Mark Pope Concern: Hearing Rumors

[jadesroom]

One of the biggest concerns that I have about Mark Pope as head coach is whether he has a vision for how to build a program rather than just using the transfer portal as a year-to-year hope.

My concern is elevated once again with rumors that I have heard from Jake Hatch on his podcast and read on Twitter that Jake Wahlin is thinking of transferring when he returns from his mission in June. He evidently is good friends with Nate Hansen and Hunter Erickson.

Now I have no knowledge of Wahlin's playing ability. Others on this board know a whole lot more than I. But I strongly believe that the core of BYU's team has to be less from the transfer portal and more from the best LDS players available. I can understand Erickson and Hansen being pushed out in favor of Hall, Saunders, and Toolson. Each of the latter showed more than the former in the year they were in the program. In addition, the latter three are Pope recruits and the former were not. However, Wahlin is a Pope recruit and I would hope he still has a place in the program if he wants it. Those last four words are the crux. I hope Pope shows Wahlin some love and that Wahlin decides to stay and help build the program.

[byufan4ever]

I'm not well enough connected to hear any rumors so I have no idea about Wahlin. But regarding the transfer portal, I don't share the concern that he (Pope) particularly is using the transfer portal too much. I generally dislike the mass transfer portal happenings in college basketball as a whole, but it's here, a huge part of college basketball, not going away anytime soon, and Coach Pope would be amiss for not using it. I think the key is balance between HS recruits and transfer portals. We need a few LDS kids to come in as freshman and hopefully stay 4-5 years. But, if we don't land 1-2 impact players every season in the transfer portal then it feels like we will be lagging behind our competition.

I couldn't find hard numbers for college basketball, but for football, last season 42% of the players who entered the portal didn't find a new school. That seems like a huge number to me. I'm all for student-player freedom and labor movement, but it's a big risk not just for the programs, but for the players.

What I would like to see for college basketball (and all of college sports really) is for HS seniors to make one of two choices. A) Go straight to the pros (the NBA really needs 2-3 levels of development leagues similar to MLB). B) Commit to college for 3-4 years. Now, loyalty needs to go both ways. A school should have to guarantee a scholarship for at least 3 years and by the same token the student-player can't transfer without a scholarship release or a waiver.

[scott715]

I wish I knew how good the kid is. Maybe he is WCC good but not Big12 good. I just don't know.