BYU set for West Coast Conference Media Day on Thursday

PROVO, Utah – BYU men’s basketball head coach Mark Pope, Fousseyni Traore and Gideon George will participate in West Coast Conference Media Day on Thursday, Oct. 6 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The event, returning to an in-person setting for the first time since 2019, will be streamed on the WCC Network. Pope, George and Traore take the stage at 1:15 p.m. PDT with Sean Farnham and Guy Haberman to talk about the upcoming season.

Pope enters his fourth season in charge of a BYU program that has gone 68-26 since he was named the 19th head coach in program history on April 10, 2019. He is one of four coaches in program history to win 20 or more games in each of their first three seasons after leading the Cougars to a 24-11 record last season.

George returns for his fifth and final year of eligibility after averaging 8.8 points per game, shooting 43.6 percent from the field, 34.9 percent from three and 68.3 percent from the free throw line last season. He scored in double figures 12 times, including a season-high 27 points against Northern Iowa in the second round of the NIT where he made five 3-pointers, the second most in a NIT game in program history.

Traore is back for his sophomore season after a record-breaking freshman campaign in 2021-22. The 6-foot-6 forward nearly averaged a double-double in WCC play with 10.4 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. Along with being named to the WCC All-Freshman Team, he broke school records in total and offensive rebounds while recording nine double-doubles, the second-most by a freshman in program history.

BYU opens the 2022-23 season at home against Idaho State on Monday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. on BYUtv.