In basketball coaching search, BYU will need to do something uncomfortable: move quickly [Video]

PROVO — The last time the BYU men’s basketball program was looking for a coach, it took the Cougars 15 days to go from Dave Rose’s retirement press conference to introducing then-former Utah Valley coach Mark Pope in front of administrators, family, donors and a handful of media on campus.

In many ways, the five-mile drive up University Parkway never felt so long.

Five years later, times have changed, both for BYU and college basketball as the Cougars now turn their attention to finding a new coach after Pope opted to return to his alma mater.

Pope’s new contract at Kentucky, a five-year deal worth an average of $5.5 million annually, will make him the sixth-highest paid coach in the country, according to records compiled by the Louisville Courier-Journal. No one can blame the coach for accepting his dream job, especially after John Calipari bolted out of a favorable “lifetime” contract with the Wildcats to accept the same position, similar pay …