BYU Coach Mark Pope References Taylor Swift After Victory
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — BYU coach Mark Pope kept something to himself, something he didn’t share with his team before Wednesday’s Big 12 Tournament game with UCF.
To him, the outcome was already set. Yes, the Cougars beat the Knights for the third time this year, an 87-73 win in their Big 12 Tournament second round game.
But he knew it was coming. He had Taylor Swift on his side.
First, the background. The Cougars were picked to finish No. 13 in the Big 12 in the preseason by the league’s coaches. Pope referenced that during Big 12 Media Days in Kansas City.
He said he was OK with being picked No. 13 because that was Swift’s favorite number and he considered it to be good luck.
Well, the Big 12’s resident Swiftie had more knowledge to drop after the Cougars’ win, crediting his sports information director with supplying with this little nugget, which ties together his Cougars’ three wins over UCF this season.
“I didn’t share this with the guys before, but this is really important,” Pope said. “When I was in this building seven months ago I talked about how we were excited to be picked 13, because it’s Taylor Swift’s favorite number. This morning I found out courtesy of the greatest statistician and SID ever, that our first game against UCF was on January 13th, our second game was on February 13th, and so we knew that with our third game on March 13th, like, the deck was stacked against these guys (UCF), man, it’s not even fair. It’s not even fair. Plus we’re in Kansas City. I mean, what? It’s beautiful.”
Then he asked his players an important question to the players on the dias with him, Richie Saunders and Fousseyni Traore.
“If I had told you guys that before the game would be be like, ‘Our dude has lost his mind?’” Pope said.
Neither disagreed.
The connection to Kansas City isn’t just the Big 12 Tournament of course. Swift, who is in the midst of the international leg of her Eras Tour, is dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
