SALT LAKE CITY — A few years ago Mark Pope, the new BYU basketball coach, was boating on Utah Lake with his family when their boat broke down. He called for help, but the 6-foot-10 Pope decided to take matters into his own hands. He jumped into the water, and dragged the dragged the boat across the lake with a rope, trudging through the sludgy mud of the lake bottom until he reached shore, much to the amusement of park rangers who were waiting there.
“Never seen anyone do that before,” they said.
Let’s use that story as a metaphor for the challenge that Pope faces now that he has taken charge of a BYU basketball program that is broken down and won’t restart.