The 2019–20 BYU Cougars men's basketball team represented Brigham Young University in the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. It was head coach Mark Pope's first season as BYU's head coach and the Cougars ninth season as members of the West Coast Conference (WCC). The Cougars played their home games at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah. They finished the season 24–8, 13–3 in WCC play to finish in second place. They lost in the semifinals of the WCC tournament to Saint Mary's. Despite being a virtual lock to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, all postseason play was cancelled amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Previous season
The Cougars finished the 2018–19 season 19–13, 11–5 in West Coast Conference play to finish tied for second place with Saint Mary's. As the No. 3 seed in the WCC Tournament, they lost to San Diego in the quarterfinals. They were not invited to play in the NCAA or NIT tournament and declined to participate in any other postseason tournament. Shortly after the season ended, longtime head coach Dave Rose announced his retirement. Utah Valley head coach Mark Pope, who previously spent four seasons as an assistant at BYU under Rose, was hired in April to be his replacement. Later in April, Pope announced that he had selected Chris Burgess and Cody Fueger from Utah Valley and Nick Robinson from Southern Utah as his assistant coaches. Average home game attendance for the 16 games played at the Marriott Center for the 2018–19 season was 11,958. This was the second highest attendance in the West behind Arizona and ranked 27th nationwide.
Offseason
Departures
During the 2018–19 season, BYU had two seniors that finished their eligibility to play college basketball - McKay Cannon and Luke Worthington. Two years passed since BYU had seniors as part of a basketball team. McKay Cannon transferred to BYU from Weber State University. Despite being a walk-on, Cannon started 18 games during his time at BYU. Luke Worthington played in 130 games (starting 62) and was the only player on the roster with NCAA tournament experience. Worthington will continue with the BYU basketball team as a graduate assistant alongside former teammate Nate Austin.
Nick Emery announced his retirement from college basketball via social media in July 2019 saying, "My time here has been rocky at times, but the good times definitely outweighed the bad...I am at a point in life where I am happy with what I've accomplished with basketball and I'm ready to start the next chapter of my life with my wife and son." Emery left BYU with one year of eligibility remaining.
In May 2019, Jahshire Hardnett committed to the University of Montana as a graduate transfer. However, due to graduate school admission timing issues, he reopened his recruitment in July 2019. A month later in August, Hardnett decided to transfer to the University of Missouri-Kansas City and will be eligible to play immediately. Rylan Bergersen transferred to the University of Central Arkansas, a Division I program, with two years of eligibility remaining. Bergersen was granted a waiver and was eligible to play immediately. Colby Leifson entered the transfer portal in October 2019, and as of the start of the season, no information was available regarding where he would transfer. On February 5, 2020, Utah Valley University announced Leifson would transfer to UVU with 3 seasons of eligibility remaining.