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BYU’s new basketball coach wants to play as many top teams as possible. He jokingly calls his scheduling plan ‘pretty much just dumb.’

Provo • New BYU basketball coach Mark Pope has called the job he inherited from coach Dave Rose “a monumental task” several times since he was introduced last month.

The new Cougars’ coach is trying to make it even more difficult than that by setting up an even more difficult non-conference schedule.

In an hour-long discussion with reporters recently, Pope said his scheduling philosophy will be to play as many top-tier programs as possible, even if it means not having those programs play in BYU’s 19,000-seat Marriott Center.

“Our scheduling philosophy is pretty much just dumb,” he said.