Egor Demin is expected to be drafted anywhere from No. 10 to No. 16 in the upcoming NBA draft, and freshman recruit AJ Dybantsa is making headlines almost daily as his USA 19-and-Under team in Colorado Springs prepares to leave for the World Championships in Switzerland.
These two summer stories are a remarkable shift in the offseason for BYU basketball. Projected No. 1 draft pick Dybantsa continues to turn heads with his play and his social media presence is growing. He scored 11 points in three minutes in one of the open scrimmages in Colorado, and drew the attention of national pundits.Meanwhile, local BYU experts are huddling, pondering questions like, are the Cougars a national contender? And does Kevin Young’s team have better talent at every position compared with last year’s Sweet 16 squad?BYU’s staff recently made an offer to the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2027, 6-foot-8 Baba Oladotun (Maryland). Young is not backing away from going after the best recruits in the country. The staff has also contacted top class of 2027 recruits 6-5 Dooney Johnson (Milwaukee), 6-4 Lyris Robinson ( Scottsdale, Arizona), 6-8 Derek Daniels (Maryland), 6-2 Jimmy McKinney (St. Louis), Gene Roebuck III (Lamirada, California), and 6-6 Jack Kohnen (Wisconsin).
This, folks, is BYU basketball in 2025.
Question of the week
With AJ Dybantsa making headlines weekly this summer and Kevin Young’s staff making an offer to the No. 1 recruit in 2027, Baba Oladotun, how would you describe this uptick in BYU basketball, a trend that began almost a year ago?
Jackson Payne: When Kevin Young took the podium at his introductory press conference 14 months ago, he said he wanted to turn BYU into “the best place in college basketball to prepare young men to play in the NBA.”
Young wasn’t kidding around. Everything BYU has done since his hiring has supported his vision of filling the program with elite talent capable of playing deep into the NCAA Tournament. There is a strong alignment between Young and his staff, BYU administration and the school’s boosters, who have all proven fully invested in elevating the Cougars into a perennial power within the sport.
Egor Demin is a near-lock to be a lottery pick in this month’s NBA draft. Richie Saunders has jumped from bench weapon to First Team All-Big 12 talent. After reaching the Sweet 16 this past March, the Cougars have seemingly built an even stronger, deeper roster for the coming campaign. All of these things are a testament to both Young’s coaching ability and the unified belief of those supporting him. That’s a winning combination right there.
And if Dybantsa is as good as many experts project him to be, more top prospects will follow his path to Provo to learn from Young and boost their NBA stock. Remember LaVell Edwards’ quarterback factory? Maybe the modern-day version will be Young’s pipeline of first-round picks.
Simply put: Young’s hiring has allowed BYU to reinvent the image of its basketball program, dreaming bigger than ever before and aggressively working together to make such hoop dreams a reality. Let’s see if the Cougars can live up to the hype.Dick Harmon: It’s simple. Never witnessed anything like this. Indeed, NIL made it possible, but BYU took a giant step forward on the national scene when Mark Pope left for Kentucky and the administration hired Kevin Young from the Phoenix Suns. The school then gave Young plenty of help with hires and triggered its collectives.
It remains to be seen how this Cougar basketball team will gel, create chemistry and fare this season, but it won’t be for the lack of talent. This team will have elite speed and athleticism. It will have rim finishers who can penetrate and create. It is a team of length and foot speed to defend. It will have outside firepower and inside muscle and strength.
What has transpired the past year in this program is a generational leap for the school. Question is, can it be sustained and will the results reached this season be worth the investment? The Big 12 will prove to be a beast this season. If the Cougars can finish among the top three in the league and gain a seed higher than five, that’s the water mark to shoot for.
With revenue sharing on the horizon, BYU’s 14-month run of taking advantage of a no-holds-barred approach to recruiting might be bridled a bit. But if Young’s sales pitch offering a safe, NBA preparation program takes hold, that may not matter. Hoops is a sport where you need two or three superstars to make a splash. I think BYU is capable now of doing that. If you need one piece of evidence to prove Young’s developmental capability in his sales pitch, it is Richie Saunders.
