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Orem • Two days after these Wolverines were brought back down to earth, reminded that the past remains in the past, that wins — no matter how epic — have a shelf-life, they're hoisting up half-court shots after a late-week practice has concluded. 

The Utah Valley University basketball team is practicing on the volleyball court. The UCCU Center is hosting a Christmas extravaganza in a few hours, so instead of retracing all the defensive missteps from their seven-point loss at Washington State on their home floor, the Wolverines are reliving much of the misery next to one of the main hallways on campus.

Mark Pope stands at mid-court with one of his daughters asking which player she thinks will drain the shot from beyond the line. Conner Toolson comes close. Kenneth Ogbe bounces one off the backboard that glances onto the front of the rim and out. Pope summons Brandon Randolph to take a break from running through offensive sets by himself to try. And Randolph nearly drains it. 

Pope, the longtime BYU assistant coach who won a national championship under Rick Pitino as a player at Kentucky in the mid-1990s, looks at his daughter and says, "So close!" The Wolverines hope they are exactly that, although they probably shouldn't be. Not with 13 new players, not with four out of their five starters transfers suddenly leading the way in Pope's second year in charge in Orem. 

"I've never been on a team like this," Pope said. 

Steps forward, backward, sideways

UVU is his first head coaching gig, so naturally everything new is going to be, well, new to the self-deprecating coach who spent seven years in the NBA. The run-and-gun Wolverines already have experienced highs not expected. On Nov. 23, UVU overcame a 27-point second-half deficit to beat Denver, 88-85 — the biggest comeback win in program history.

Three nights later, the Wolverines went into the Marriott Center and left it silent. The lingering cheers could be heard from the visitors' locker room where UVU went into a frenzy celebrating its 114-101 win over BYU in Provo. Last year, the Cougars smoked UVU by 31. 

Late that night, "SportsCenter" host Kevin Connors gave the Wolverines a special shout-out despite not knowing, until hours after they'd shocked BYU, they were in fact a Division 1 program. Randolph, a combo guard transfer from Xavier who sat out last season due to NCAA transfer rules, said he didn't know about the prime-time run on ESPN.

"Now [everyone] knows," Randolph said. "We just have to continue with putting ourselves and the program on the map."

This season will be filled with two steps forward, steps backward and, at times, it could go off the rails. That, Pope said, is the nature of growing a program with so many new faces. It doesn't happen overnight. BYU coach Dave Rose has continually told his former protégé that success will come organically if done the right way. 

"There's no recipe," Pope said. "It's not like making a casserole."

Isaac Neilson said the early stages of the season have taught his team just about as much as possible. They're good enough, that much they know — but the Wolverines aren't close to convinced they're anything worth gloating about.

"It's taught us our weaknesses, it taught us our strengths, and it's really taught us that we can be special," said the former BYU big man.

Second-chance startup

Pope has no shortage of anecdotes for this current stage of his program. The Wolverines, he said, are still in the basement plugging away as a startup company. "We never sleep," he said. Days off aren't a thing, because the staff is enthralled with trying to see what it can make of this group of players. 

"A lot of our guys are second-chance situation basketball players," he said.

And they're the ones proving that Pope's method could work in the long run. Neilson came from BYU. Ogbe from Utah. Randolph from Xavier. Toolson from SLCC. Four others — including Jordan Poydras, the top scoring threat off the bench — have transferred to UVU to play for Pope, too. Much of this year's group, Pope admitted, turned down "way more prestigious schools to come here."

"I just fell in love with the coaching staff, what they had in store for the program and the vision they had — and I was part of what their vision was," said Randolph, who had 21 points and 14 assists in the win against BYU, not to mention a triple-double earlier this year.

Toolson had no shortage of suitors after helping Salt Lake Community College win a national championship a year ago. But he stuck with Pope and the Wolverines. A starter on the legendary Lone Peak High School team of 2012-13, Toolson wanted to pick a school and team that he could play meaningful minutes on. 

"Perfect," he said. 

No player perhaps fits the UVU bill more. He admits that even during his high school days, interviews were a rarity. "Nobody ever wanted to talk to me," he laughs. The spotlight was on his close friends Nick Emery, TJ Haws and Eric Mika, all now at BYU. In that win over BYU, Toolson had 21 points, hit four 3-pointers and after chatting briefly with his old pals after the historic upset, received a text message from Emery. He said he couldn't be more proud of Toolson and once again congratulated UVU on its victory a few miles away. 

UVU is a startup, but a rapidly rising one if this trajectory holds. A new basketball facility, estimated to cost $3.5 million, is expected to be finished in the spring. That came on the heels of a 12-18 season a year ago. Loftier expectations are upon the program, due to much of their own doing. That's where Pope's transparency takes a bit of a turn. 

"You would laugh at me if I was honest with you and told you what we can become," he said, "but that's where our sights are set."

ckamrani@sltrib.com

Twitter: @chriskamrani

Young Wolverines rising

Record » 5-2, 3-0 at home

Fresh faces » Thirteen new players to the program this season, including four of five starters who are transfers. Leading scorers are Kenneth Ogbe (Utah transfer) 15.6 PPG, Conner Toolson (SLCC transfer) 15.4 PPG, Isaac Neilson (BYU transfer) 12.4 PPG, 9.6 PPG.

Memorable start » Completed largest comeback win in program history by erasing a 27-point deficit in an 88-85 win at Denver on Nov. 23.

Biggest win yet? » UVU topped BYU for the first time, 114-101 at the Marriott Center on Nov. 26.

Next up » At Utah, Tuesday, 6 p.m.