As Kevin Young enters his second season at the helm of the BYU men’s basketball program, he’ll do so with a new member of his home team.
Young and his wife Melissa are expecting their fourth child, a girl, who will be born prior to the Cougars’ opening-night matchup against Villanova on Nov. 3 in Las Vegas.
“That was a surprise, that was a definite surprise,” Young said of the pregnancy during a Wednesday appearance on “BYU Sports Nation.” “We were on the road and my wife FaceTimed me with the pregnancy test. I think we were at Cincinnati ... but we’re excited.
“(We’re having a) little girl, that’s probably the most exciting part. Zoey has a sister. I’ve always had a little guilt like, ‘Oh, is she ever going to have a sister?’ And so she’s the most excited Young for this new recruit.”
In addition to a new daughter, Young enters Year 2 at BYU with a new contract extension, which will keep him in Provo “for the foreseeable future,” according to the program’s official announcement.
“I’m excited to be here longer,” Young told “Sports Nation.” “We obviously love it, my wife and kids love it. And it’s obviously an exciting time for not just basketball, but all of athletics with Brian (Santiago) coming into the new guard and all of the momentum that I think a lot of sports have from last year. So it’s a great time to be here.”
Here are other highlights from Kevin Young’s appearance on “BYU Sports Nation.”
On potentially exploring NBA opportunities during the offseason
“The offseason brings conversations along, and so there were some conversations outside of here that were probably necessary. But man, this is where we wanted to be ... we didn’t come here for just a short pitstop, we obviously want to be here and are really excited about what we’re building and feel really great about the team we have coming in for next year and in future years as well.”
On the differences between coaching in the NBA and college
“The day-to-day is probably the biggest difference. All the practice time and the meeting time and so forth, it’s just different than the NBA world. I think I got to a point, once we got a couple of wins under our belt, that kind of let me breathe a little easier.
“... (Coaching in college) is also a grind, this is also very challenging and often in a lot of ways it’s more challenging (than the NBA). I find myself being much busier doing this job, but I find myself being home at night more with my family, which is something that has not been there prior to coming here.
“So that part’s been nice. And then also being able to bring my kids along for the ride ... that’s been fun just having them around more. I think college is just more family-centric than the (NBA).”
On the new implementation of coaches challenges in college basketball
“I think it’s a step in a good direction ... I personally would like to see it more in line with the NBA challenge ... There was a lot of debate about it at the Big 12 coaches’ meetings. I commend college sports and the Big 12 for trying to advance the game.”
On bringing back all of his assistant coaches for Year 2 at BYU
“It’s a huge advantage. I think continuity, we’ve seen it early on as we’ve gone through some of this spring and early summer workouts, it’s been a huge stressor that we don’t have to deal with.
“I think there’s a lot of comfort in what we’re doing, not just with the coaches, but a lot of the (grad assistants) are the same, some of the managers, and those guys drive a lot of what we do. I have an unbelievable coaching staff where a lot of them ... could be a head coach really at any given moment. So I’m a little nervous that I’ll get a phone call out of nowhere with any one of these guys, especially with our group.
“I think a lot of college programs, you’ll think, ‘Well, this guy could get a college job in that cycle at this point.’ I think with my group, there’s a lot of pro guys that could go to the NBA, could go to Europe or do this or do that. And so we’re trying to make everybody feel valued and understand how much they mean to what we have going on (at BYU).”
On putting together a tougher nonconference schedule filled with marquee matchups against strong programs
“I think it’s multi-layered. We definitely did some analytics to try to understand the value of playing quad whatever games in a nonconference schedule because we know what we’re going to get in the Big 12, and studying other teams in terms of what they did and then where they ended up being seeded and so forth. But for me, maybe even more important is just getting ourselves ready for Big 12 play.”
“I think one of the reasons we started out of the gate a little slow last year (is) we didn’t have the (nonconference) schedule that I would have liked, and so we wanted to make it a little tougher.
“There was one (game) we were on the fence about, and we were like, ‘Hey man, let’s just do it and see where it goes.’ So it’s going to be exciting. It puts a lot on us with our preseason work, if you will, the training camp and stuff like that, and just being able to hit the ground running because it’ll be go-time.”
On having AJ Dybantsa on campus and participating in offseason workouts with the rest of the Cougars
“I think what’s really unique about him is that as talented as he is, it’s not all about him. He’s a great teammate. He’s very, very coachable and he’s a playmaker. I think you see a lot of the highlights where he’s dunking and he’s doing this and he’s doing that, but he really is smart and knows how to play. It’s been fun watching him and Richie (Saunders)’s chemistry kind of grow over there.”
On Egor Demin’s preparation for the NBA draft
“I’m proud of the way he’s attacked this (pre-draft) process. I don’t think people understand how grueling it actually is. For one, you do all your individual pre-draft stuff, getting ready, and then you go to the combine, and you’re interviewing with people all day, every day.
“Obviously, the on-court stuff is important as well. But then once you leave the combine, you’re traveling to a new city, and then you’re doing more interviews, and you’re usually in there with five other guys, and you’re doing workouts, and then you’re going to dinner, and you’re having more conversations, and then you fly to the next city. This is a constant thing for weeks on end.
“So it’s not as easy as people make it out to be. They get tired quite a bit. (Egor) texted me the other day, like, ‘Man, this is grueling, you know?’ And so I just try to remind him, like, everyone you meet with, it’s the first time you’re meeting with them, even though you’ve done this 10 other times. And so I think he’s learning a lot, but he’s having a blast with it. It’s been cool.
“We went to dinner out in Chicago after his pro day, which he killed it. I was nervous, like a dad over there, hoping he’d make every shot, and he shot the heck out of it ... I’m excited for draft night, I know we all are.”
