The statistic that BYU basketball coach Kevin Young liked the most Wednesday night when he unveiled his first team to a curious Cougars fanbase in an easy 93-49 romp over Division II Colorado Christian was 24.
That’s how many assists the Cougars compiled, on 31 made baskets.
“The stat I liked the most, and this is just who we have tried to be since I have gotten here, is unselfish,” Young said. “I think 10 guys had an assist. So just in terms of them carrying over things that we have talked about quite a bit, I like seeing that.”
The other number that popped out at the Marriott Center in the tuneup for Tuesday’s opener against Central Arkansas (7 p.m. ESPN+) was 16,323. That’s how many fans packed the place for a midweek exhibition game against the overmatched visitors from Lakeland, Colorado.
“Man, at this point I expected it, to be honest with you,” Young said. “A lot of excitement with just BYU athletics in general. The football team is killing it. Happy for those guys. It was cool Jake (Retzlaff) was in the building tonight. I mean, this place is special.”
Is this basketball team special?
Absolutely nothing can be gleaned from an exhibition game — Young said he isn’t sure yet if he will use the “one exhibition game, one secret scrimmage” formula moving forward — but let’s just say the Cougars’ highly touted freshmen were as good as advertised.
Although he didn’t score, five-star freshman Egor Demin, the 18-year-old from Russia, looked like a man among boys in the first half. He had eight assists, five rebounds, two steals and a block in the first half — while attempting just three shots. He delighted the crowd with alley oops to Keba Keita and Kanon Catchings for dunks, and consistently found Richie Saunders, Trevin Knell and Dawson Baker for open 3-pointers.
Young said he would like the 6-foot-9 Demin to be more aggressive and look to score more in the future, but this was a night about facilitating, especially since presumed starting point guard Dallin Hall didn’t play.
“He is wired to play that way. His size, some of the passes he was making, I would love to play with that guy. I would stand in that corner and just load up and let it fly. Yeah, I just think that is who he is,” Young said. “We want him to be a bit more aggressive and look to score, but they were putting two (guys) on the ball a lot and he was making the right read.”
Fousseyni Traore and Trey Stewart also didn’t play.
“We are working with the medical group. Tonight was mainly precautionary for Dallin and Fouss.
“You know, Trey is maybe a bit longer. But, hopefully (Hall and Traore will play against Central Arkansas),” Young said.
Another newcomer, Serbian Mihailo Boskovic, did not enter the game until a little more than eight minutes remained. He had eight points and four rebounds in a bit more than seven minutes.
Young repeated what he told the Deseret News last week in Kansas City at Big 12 media day, that Boskovic is still waiting approval to play from the NCAA after some issues arose regarding his time as a professional overseas. BYU lists Boskovic as a junior on its roster.
With Hall out, the starting five were Demin, Catchings, Keita, Saunders and Knell.
Catchings was the star early, scoring 14 points in the first 15 minutes on 6 of 8 shooting. He finished with a game-high 19 points on 8 of 10 shooting.
In the postgame news conference, Saunders and Dawson Baker (12 points) made the youngster give the opening comment, following in the tradition that coach Mark Pope established last year.
“Just our first game, really, playing against someone else, with the crowd and everything. I mean, it was good to get out there and be able to play with people I play against every day. It was just good to run in front of the fans and play at real game speed,” Catchings said.
Another freshman, Elijah Crawford, also showed well. He finished with nine points, five rebounds and five assists.
“He is unique for us because he can get to the paint and he can pick up and be a disruptor defensively. That is something that I have really stressed with him,” Young said. “We don’t need you to be Superman. Just hit singles, man. Just be solid and get to the paint and put pressure on the defense. … He is coming along.”
Another stat Young liked was BYU’s 18 of 36 shooting from 3-point range, something they apparently didn’t do well in the secret scrimmage win over Boise State. BYU started 0 of 5 from 3-point range, then made 12 of their next 17 attempts from deep.
Making 3s is “very important,” Young said. “It is something in our secret scrimmage that we didn’t do as well as I would have liked. So it was a point of emphasis the last couple of days. It was nice to see guys carrying that over. … Like I said, tonight we shot it pretty well and we got a lot of guys that can make 3s.”