The 2019–20 BYU Cougars men's basketball team represented Brigham Young University in the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. It was head coach Mark Pope's first season as BYU's head coach and the Cougars ninth season as members of the West Coast Conference (WCC). The Cougars played their home games at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah. They finished the season 24–8, 13–3 in WCC play to finish in second place. They lost in the semifinals of the WCC tournament to Saint Mary's. Despite being a virtual lock to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, all postseason play was cancelled amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Previous season The Cougars finished the 2018–19 season 19–13, 11–5 in West Coast Conference play to finish tied for second place with Saint Mary's. As the No. 3 seed in the WCC Tournament, they lost to San Diego in the quarterfinals. They were not invited to play in the NCAA or NIT tournament and declined to participate in any other postseason tournament. Shortly after the season ended, longtime head coach Dave Rose announced his retirement. Utah Valley head coach Mark Pope, who previously spent four seasons as an assistant at BYU under Rose, was hired in April to be his replacement. Later in April, Pope announced that he had selected Chris Burgess and Cody Fueger from Utah Valley and Nick Robinson from Southern Utah as his assistant coaches. Average home game attendance for the 16 games played at the Marriott Center for the 2018–19 season was 11,958. This was the second highest attendance in the West behind Arizona and ranked 27th nationwide.
Offseason
Departures During the 2018–19 season, BYU had two seniors that finished their eligibility to play college basketball - McKay Cannon and Luke Worthington. Two years passed since BYU had seniors as part of a basketball team. McKay Cannon transferred to BYU from Weber State University. Despite being a walk-on, Cannon started 18 games during his time at BYU. Luke Worthington played in 130 games (starting 62) and was the only player on the roster with NCAA tournament experience. Worthington will continue with the BYU basketball team as a graduate assistant alongside former teammate Nate Austin.
Nick Emery announced his retirement from college basketball via social media in July 2019 saying, "My time here has been rocky at times, but the good times definitely outweighed the bad...I am at a point in life where I am happy with what I've accomplished with basketball and I'm ready to start the next chapter of my life with my wife and son." Emery left BYU with one year of eligibility remaining.
In May 2019, Jahshire Hardnett committed to the University of Montana as a graduate transfer. However, due to graduate school admission timing issues, he reopened his recruitment in July 2019. A month later in August, Hardnett decided to transfer to the University of Missouri-Kansas City and will be eligible to play immediately. Rylan Bergersen transferred to the University of Central Arkansas, a Division I program, with two years of eligibility remaining. Bergersen was granted a waiver and was eligible to play immediately. Colby Leifson entered the transfer portal in October 2019, and as of the start of the season, no information was available regarding where he would transfer. On February 5, 2020, Utah Valley University announced Leifson would transfer to UVU with 3 seasons of eligibility remaining. +NameNumberPositionHeightWeightYearHometownReason for DepartureMcKay Cannon24Guard6'0"185SeniorShelley, IdahoGraduatedLuke Worthington41Forward6'10235SeniorMequon, WisconsinGraduatedNick Emery4Guard6'2"185JuniorAlpine, UtahRetiredJahshire Hardnett0Guard6'0"185JuniorGulfport, MississippiGraduate transferred to University of Missouri-Kansas CityRylan Bergersen1Guard6'6"200SophomoreBoise, IdahoTransferred to University of Central ArkansasColby Leifson0Guard6'4"190SophomoreSuwanee, GeorgiaTransferred to Utah Valley University
Incoming transfers With Mark Pope coming as the new head coach to BYU from Utah Valley University (UVU), three players from the UVU basketball team decided to follow Pope and transfer to BYU. First, on April 23, it was announced that Jake Toolson, the 2018-19 Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Player of the Year who had previously played for BYU for two seasons, would transfer back to BYU. During Toolson's second season at BYU, he applied for a medical leave of absence in December 2015. Therefore, while Toolson played two additional seasons at UVU, he still had one year of eligibility remaining, and as a graduate transfer, was eligible to play immediately during the 2019–20 season. Before Toolson recommitted to BYU, he was recruited by several schools including Duke, Virginia, Arizona State and Utah State. Jeff Goodman of WatchStadium.com ranked Toolson as one of the top 10 graduate transfers during the offseason. Then on April 24, Wyatt Lowell, a consensus 3-star prospect, announced he would transfer from UVU. Lowell, who was the 2018-19 WAC Newcomer of the Year, will sit out the 2019–20 season and will have three years of eligibility remaining. The next month, on May 8, Richard Harward also announced he would be transferring from UVU to BYU with two years of eligibility remaining. As of the start of the season, it had not yet been determined whether Harward would be eligible to play during the 2019–20 season. However, in December, Mark Pope indicated that Harward did not receive a waiver and would not be eligible to play during the 2019–20 season.
On May 6, Blaze Nield announced via social media that he would transfer from Utah State Eastern with three years of eligibility remaining. While he had scholarship offers from Montana State University, Idaho State University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Nield will join BYU as a walk-on. Later in the summer, on July 31, it was reported that Alex Barcello, a consensus 4-star recruit, would transfer from the University of Arizona. He was granted a waiver and was eligible to play immediately. +NamePositionHeightWeightYearHometownPrevious SchoolYears RemainingDate EligibleWalk On/ ScholarshipRivals247SportsESPNESPN GradeAlex BarcelloGuard6'2"180JuniorChandler, ArizonaUniversity of Arizona2November 2019Scholarship4-star4-star4-star83Richard HarwardCenter6'11"255JuniorOrem, UtahUtah Valley University2November 2020ScholarshipN/AN/A2-star62Wyatt LowellForward6'10"205SophomoreGilbert, ArizonaUtah Valley University3November 2020Scholarship3-star3-star3-star73Blaze NieldGuard6'1"185SophomoreLehi, UtahUtah State University Eastern3November 2019Walk OnN/AN/AN/AN/AJake ToolsonGuard6'5"205SeniorGilbert, ArizonaUtah Valley University1November 2019Scholarship3-star3-star2-star67
Returned Missionaries Two players were added to the roster during the offseason who recently returned from missionary service. Trevin Knell originally had committed to University of California, Berkeley. However, due to a coaching change at Cal, he decided to play for BYU in May 2017 before leaving on his mission in July. Knell is a consensus 3-star prospect who was part of the 2017 recruiting class. Cameron Pearson joins the team as a walk-on after serving a mission in Chile and utilizing a redshirt year. Pearson was part of the 2016 recruiting class after playing at Chatfield High School in Lakewood, Colorado. +NamePositionHeightWeightYearHometownHigh SchoolMission LocationYears RemainingRecruiting ClassRivals247SportsESPNESPN GradeTrevin KnellGuard6'5"190FreshmanBountiful, UtahWoods Cross High SchoolUruguay, Montevideo420173-star3-star3-star77Cameron PearsonGuard6'0"175FreshmanLakewood, ColoradoChatfield High SchoolChile, Antofagasta42016N/AN/AN/AN/A
2019 Recruiting Class
2020 Recruiting Class Six high school players committed to play for BYU from the 2020 recruiting class. Richie Saunders, Dallin Hall, Tanner Hayhurst and Tanner Toolson each plan to complete two-year full-time missionary service before joining the team for the 2022–23 season. Only Townsend Tripple and Caleb Lohner will join the roster for the 2020–21 season. Tripple had originally planned to complete missionary service before joining the team and was assigned to Argentina, but decided to delay his mission trip due to coronavirus and joined the roster as a walk-on. In early June, it was reported that Caleb Lohner, a four-star forward from Texas who had previously signed with Utah, requested a release from his National Letter of Intent to sign with BYU. Lohner was released, and on June 26 officially signed with the Cougars. Lohner will be a true freshman and is immediately eligible to play.
Preseason Polls and Rankings BYU was selected to finish third in the West Coast Conference in the Preseason Men's Basketball Coaches Poll behind Gonzaga and Saint Mary's. Yoeli Childs and TJ Haws were named to the 2019-2020 All-WCC Pre-season Men's Basketball Team. For the second straight year, Yoeli Childs was among 20 college basketball forwards named to the Karl Malone watch list. The Karl Malone Award selects the nation's top power forward in NCAA college basketball. In early November, before the season began, Yoeli was also named to the list of 50 players to watch for the 2020 Citizen Naismith Trophy Men's Player of the Year as well as the Preseason Top 50 Watch List for The John R. Wooden Award.
2019-20 WCC Preseason Men's Basketball Coaches PollRankTeam (First Place Votes)Points 1.Gonzaga (7)79 2.Saint Mary's (3)75 3.BYU654.Pepperdine565.Santa Clara50 6.San Francisco40 7.Loyola Marymount34 8.Pacific21 8.San Diego21 10.Portland9 Several media outlets ranked BYU among the top 100 Division I college basketball preseason teams for the 2019–20 season. The rankings ranged from as high as #41 from Team Rankings and ESPN's BPI ranking to as low as #75 by Sports Illustrated. Some rankings projected BYU as a possible NCAA Tournament team or as a possible NIT Tournament selection. Consistent with the WCC preseason coaches poll, each of the writers projected BYU 3rd among WCC teams. A summary of the various preseason rankings that included BYU is as follows: +Writer(s)Organization/MetricDateBYU Overall RankBYU WCC RankTotal # Teams RankedNotes/ReferencesSeth Walder & Paul SabinESPN BPINovember 1, 2019#41#310047% Probability of NCAA Tournament AppearanceDavid HessTeam RankingsNovember 1, 2019#41#3353Jay BilasESPNNovember 5, 2019#61#368Matt NorlanderCBS SportsOctober 22, 2019#66#3353Joel WelserCollege Sports MadnessSeptember 1, 2019#66#3144Projected NIT TournamentMolly Geary & Joe WilkinsonSports IllustratedNovember 1, 2019#75#3353
Preseason Injuries and Suspensions Several players were injured or were subject to suspensions during the offseason that will affect their ability to play during the regular season. Yoeli Childs was suspended by the NCAA for paperwork errors in the NBA draft exploration process that will cause him to miss the first nine games of the regular season. In August, Zac Seljaas broke his foot during a game in Italy and was estimated to be out until November or December 2019. His recovery progressed rapidly and he was cleared to play by the opening game of the season. Gavin Baxter injured his shoulder in a practice during September which will likely result in his missing the entire 2019–20 season. It was revealed in November that Jesse Wade has for some time had a knee injury which is likely to prevent him from playing for a long-term period.
Italy Trip and Scrimmages During August, BYU played four games as part of a trip to Italy. BYU won all four games during the 10-day tour of Italy. Every four years, the NCAA permits college basketball teams to take a trip to a foreign country.