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PROVO — The offseason saga surrounding the BYU basketball program continues.
Caleb Lohner and Gideon George are reportedly hitting the transfer portal, as first reported by The Zone Sports Network and confirmed by the Deseret News, with neither planning on returning to BYU. But that's only half the story, some former players contend.
Within moments of Lohner's reported dodge to the transfer portal — where he joins former BYU guards Hunter Erickson, Nate Erickson and walk-on Jeremy DowDell — a number of high-profile players took to Twitter to sound off on the move, and what it says about coach Mark Pope's program after the third-year coach led the Cougars to a 24-11 record and NIT quarterfinal berth.
It wasn't always pleasant, either.
"What have I been saying for the last 3 years?! And y'all think I'm crazy," former Cougar hooper and Lone Peak standout Nick Emery tweeted. "Players AND coaches wanting out .. I knew time would tell! BYU basketball needs to reconsider."
Emery retired from basketball in the summer of 2019, a year after he was reinstated to the program following an NCAA investigation reportedly involving a trip to Disneyland, concert tickets and the use of a car provided by an illicit relationship with a BYU booster. He's lived a mostly quiet life since then, re-marrying following a bitter divorce and posting pictures of his new family on Instagram, like many of the rest of us.
But he hasn't forgotten his former team; and his former teammates have taken notice.
It's obvious that all you have ever cared about is your poor me victim narrative. If you can't stand the heat then get out of the kitchen. Nobody's got time for your boo hoo baby stories https://t.co/CZA7YWGufo
— Jake Toolson (@jtoolgoinham) April 18, 2022
"It's obvious that all you have ever cared about is your poor-me-victim narrative," tweeted Jake Toolson, who most recently played for BG Göttingen in Germany after a brief stint with the Salt Lake City Stars. "If you can't stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen. Nobody's got time for your boo-hoo baby stories."
The contentions arise at a time when Pope has lost not only five players from a year ago, including Lohner and George just over a week after the latter declared for the NBA draft, but he's also lost assistant coach and longtime right-hand man Chris Burgess to the same position at the University of Utah.
Plenty of speculation and consternation has arisen among the BYU fan base on the internet, with current players and coaches staying mostly silent on the issue. That's left former players to either speak out in defense of Pope a year before the school joins the Big 12 Conference — or against it.
"There is no one else we'd rather have taking us into the Big 12," former BYU guard Craig Cusick tweeted in defense of Pope. "This transfer portal has created a completely new game/world ... for everyone. Let's go — cut out the noise."
These days, Cusick is the vice president and head of enterprise sales at Provo-based Qualtrics. And when he isn't rising up the ranks with Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith's software company, he's coaching his son's youth-league basketball team (that also includes the son of BYU assistant coach Cody Fueger).
Cusick also knows something about transfers. The Orem High product was an Academic All-American at Salt Lake Community College before briefly transferring to Utah and then playing for BYU from 2011-13, when he was a team captain as a senior.
And while losing a coach like Burgess hurts, it also presents opportunity — both for the current program and the one that will be joining arguably the toughest conference in American next July, he said.
"Whoever they bring in, there's an opportunity in this transition to open up the net of how wide and where we can go — whether it's recruits in Texas or other areas across the country," Cusick told ESPN radio in Utah County. "I think it would be a nice complement to bring somebody who has relationships in Big 12 country, and who can help us find some outstanding kids who want to come to a great university like BYU."
The transfer portal isn't going away, either. The increased use of it may be at an all-time high because of the free season of eligibility offered to players who where involved in college basketball during the COVID-19 pandemic. But transfers have always existed, and they'll continue to exist — the portal, as college basketball insider Jon Rothstein regularly tweets, brakes for no one.
That can be both good and bad for programs, depending on how much the head coach is used to searching out and reeling in transfers year after year.
For BYU, Pope hasn't been shy about searching the country to supplement his roster. With five players currently in the portal, and more likely to follow, that will probably continue.
In the case of Lohner, that means wishing him well — wherever he goes. Speculation is high that the Wasatch Academy product will transfer to Utah, but sources close to the program are bullish on that probability; he committed to former coach Larry Krystkowiak, remember?
But a return to his home state of Texas — where Lohner was recruited by TCU, Baylor, Texas and Texas A&M before opting for the Utes, and eventually BYU — seems likely, those sources implied. George is similarly unlikely to return to BYU.
That also means it's time for Pope, Fueger and whoever else remains on the staff to hit the portal again. It's a mechanism that can be worn out and reused in the hands of the right coach.
"It's an industry where the coaches who win can figure out how to supplement and rebuild quickly," Cusick added. "It's all being maximized with these portal changes.
"You have a new environment where you aren't guaranteed four years. Now how do you go develop and make a program?"
