BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe is making a coaching hire in the middle of April.
On Friday morning, Mark Pope officially accepted the head coaching job at Kentucky.
“We want to thank Coach Pope for all that he has given to the BYU men’s basketball program in his nine years here as an assistant and head coach,” Holmoe said said in a statement. “His unique combination of passion, dedication, creativity and excitement has inspired our BYU community. He led our team to a very successful inaugural Big 12 season, and left the program in a position of strength moving forward. There is a lot for Cougar Nation to be excited about right now.”
It is not an ideal time to be looking for your next leader. Most coaches already have a home.
But the good news, if there is any, is that BYU’s coaching search was always going to be limited. Even if Pope left a month earlier, the candidates would likely be the same for Holmoe. At BYU, owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the men’s basketball coach will likely be a member of the church. That limits the number of candidates.
Here are the strengths, and weaknesses, of three top candidates who should be on BYU’s list.
Mark Madsen
If BYU had its way, Cal coach Mark Madsen would surely be the top choice to replace Pope.
He comes from an NBA pedigree, playing and coaching for the Lakers. He won two NBA titles while in Los Angeles in 2001 and 2002.
But Madsen is also deeply connected to the Provo area.
He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Madsen’s wife, Hannah, is from Orem and their children were born in Utah.
He was an assistant coach for the Utah Flash. His first head coaching gig was at Utah Valley, where he replaced Pope. He nearly made it to the NCAA Tournament in his final year with the Wolverines, going 28-9 and earning the head job at Cal.
In his first season, he took a Golden Bears team that went 3-29 the year before and won 13 games.
The issue with Madsen is he just signed a contract extension at Cal through 2030. It will make him more expensive for BYU, and harder to pull away. Even before signing this extension, Madsen’s buyout would have reportedly been $4 million.
The possible saving grace for the Cougars — beyond Madsen’s local ties — is Cal’s new conference affiliation. While the ACC is an esteemed basketball conference, Cal will travel across the country for almost every road game in conference. That could make it tougher to recruit and hard to win games.
Will that be enough to lure Madsen away? It is possible, but not an easy sell.
Chris Burgess
If BYU fans care about where prized recruit Collin Chandler goes, Chris Burgess’ whereabouts might be important to know.
Burgess was on Pope’s staff for several years when the Cougars recruited Chandler. The current Utah assistant coach was a key recruiter in getting the four-star to sign with BYU.
Now Chandler is set to come back from his LDS Mission this summer. He will have a choice: stay committed to BYU or reopen his recruitment and possibly follow Pope to Kentucky.
With Burgess as the head coach, at least BYU would have a relationship with Chandler that might encourage him stay.
But it’s not that easy. Does BYU want to make a head coaching decision based on keeping one player committed?
Still, Burgess is an LDS Church member and has long been rumored to be a head coaching prospect for BYU. He’s been an assistant at Utah Valley, BYU and now Utah for the last two years.
The knock on Burgess is he’s never been a head coach. Would throwing him to the fire of the Big 12 be too much to handle?
Barret Peery
If a lack of head coaching experience is a knock on Burgess, how about current UNLV assistant Barret Peery?
He’s been a head coach at several stops, including most recently at Portland State. And he has Big 12 experience. After working as a head coach, he took an associate head coaching job at Texas Tech in 2021.
Peery knows Utah. He was born in Payson, just down the road from Provo. He played at Snow College and Southern Utah. He coached at Utah, Utah Valley, SUU and Snow.
Of course, Peery won’t come with the same name recognition or cachet as Madsen. But he is a college basketball lifer who has been in the business since 1995.
If experience is the key identifier, Peery might be a top option.
