BYU men’s basketball meets with the media

PROVO, Utah – BYU men’s basketball coach Mark Pope and his players met with the media today at the BYU Broadcasting Building for the team’s annual media day. See below for quotes from Pope and seniors Yoeli Childs, Jake Toolson and TJ Haws.

Coach Mark Pope
I’m so excited to have a chance to coach these guys at this great university. It’s an extraordinary place. I get to coach really extraordinary young men who have a very focused goal in mind and are working really hard. I can’t wait to get the season started. We’re getting close. We had our 15th day of practice today, the guys felt like it was their 60th.

On having seven seniors
It’s nice because they have a calming influence. Those guys have experience under their belt where they’re more capable of staying focused.

On dealing with adversity
We love drama. This is what we do. I think that this game is an extraordinary teacher. When you listen to the game and listen to where it takes you, it kind of gives you the answers to the test. Right now, we’re trying to listen really hard and figure out what this game is teaching us and how we get to play and how we’re going to attack it. How we deal with rotation and personnel issues, it’s giving us an unbelievable opportunity to be creative and probably instill in us a requisite courage that we might not have had otherwise to try some different things. When you get to do that it’s actually incredibly fun. It’s really fun basketball to watch. I think it’s really fun basketball to play because every moment is sheer terror about whether it’s going to work or not.

On getting the team ready for the season
I’ve got a group of guys who have been incredibly well coached for their tenure hear under Coach (Dave) Rose’s tutelage. These guys know the game, they understand what they’re trying to do, they understand nuances of the game. Now it’s just a matter of coalescing it around what we have, which is the best part of coaching, trying to figure out what you’re left with at the end of the day and seeing if you can make the collective way more functional than the individual parts. These guys are locked into doing that. These guys love each other, they take care of each other, they’ve been incredibly supportive of each other. They sacrifice for each other. They feel pretty unified right now. We’ll see if that continues and I’m confident it will. It’s the best part, what we’re doing right now, trying to figure it out. 

I love to be aggressive. I think this game is meant to be played that way. The only reason I think this game is meant to be played that way is it’s the only way I know how to play. We’ll be really aggressive. I think it’s really entertaining. I think it’s fun for our guys to play that way. We’ll put as much pace into this game offensively and defensively as we can. We’re trying to find ways to do that with a modified roster and do it effectively. We’d certainly like to put an entertaining and inspiring product on the floor. 

Coach Mark Pope addresses the media before the 2019-20 BYU Men’s Basketball season. #BYUHOOPS #GoCougs https://t.co/tAmP6GVHOk

— BYU Basketball (@BYUbasketball) October 9, 2019

Senior forward Yoeli Childs

On playing right all the time
It’s huge. We’re looking at it from an efficiency standpoint, from a field standpoint. We have a team with so many talented players and guys that can do a lot of things. We got guys who can do the ‘Big Three’ of basketball: shoot, put the ball on the floor and pass. We usually have five guys on the court who can do that, so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t get a really good shot. We have great players who can make tough shots, but it’s kind of the concept to not settle, to not take a shot just to take a shot. We need to get to the right spots, move the ball and when you’re open just owning it.

On the addition of Jake Toolson
Man, where do I begin. He’s brought incredible leadership and intensity, he’s a natural-born leader, he leads both vocally and by example. He brings us a three-level scorer. He’s a guy that gets to the rim and pick his spots. He’s a guy that can shoot the three-ball extremely well. He’s probably one of the best shooters in the country and he’s an underrated passer as well. He’s going to do a ton for us this year, and I think our fans and people in our conference will be surprised at what he’s able to do for us this year.

On Toolson’s experience having played in Pope’s system at Utah Valley
It definitely helps. It takes out a lot of the guesswork. Coach Pope does a good job of explaining what he expects from us and what he needs us to be doing, but having not only Jake but Wyatt (Lowell), Big Rich (Harward), having those guys come over and explaining ‘Ok, Coach wants us to do this,’ it’s nice having three different guys that have all been with him. Then obviously we have guys like Dalton who played with him when he was an assistant coach his freshman year.

On Dalton Nixon
Dalton is a dog, he’s an animal. He catches everything, he’s vocal on defense. I love playing with Dalton because no matter what happens I know he’s going to open, he’s a cutter, he does all the little things. He’s the perfect glue guy. He’s the dude that everybody wants on their team.

Senior guard Jake Toolson

On the BYU coaching staff
We have a special bond because we’ve been through a lot together. They went to UVU and then I went there a year later. When it came down to it, I wanted to finish it with those guys because those are the guys I’ve been battling with. I want to finish this experience with them.

On the team’s development of consistency
We’re making practice really hard right now because we want to make a lot of mistakes. When it comes to the game, we want practice to be harder. We want the game to be simple. We’re really pushing ourselves right now to get out of our comfort zones. It’s going to prove to payoff for us because we’ll have experienced a lot of things in the preseason.

On dealing with missing key players to start the season
It has definitely been tough. However, when you think of great teams and stories, nothing goes smoothly. Adversity is an opportunity to make something happen. You’re either going to run from it or find a way. We’ve just embraced it. Guys have stepped up and we’ve been making the most of it. It is going to prove to be a very valuable experience for the whole team.

Senior guard TJ Haws

On Pope saying “seniors are magic”
This senior class has a ton of experience. There are a lot of minutes from this senior class, a lot of games played and that experience is crucial, they’re no other way of getting it than just going through it. Our guys really know what it takes to win day in and day out and bringing it every day at practice. It’s fun to have that experience on a team.

On how being a senior helps deal with team setbacks
With sports there’s always adversity and the situations that we’ve had so far are unfortunate, but it’s a great opportunity for us to really show what we’re made of and figure out ways to win, because I’m sure this isn’t the last hard thing that comes our way. Our guys really just want to win, and it’s fun when you have guys like that. Things happen and it’s whatever, we’re just going to find ways to win.