Kevin Young knows what every BYU fan is thinking:
“When is he going to sign a big man?”
It’s been the most pressing question of the offseason for his Cougars team — and something he says he gets asked every day — yet it remains unanswered despite the other quality transfer pieces that have landed in Provo.
But Young doesn’t share Cougar Nation’s same panic in the post, telling reporters Tuesday that he and his staff have “been in lockstep with one specific (center) for a while.”
”There’s a lot of logistical things that have to get ironed out on some of these guys, given their academic situations and where they played and stuff like that,“ Young said. ”So we’ve been locked in with one guy in particular, I can’t really say too much about it.
“... Quite frankly, there’s been some misreporting on who we’re actually involved with, and who we’re not, and stuff like that. I feel good about where we’re at in the process, and we feel like we’ve identified the type of player that we want to pair with this group in general.”
Keba Keita was rather solid as BYU’s big man for the past two seasons, but his scoring contributions came almost exclusively from playing around the rim and catching lobs. While that kind of skillset will always be valuable in a Young offense, and Keita was clearly a fine player, Young hopes to add someone with an even deeper offensive bag to man the paint.
“(We’re) trying to pair Rob (Wright) with maybe someone that can play away from the basket a little bit more, not just shooting, but just functionality-wise, (dribble hand-offs), pocket passes, things like that, but then still be able to be a lob threat,” Young said.
“Obviously, we’ve been going after something very specific at that position, so we’ve casted a very wide net there and have looked at a lot of different things.”
Surrounding Wright with shooters
After falling to Texas in March’s first round of the NCAA Tournament, Young expressed his desire to bring back Wright as his starting point guard and recruit strong outside shooting threats to put around him.
Young seems to have gotten his wish, as rising junior Wright did return to BYU and will now play alongside a new cast of transfer sharpshooters — Collin Chandler shot 46% from 3-point range in SEC play with Kentucky last year; Tyler Betsey sank 41% of his triples at Syracuse; and 6-foot-10 Jake Wahlin has hovered around a 35% deep shooting mark while competing in both the Big 12 and ACC.
“On paper anyway, it’ll be our most prolific shooting team across the spectrum of all the positions,” Young said. “So feel good about it. Now it’s just a matter of trying to implement a style of play, shot quality and shot selection that we care about. But I think we have some really high-level shooting out there, that should really allow us to play in a really open floor.”
As for Wright, Young believes he can be “the best point guard in college basketball” during his second campaign with the Cougars, having averaged 18.1 points and 4.6 rebounds per game on 41% 3-point shooting this past year.
“I really was impressed with his level of improvement from his freshman year to his sophomore year, particularly in our style of play,” Young said of Wright.
“I think he’s really matured. I think he’s primed to take on a bigger role across the spectrum of our team. He’s a guy I think that’s really ready to make a big jump, so we couldn’t have been more thrilled to get him get him back.”
A new 5-star freshman
Fresh off a silver medal at the FIBA U18 Americup, Bruce Branch III is back in Provo for summer practices, hoping to become BYU’s third NBA lottery pick in as many seasons.
In the Americup tournament, Branch averaged 8.6 points and 8.6 rebounds across five games and posted a pair of double-doubles in group play.
He didn’t arrive on campus with the same monstrous, unprecedented fanfare of AJ Dybantsa, but he was still the nation’s No. 5-rated recruit for a reason and should be expected to “impact winning” at BYU.
“His sheer length, his size, his defense, his ability to make shots,” Young said of Branch’s best qualities. “I think he’s a guy that can really shoot the ball from the perimeter, but also find ways to impact the game when he’s not scoring. I think that’s one of his greatest strengths, he really is a winning player, he really does a lot of things that help you win, and he takes pride in doing that, which for a young guy is impressive.
“Most of these (young) guys, if they’re not scoring, they don’t care, but he’s a guy that understands the value of doing the little things. It’s one of the things we talked about when we were recruiting him that stood out for me. So he’s a guy that’ll fit in well, you know, from that standpoint. I think there will be times I’ll try to wind him up, you know, to maybe be even more aggressive at times, but my hope for him is, he’s such a young guy, and he has so much talent, it’s just every day can he get better?”
Fostering a more united roster
In addition to its big man opening, BYU still has four roster spots to fill before the fall, with Young saying he plans to use all 15 scholarships available to him.
Aside from Branch and fellow freshmen Dean Rueckert and Brooks Bahr, the Cougars currently have a veteran-heavy roster, highlighted by upperclassmen Wright, Chandler, Betsey, Wahlin and super seniors Dawson Baker and Nate Pickens.
“I like the blend of having some older guys that can show the younger guys the ropes,” Young said. “They have some experience, and not just experience, but (from) high levels. You’ve got guys coming in from Kentucky, Clemson, Syracuse, they’ve been in battle. So I do like the sort of battle-tested nature of a lot of the guys, including Rob.”
As experienced as the roster is, Young hopes it will be just as rich with chemistry, an area where his 2025-26 BYU squad may have fallen short.
“I think there was a narrative around last year’s team that that group didn’t get along, that there wasn’t as much cohesiveness,” Young said. “I think that group was more personality-driven, I think there were just some quiet guys on that team.
“... But in terms of learning from last season, I think I didn’t do enough and I should have done more to proactively help the group just get to know each other better, right? I think they were all good guys and cared about each other, but you just have to find ways to fast track the togetherness.”
Thus, encouraging team bonding and brotherhood sits atop BYU’s list of summer priorities.
“The on-court stuff is super important, but how do you fast track a team in this era of the portal and where you get new guys every year, and these guys don’t really know each other? You expect them to play for each other and that kind of thing, so it’s being super mindful of the togetherness and maybe doing some things outside of the box that allow the group to come together,” Young said. “For me, that’s just as important as anything we’ll try to do this summer.”
