Can revamped but talented BYU make an impact in the Big 12?

Having been hired a little more than six months ago as the 20th men’s basketball coach in BYU hoops history, Kevin Young has been remarkably candid and transparent with his answers.
The 42-year-old has struggled with one particular question, however; so much so that he turned to new assistant coach Chris Burgess, who has plenty of college basketball experience, for an answer.
How good are the Cougars going to be in 2024-25?
“I don’t have a great gauge on that, yet,” Young said at the Big 12 basketball media day last week in Kansas City. “I think we have talent. What that is like relative to the league is to be determined. But I think more than anything we are excited about where we can get to by the time not just conference play starts, but the end of the season. We will see.”
Burgess, a former BYU and UVU assistant who spent the last two seasons helping Craig Smith at Utah, told Young that the pieces are seemingly in place to put together a successful year, but college basketball is so unpredictable that nobody really knows for sure.
A good example is last year, when BYU was picked to finish 13th in the 14-team Big 12, and ended up tied for fifth; this year, BYU is picked to finish ninth in the 16-team race.
“No one knows how good our players are, because so many of them are new to college basketball,” Young said. “I use Egor (Demin) as an example. Not a lot of people know much about him, and even if they did, how is that going to translate? And how good is this league, relative to us, on top of that?”
In other words, BYU could be good, but could easily get lost in the shuffle in league play. Five Big 12 teams are in the AP Top 25 basketball poll’s top 10 — No. 1 Kansas, No. 4 Houston, No. 5 Iowa State, No. 8 Baylor and No. 10 Arizona.
Cincinnati is at No. 20, while Texas Tech, Kansas State, BYU and Arizona State are receiving votes.
“Every game is going to be a dogfight,” said BYU senior guard Trevin Knell. “The Big 12 is amazing, like we learned last year. It is the best conference in America.”
Asked if BYU will be good, Knell was much quicker with his answer than Young at the Big 12 media day.
“We 100% have what it takes to make a run,” Knell said. “We have the skill level, we have the veteran people coming back. I feel like we have all the pieces we need to make a run, to be the team that everybody expects us to be. It comes down to getting better every single day and making every practice, every day, meaningful.”
Regarding the veterans, Knell was referring to himself, Fousseyni Traore, Dallin Hall, Richie Saunders and Trey Stewart; Young was able to pull Hall and Saunders back from the transfer portal, and he called that one of his most notable accomplishments yet.
Hall, Traore and Stewart didn’t play in the 93-49 exhibition win over Colorado Christian on Wednesday; Young said that Hall and Traore will “hopefully” be available for the opener Tuesday against Central Arkansas (7 p.m., ESPN+), while Stewart could be out a little longer.
“As far as our team goes, I am excited about the group that we have put together. We have a good blend of guys that are coming back from playing in the Big 12 last year. That was a major point of emphasis when I took this job, was to get some of those key pieces to do that,” Young said. “We feel good about the blend of young guys that we added as incoming freshmen as well as some of the transfers we were able to get out of the portal as well. So we feel good about the blend of talent that we have, and feel like it is starting to come together.”
BYU lost big man Aly Khalifa and power forward Noah Waterman to the transfer portal and then Louisville, and Jaxson Robinson followed Mark Pope to Kentucky.
Young managed to replace them with graduate transfer Mawot Mag from Rutgers and athletic big man Keba Keita from Utah, and both transfers have been impressive in preseason training camp and in the exhibition against the Division-II team from Lakeland, Colorado.
“Mag’s defense is at a different level,” Traore said at the Big 12 media day. “Nobody can pass by him when he’s playing defense. He can guard you at half court. He is actually amazing. … We have a lot of new pieces like him, and a lot of young, talented guys and a lot of veterans. We have a lot of talent and I am super excited about it.”
Knell said that the 6-foot-7 Mag has guarded him a lot in practices, and it has been rough going after some early success.
“Mo is awesome defender,” Knell said. “For me the first couple of days, I was getting a lot of shots off. Then the last couple of weeks, he has been really locking in. So it has been fun for me to be able to play against a high-level defensive guy like him. He definitely makes the team better. He is a lockdown defender. He can pick up somebody at 94 feet, which is something I feel like BYU hasn’t had in a while. Mo is going to be a fan favorite, for sure.”
Young said that Mag and the 6-5 Saunders could form one of the better defensive duos in the league.
“Those two definitely perimeter stoppers,” Young said. “… Mag is a guy who can guard multiple positions, and I really trust Richie on the ball as well. But they are definitely going to be tested. There is no question they are going to be tested.”
Keita is also a huge force defensively. He literally swatted a shot attempt by CC’s Schafer Reichart over Utah Jazz GM Danny Ainge’s head and into the third row at the Marriott Center Wednesday night. And he had seven rebounds and four steals in 19 minutes.
“Keba is one heckuva player,” Traore said. “We go against each other in practice almost every day. He’s a beast.”
If there was any doubt, BYU’s fabulous freshman class is already starting to prove it is for real. The foursome of five-star recruit Egor Demin and four-star prospects Kanon Catchings, Brody Kozlowski and Elijah Crawford showed in the blue-white scrimmage and the exhibition contest that they might just be the best freshman class in BYU history.
In the exhibition, Catchings had 19 points in 18 minutes on 8-of-10 shooting, while Demin dished out 11 assists, Crawford chipped in nine points and five assists, and Kozlowski had three points and an assist.
Saunders raved about the 6-foot-9 Demin’s passing ability.
“It actually is really fun playing with him,” Saunders said. “It is fun to know that if you cut, you are going to get the ball. And he is going to see you. He is tall and just has this gift to see you. I love playing with him and I am excited to keep playing with him.”
Asked in Kansas City which players helped themselves in preseason training camp, Young said there were “a boatload of guys” who performed above expectations.
“I don’t think anyone has had a bad camp, really. I think that speaks to the talent that is there. Every guy has improved. I think everyone has had a day where it was like, ‘Oh wow, so and so is playing good,’” Young said. “I think Richie comes to mind as somebody who has been super consistent. Him and Trevin have been extremely consistent day in and day out. So has Dallin. Fouss is steady as a rock. Dawson (Baker) has been coming on strong, too. Happy with what I am seeing across the board.”
The Deseret News projected after the intrasquad scrimmage that the starters would be Hall, Keita, Saunders, Catchings and Demin, and that appears to be the case when they start playing for real on Tuesday — with the possible exception of Hall, who missed Wednesday’s exhibition, as has been mentioned.
Knell started in Hall’s place against Colorado Christian, along with the four aforementioned players. Crawford, Baker, Mag, Traore and Kozlowski should be in the rotation, and perhaps Stewart when he gets back, and if he plays like he did in the intrasquad scrimmage.
Young said he “feels a lot better” about the starting five and his rotations than he did two weeks ago, but acknowledged the injuries have kind of muddied the process. Saunders reportedly led BYU in scoring in the secret scrimmage against Boise State, an overtime win. But the expectation here is that Catchings will emerge as the squad’s leading scorer. He’s that explosive.
“Just getting Kanon out there was great. I thought he looked awesome in his first, kind of, go at it,” Young said. “There is definitely a lot we still need to learn, but at the same time I have a feel for what we want to do. We just haven’t necessarily seen it against a different opponent yet.”