BYU Cougars
2023-2024 Result: 23-11 record (10-8 Big 12) NCAA tournament appearance
Projected Starting Lineup
Head Coach: Kevin Young (1st season)
Guard: Dallin Hall (JR)
Guard: Trevin Knell (5th year)
Guard: Egor Demin (FR)
Forward: Mawot Mag (5th year)
Center: Fousseyni Traore (SR)
Key Losses
Noah Waterman
Jaxson Robinson
Atiki Ally Atiki
Aly Khalifa
Spencer Johnson
Key Additions
Mawot Mag (Rutgers)
Keba Keita (Utah)
Egor Demin (4-star recruit)
Kanon Catchings (4-star recruit)
Elijah Crawford (4-star recruit)
Former Phoenix Suns assistant coach Kevin Young is taking over the BYU Cougars program, and he has already made a bit of a splash recruiting wise. Bringing in three 4-star recruits in your first 3 months with a program is solid work, and it seems that Young is already building a solid foundation in Provo. Young was also able to retain some key players from last year’s NCAA tournament team in Dallin Hall, Trevin Knell, Richie Saunders, and Fousseyni Traore.
It appears that Young wants to run offense at a similar fast pace that new Kentucky head coach Mark Pope ran during his tenure. They may not fire away as much from beyond the arc as last season (50.4% 3pt attempt rate, 4th nationally), but expect an open style/NBA type offense that Young is accustomed to. And while there is shooting talent on this roster, there isn’t anyone to trust to create their own shot at an elite level. The Mark Pope style offense was able to mask the lack of creativity by having at least 4 quality shooters on the floor at all times, but this roster doesn’t have the frontcourt floor spacers to create that offensive dynamic. Dallin Hall and Russian 4-star recruit Egor Demin project to be initiators for this offense, but I am not particularly high on them to carry a great Big 12 offense. Demin has been flying up the recruiting ranks, but international prospects tend to struggle a bit in year one of power conference basketball. Offensive rebounding was also a decent source of production for BYU a year ago, but don’t expect this year's version of the Cougars to be great in that aspect either. This offense may still be solid, and the shooting from the backcourt may prove me wrong, but there could be a significant drop off in production from last year’s 14th ranked offense, per Torvik.
The defense ran into some issues in the Big 12 last season (11th ranked adjusted defense in conference), and the main reason may have been the lack of athleticism this roster had in the frontcourt. The new frontcourt trio of Fousseyni Traore, Rutgers transfer Mawot Mag and Utah transfer Keba Keita should help with this issue, and although they may look a bit undersized on paper, all 3 display enough physicality to compete in conference play. The backcourt will also be able to hold their own defensively with their positional size and while the trio of Hall, Knell, and Saunders aren’t game changers, they showed the ability to defend at a competent level a season ago. There may still be a wide range of outcomes on this end due to the fact we don’t know exactly what style of defense Kevin Young wants to enforce, but we should be able to say this unit will finish close to their 70th adjusted defensive rank from last season.
Torvik’s early 2025 projections have BYU ranked 28th in the country and that seems a little optimistic for a program entering somewhat of a rebuild. While they retained some of their core and have decent overall talent, it will most likely take some time for this team to gel with all of the moving parts within the program. There is upside with this group if coach Young’s offense is better than expected, but I have this group a little lower than Torvik’s projections and wouldn’t be surprised if BYU was on the outside of the tournament field come March.