Football season may be underway at BYU, but it’s never too early to talk basketball.
Year 3 of the Kevin Young era in Provo is drawing close, with the new-look Cougars eyeing a top-half finish within the Big 12 and a return to winning NCAA Tournament games.
As the offseason nears its conclusion, here’s what’s been learned and what should be monitored heading into the new year.
Rob Wright III is back — and looks to be better than ever
A wise man once said, “Sometimes the best gets are the ones you already have.”
BYU’s retention of Rob Wright III definitely qualifies as such.
No offseason move carries more importance for the Cougars than that of Young luring Wright out of the transfer portal to play another season in Provo — and not just because Young beat out Mark Pope and Kentucky for Wright’s services.
Young hasn’t been shy in referring to Wright as “the best point guard in college basketball,” and such a label certainly isn’t far-fetched.
As a sophomore this past season, the Baylor transfer averaged 18.1 points and 4.6 assists per game while making 41% of his 3-pointers. He also logged 13 outings of 20-plus points and had 15 other games with five or more assists.
With his former “Brig 3″ teammates AJ Dybantsa and Richie Saunders now in the NBA, Wright finds himself as the face of BYU’s program and the centerpiece of its entire on-court operation.
“I think he’s really matured,” Young said of Wright back in June. “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 back.”
Plenty of national pundits have predicted Wright to be a preseason All-American or even to contend for Big 12 Player of the Year honors. No returning player in the conference scored more points than Wright’s 632 last season, and with a deeper supporting cast and better spacing around him, Wright should put up even more impressive numbers in the season to come.
Jaxon Kohler could be a game-changer at center
After a lengthy search, BYU finally landed a starting-caliber big man when Michigan State transfer and American Fork native Jaxon Kohler committed to the Cougars in August.
BYU has yet to officially announce Kohler’s signing, and his eligibility remains less than guaranteed. As the situation stands, Kohler is eligible to play for the Cougars this season after being granted an injunction by a California judge to receive a fifth year of college eligibility. However, an appeals hearing for that injunction will be held Sept. 29, and if the injunction is stayed, Kohler will lose his eligibility, at least temporarily.
California will most likely allow the injunction to remain, thus keeping Kohler eligible, but as mentioned, it’s not 100% firm. Stay tuned for the Sept. 29 verdict.
If Kohler does maintain his eligibility, he raises the Cougars’ 2026-27 ceiling dramatically.
In four seasons at Michigan State, the 6-foot-10 Kohler appeared in 127 games and helped the Spartans win eight NCAA Tournament contests, including a trip to the Elite Eight in 2025.
As a senior this past year, he averaged 12.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game while shooting 50% from the field and 39% from 3-point range.
To land a four-year contributor from the Big Ten with conference hardware and deep NCAA Tournament experience (and who played for a coaching legend in Tom Izzo) is a borderline-miraculous outcome for BYU, especially so late in the offseason.
Kohler replicating his senior production would be BYU’s best big man since Yoeli Childs or Eric Mika. He’s a walking double-double threat who will set the Cougars’ rebounding tone and be able to work inside for consistent low-post scoring.
But most importantly, Kohler can hit 3-pointers — a luxury Young has never had from a center since arriving in Provo, and one that allows BYU to potentially achieve its best perimeter spacing ever.
Now all he has to do is get some good news on Sept. 29.
BYU’s roster construction suggests the return of ‘3-Y-U’
There’s a blatantly obvious commonality among BYU’s new transfer additions: All of these guys can shoot.
Collin Chandler made 46% of his 3-pointers in SEC play with Kentucky last year.
Former Syracuse forward Tyler Betsey is coming off a campaign where he shot 44% from deep against ACC foes.
More than 60% of Jake Wahlin’s shot attempts at Clemson came from behind the arc, and the aforementioned Kohler flirted with a 40% deep shooting clip as a center.
For a team whose shotmaking issues prevented a deep March run this past season, these new shooting reinforcements will be greatly appreciated.
Look at it this way: Four of BYU’s transfer portal departures — Kennard Davis Jr., Aleksej Kostic, Tyler Mrus and Dominique Diomande — combined to shoot 32% (102 of 318) from 3-point range last year.
Those four players have been replaced by Chandler, Betsey, Wahlin and Kohler, who drained 39% of 550 collective deep attempts. Talk about an upgrade.
When you add Wright, Bruce Branch III, Dawson Baker, Nate Pickens and Dean Rueckert to the equation, BYU feels destined to push the tempo, spread the floor and let it fly. More often than not, the Cougars will have five knockdown shooters on the floor together at the same time.
BYU has averaged around 25 3-point attempts per game thus far under Young, but don’t be surprised if this year’s squad sends that number to 30 and beyond. The Cougars have definitely been built to do so.
An intriguing freshman class has arrived
For the third-straight year, Young has brought a new projected NBA lottery pick to town.
Bruce Branch III will attempt to follow Egor Dëmin and AJ Dybantsa as another first rounder out of BYU, having been mocked No. 4 overall in ESPN’s way-too-early 2027 mock draft.
The 6-foot-7 wing out of Gilbert, Arizona, was rated as a five-star prospect and the No. 6 player in his recruiting class by 247 Sports. Playing for Team USA in the FIBA U18 AmeriCup tournament this summer, Branch averaged 8.6 points and 8.6 rebounds per game and posted a pair of double-doubles in group play.
“(With) his sheer length, his size, his defense, his ability to make shots, 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,” Young said of Branch in June.
“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.”
While Branch is replacing Dybantsa on the wing, the differences between the two players make comparing them an unfruitful exercise. Branch likely won’t have the ball in his hands as much as Dybantsa did and will be a more consistent contributor within BYU’s rebounding and defensive efforts.
But make no mistake — Branch’s offensive ceiling is quite high.
“His ability to guard and his ability to rebound, especially for his age and his size, are as good as I’ve seen on that end of the floor,” Young told Jon Rothstein in July. “I think offensively he can do a lot of different things with the ball in his hands. I think he can be a good catch-and-shoot player.
“Because he’s coming into our program after AJ, there will be a lot of talk about that. But I mean, they’re different players. I think (Branch’s) impact is going to be tremendous as it relates to impacting winning, right? That’s obviously the goal.”
Along with Branch, new freshmen Dean Rueckert and Brooks Bahr will look to factor into BYU’s plans for 2026-27 and beyond.
Rueckert is a four-star, top-100 prospect out of Timpview High in Provo, averaging 20.5 points and 5.6 rebounds per game as a senior and establishing himself as one of the best high-volume 3-point prep shooters in the country.
“He’s been super impressive with his motor, I mean, you could have him in there for 10 hours a day, and he wouldn’t blink,” Young said of Rueckert.
“He’s just been really impressive with his work ethic. I love his shooting. That was the thing that really drew me to him, but you’re also talking about a 6-foot-8, legitimate athlete as well. I think the sky’s the limit for Dean, honestly, he’s a young kid that’s barely scratching the surface.”
Bahr, a returned missionary from Texas who committed to the Cougars back in 2023, is a combo guard built like a linebacker and capable of becoming a long-term fixture within BYU’s rotation.
“He’s got that attitude where he’s got a chip on his shoulder, which is right up my alley,” Young said of Bahr. “He’s got some Richie Saunders in him, with that kind of psycho gene, and I say that very complimentary, where he just is a maniacal-type worker.
“But he’s going to help us because he’s a super competitive kid. I think he’s got the physicality to do well in our league. What I’ve seen out of his offensive game, he’s a guy who can dribble, pass and shoot, stuff I’ve been talking about for a while. So I think he’ll fit in, he’ll fit in well.”
Ignore the defensive doom and gloom — for now
As exciting as BYU’s offense should be, there’s been some chatter regarding potential issues for the Cougar defense.
One prominent national insider has even gone as far to say that BYU “won’t be able to guard anybody” this season.
BYU definitely had its defensive shortcomings a year ago, but it’s unfair to completely write off the Cougars’ defense more than two months before they even play a game.
Furthermore, there are still encouraging pieces on the roster for BYU’s stop-getting department.
Branch is projected to be a plus-defender, and Wahlin’s defensive metrics at Clemson were among the sport’s best. Khadim Mboup can switch one through five and showed some flashes of defensive brilliance a year ago.
Chandler was above average defensively at Kentucky, Nate Pickens is embracing a defensive bulldog role off the bench and Wright should have more defensive success now that he won’t shoulder such a heavy offensive load.
The Cougars may not have an elite rim protector, but perhaps 7-foot-1 Petar Ostojic can develop into a serviceable one as the season progresses. At the very least, Kohler’s basketball IQ should keep him out of any major danger in the paint.
BYU won’t be on the level of a Houston-type defensive team, but there’s plenty of reason to believe the Cougars can be adequate and opportunistic. Wait until there are actual games being played to panic about the defense, if you feel you must.
