BYU Cougars Men’s Basketball: What’s the Big 12 Membership Focused On?

The 12 big media days of football are over and in less than a year, BYU will join this conference.

Last October, the Deseret News sent a reporter to cover the Big 12 basketball media day to get players’ and coaches’ perspective on BYU’s arrival in the league.

In basketball, the Big 12 is widely considered the best conference in the nation.

This upcoming season marks the Cougars’ last in the West Coast Conference before moving to the Big 12.

For Mark Pope and his team, how does future Big 12 membership influence program decisions?

“For us, the Big 12 gives us an incredible platform to talk about. The best college basketball conference in the country. The Final Four recently had participants from the Big 12. We are able to talk about that,” said said assistant coach Nick Robinson “But for us this summer, a lot of our focus has been on timing. How’s the roster? How is this team going to be put together to win the WCC?

“Gonzaga is still a very, very good basketball team. Saint Mary’s and Santa Clara have had good years. For us, the best thing we can do to prepare for the Big 12 is to be great now. That was the main focus, doing everything we can to be great right now and working every day to be great.

Robinson stressed that while this season will be unique for BYU as it transitions from the WCC to the Big 12, the focus is on this upcoming campaign.

“Coach Pope has always said that joining the Big 12 is super exciting and super scary at the same time. But we have work ahead of us at the WCC,” he said. “Our non-conference program should prepare us not for the Big 12 but for the WCC, which is filled with great teams and great coaches.

“That’s the No. 1 goal, is to do everything we can to prepare for the No. 1 game this season. We work every day to be great.