3 wingspan who played in just nine games the past two seasons with two devastating injuries. If he stays healthy, the Cougars' depth in the front court is as real as it has ever been.

Length is a weapon, especially on the defensive end, assistant coach Chris Burgess said — especially in working to replace the 7-foot-3 wingspan of Haarms.

"We feel like we can pressure way more this year," he added. "We feel like we can switch a lot more, one through four.

"As far as ball screens, we're going to be a little more aggressive where we start. We're trying not to tweak our philosophy completely, but take what we have personnel-wise and go from there."

That says nothing of depth newcomers like former American Fork sharpshooter Trey Stewart, who recently returned from a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to join this roster, as does former Olympus standout Jeremy DowDell, Timpview's Nate Hansen, and walk-ons Casey Brown from Pleasant Grove and Paora Winitana, a New Zealand native who prepped at American Heritage School in Utah County.

"We've got a lot of depth," Burgess said. "We've got some vets who have played a lot of college basketball. There's a lot of competition out there. What's great is seeing guys like Alex and Richard put these freshmen under their wing and teach them how we like to play."

BYU opens the 2021-22 season Nov. 4 with an exhibition game against Colorado Christian.

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