Cougars have three coaches and two current players who have experienced the NCAA Tournament as players
While BYU is making its first NCAA Tournament appearance in six years, the sixth-seeded Cougars do have Big Dance experience on their roster and on their coaching staff. As a player, coach Mark Pope won a national championship with Kentucky in 1996. Assistants Chris Burgess and Nick Robinson also have NCAA Tournament playing experience — Burgess with Duke and Utah; Robinson with Stanford. BYU seniors Matt Haarms and Brandon Averette have varying degrees of NCAA Tournament experience. With Purdue, Haarms played in the 2017-18 Sweet 16 and the 2018-19 Elite Eight. In helping the Boilermakers on that Elite Eight run, Haarms played in four games and averaged 12 points,5.5 rebounds,2.3 blocks per contest. Related Averette played sparingly in one game for Oklahoma State in the 2016-17 NCAA Tournament. Alex Barcello played for Arizona and Jesse Wade played for Gonzaga when those teams made the NCAA Tournament in 2017-18 but they didn’t see action in those games.
