How Chris Burgess, a former Blue Devil and Ute, now pitches BYU hoops

Editor’s note: Second in a two-part series.

PROVO— Chris Burgess is a smooth, articulate, passionate basketball coach. He could recruit for Timpview High, Michigan State or the Flying Leopards of Liaoning, China, if asked.

But today, Burgess recruits for BYU, a school he rejected for Duke out of high school, and again after leaving the Blue Devils for the University of Utah as a frustrated collegian in Durham.

It makes you want to be a receptor in his brain. What’s he thinking?

Today, Burgess dons the blue and white with that oval Y logo, and like BYU women’s coach Jeff Judkins, a former Ute All-American, he accepts the ribbing from the Crimson world. But when it comes to selling BYU basketball, he’s a corporate man with a job to do, evidenced by his work recruiting Purdue senior transfer Matt Haarms, signing the 7-foot-3 Dutch shot-blocker away from the likes of Kentucky, Texas Tech and Gonzaga.

“It’s all about fit,” claimed Burgess.

BYU head coach Mark Pope, Burgess and the rest of BYU’s staff are finding their share of “fits” the past 12 months, including getting Yoeli Childs and Jake Toolson to the fold. BYU is in the mix with Texas Tech, Auburn, USC and Memphis for Georgetown combo guard and Youtube sensation Mac McClung.

Late efforts brought Eamonn Brennan, college columnist for The Athletic to write: “That (BYU) is a program (like Gonzaga) in a mid-major conference that isn’t all that much of a mid-major in any structural sense, and no: there’s no real reason BYU couldn’t become a powerhouse. It’s starting to feel like it’s on its way already.”

Burgess, you may recall, was one of the top high school recruits in the country at Woodbridge High in Orange County, California, in the mid-1990s and was pursued heavily by all the big programs. Because of his faith as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, BYU was in the mix throughout the process. Until it lost to Duke.

Now, as a BYU assistant coach and recruiter, Burgess has a litany of whiteboard pitches he employs. They all fit like a puzzle, are easily communicated, and can be easily deployed to make sense in a millennial world.

Burgess said regardless if he were working for Duke, Utah or BYU, he’d sell “The Fit.”

“I still sell what we really do well as a staff. I sell what this university represents. I talk about the success we’ve had in player stories at both Utah Valley and this past season at BYU. I sell player stories and at the same time we try and get to know these kids.

“We’re trying to sell these guys to come to play for BYU. We’re also trying to make sure it’s the right fit. It’s pretty common knowledge we landed a big-time recruit in Matt Haarms and we missed out on some others because it didn’t fit for them,” said Burgess.

BYU has to recruit right now, due to COVID-19 restrictions, through virtual reality campus tours, online contact (Zoom or Internet chat), analytics, film study…