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PROVO — The college basketball world will converge on Phoenix, Arizona, this weekend. Not only for the Final Four but for the coaches convention.

It's an event where coaches — all but four of them — who had their seasons come up short exchange ideas and take a breather after the long grind of a college basketball season. It's also an opportunity to catch up with friends in the profession and take a step away from their individual programs for a minute.

BYU’s Dave Rose and his assistants are in Phoenix already and Rose, of all people, has been a hot commodity along radio row at the Final Four down in the valley of the sun.

Why? He’s the only man in the sport right now that can say he took down Gonzaga, who is two wins away from winning the school's first national title and bringing home the first championship in hoops for the West Coast Conference since Bill Russell and K.C. Jones were dominating the college scene as San Francisco Dons in 1956.

That win in The Kennel over No. 1 Gonzaga was a highlight BYU Basketball fans will remember for the rest of their lives, but it also highlighted how the 2016-17 BYU basketball team was capable of far more than what they showed in a season that ended with a hollow 22-12 record and an embarrassing early exit to UT-Arlington in the first round of the NIT on the Marriott Center floor.

So what happens moving forward for Rose and BYU hoops as they try to knock off one of the nation’s premier programs in Gonzaga off their championship perch in the WCC?

Rose joined BYUtv’s BYU Sports Nation earlier this week to recap the season. It was there where Rose unintentionally set the tone for the upcoming offseason and his final three seasons remaining on his contract extension.

“If anybody wants to be disappointed with something or someone because of the season, they need to be disappointed in me, because I put these guys in a situation that was unique,” he said.

Watching that segment on BYUtv, I saw a fiery Rose that, for the first time, responded to the naysayers. In years past, Rose has said he has never been aware of social media and the headlines surrounding his program in the papers and on TV. His comment on BYUtv showed he is definitely aware, and the pressure is getting greater with Gonzaga now emerging as a Final Four team from a league that is considered by some to be a "truck stop league" (thanks, Bill Walton).

But how will Rose ultimately fix the issues that are plaguing his program? Depth on the roster, improving the effort on defense and lack of creativity on the offensive end are three that come to mind. The upcoming offseason will be Rose’s most important one yet since he took over as the head coach at BYU in 2005.

Rose’s roster has good players at the top in WCC All-Conference performer T.J. Haws; diaper dandy Yoeli Childs, who had one of the best true freshman seasons in BYU history; Nick Emery; and if he’s healthy Eli Bryant. That’s a good foundation to start with but how do you replace Eric Mika if he remains in the NBA Draft process?

This past season, after a loss to Gonzaga in Provo, Rose said this year’s AP Coach of the Year Mark Few from Gonzaga is one of the best coaches he’s ever competed against because of how Few is able to recruit for the needs of his program at such a high level.

Rose has witnessed first-hand the success Few and Gonzaga have had the past six years since the Cougars joined the WCC, so is this a crossroads moment where Rose takes a page from Few and turns to transfers for an immediate upgrade in talent on his roster?

It has to be something Rose and his staff are open to when you consider that there are 700-plus transfers a year in college basketball. There are a lot of moving players every offseason and it would be naive to assume everyone from this BYU basketball team returns after exit interviews are completed when Rose returns from Phoenix and the Final Four.

Photo: Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

These tough personnel decisions come during a time when the signing period starts on April 12 and ends May 17, one week before Mika’s May 24 deadline to withdraw as an early entrant from the NBA Draft. Assembling any BYU roster is a juggling act and next year’s roster will be no different for Rose as he tries to identify potential new faces while trying to keep close communication with Mika and getting a clear understanding of his decision-making process.

Rose did get a nice bit of news on the personnel front this week by announcing that sharp-shooting forward Zac Seljaas will play this fall after returning home early from his mission in Iowa due to shoulder problems.

If there aren’t any improvements to the personnel and the culture on the defensive end of the floor next season, the blame game that Rose was asking for this week will go from a vocal minority on social media to a resounding majority.

That sounds like it’s coming from way out in left field considering Rose is arguably the best head coach BYU basketball has ever had. But what have we learned from coaches like Les Miles at LSU? College sports is a "what have you done for me lately" type of world, and lately, there hasn’t been much to write home about for BYU hoops since Jimmer Fredette graduated and took his NCAA Tournament success with him. So Rose is not immune to criticism, and he took the first step in admitting as much this week.

Now an important offseason awaits after a weekend trip to the valley of the sun where Rose hopes, in the future, he will have his moment in that same sun.

Mitch Harper is the publisher of CougarNation.com on the Rivals network and co-host of the Cougar Center Podcast on iTunes and Google Play. Follow him on Twitter @Mitch_Harper.

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