alt=Jay DrewRemember those days when the knock on BYU athletics was that the department refused to pay market value for top-flight coaches, instead relying on their affinity for the place and willingness to work for less to be a part of the faith-based school?
Well, the hiring of Phoenix Suns associate head coach Kevin Young to replace Kentucky-bound Mark Pope as the new leader of the Cougars’ Big 12 basketball program shows those days are gone.
“We had a variety of excellent candidates and a lot of interest in this position. Kevin is someone we have had our eye on for awhile.”
— BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe on new head basketball coach Kevin Young
Welcome to the big leagues, BYU.
The next big step will be for the school to break the bank for some high-caliber assistants to help Young — who has little experience at the college level — make the transition from the NBA to a level of basketball that is becoming more and more like professional basketball with the advent of the transfer portal and NIL.
Utah assistant Chris Burgess and UNLV assistant Barret Peery, both of whom were viable candidates for the job before Danny Ainge and Ryan Smith apparently swooped in and persuaded Young to give up his dream of pursuing an NBA head coaching job for a rebuilding effort in Provo, should be at the top of the new coach’s wish list.
Assuming Cody Fueger is heading to Kentucky with Pope, Young would do well to keep one of the current assistants on the BYU staff, perhaps Nick Robinson, who has head coaching experience, and throw in a raise as well.
Shortly after news broke that Young was the man, Matt Norlander of CBS Sports reported that Young’s deal is for seven years and $30 million, citing unnamed sources. If true, that financial figure, which will never be acknowledged by BYU as the school is private and not subject to open records requests, is as surprising as the hiring itself.
Young, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the faith that sponsors and operates BYU, is 42 years old and the NBA’s highest-paid assistant coach. He was a serious candidate for a couple head coaching jobs around the NBA, most recently with the Brooklyn Nets.
It’s a big get for BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe on the same day that BYU fans were sent reeling with the announcement that former four-star recruit Collin Chandler of Farmington High is joining Pope in Kentucky when Chandler returns next month from his church mission.
“We are excited to announce Kevin as our new head men’s basketball coach and welcome him and his family to BYU,” Holmoe said in a school news release. “We had a variety of excellent candidates and a lot of interest in this position. Kevin is someone we have had our eye on for awhile.”
That interest has been widely known, but most BYU observers, including yours truly, believed Young, who was seemingly on a fast track to a top NBA job, was out of reach for the Cougars, especially given their reluctance to pay top dollar for a coach. Young was making $2 million annually with the Suns.
If nothing else, the hiring shows a huge commitment to competitiveness in the Big 12, backed, of course, by the deep pockets of BYU booster Smith, who is also reportedly bringing another sports entity to Utah — the Arizona Coyotes of the NHL.
“(Young) has risen to the top of NBA assistant coaching ranks,” Holmoe continued. “He has been … instrumental in developing top-level NBA talent. Kevin will bring a new perspective, with an extensive NBA background to our program. He is a phenomenal fit at BYU. He is humble, fun and super intelligent. Cougar Nation is going to love getting to know Kevin.”
The Nets’ job, had he landed it, would have paid him more than $5 million a year. Kudos to Smith, Ainge, Holmoe and assistant AD Brian Santiago, who oversees men’s basketball, for the sales job. Young is giving up a lot to go to a school where he has few ties.
The Suns are currently involved in the NBA playoffs, but according to the BYU release, he will “begin working on retaining current BYU players, contacting recruits and assembling a coaching staff immediately.”
Getting 2023-24 BYU stars Dallin Hall, Richie Saunders and Aly Khalifa, who are all in the transfer portal, to return to Provo is his most immediate task. It probably wouldn’t hurt to get in touch with Chandler’s family, either, to see if the former four-star prospect might have a change of heart.
In Phoenix, Young has worked with the likes of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, and in Philly he coached Joel Embiid.
However, that might be impossible. Many believe that Chandler was more of a Pope fan than a BYU fan. His loyalties probably lie with the coach who is getting a five-year deal in Lexington for about $27.5 million total.
Born in Salt Lake City, Young played collegiately at Clayton State University in Morrow, Georgia. He began coaching in Dublin, Ireland, directing the Shamrock Rovers Hoops in the Super League.
He had a one-year stint at Utah Valley State College under then-coach Dick Hunsaker and a one-year run at Oxford College in Georgia, then joined the Utah Flash of the NBA D-League.
Young’s hiring was met with almost universal praise from former Cougars.
“BYU fans, we got an upgrade and BYU basketball is back and ready to win some tournament games,” wrote Kyle Collinsworth on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Another surprise was how quickly it happened. BYU has been notorious for taking forever to hire coaches, but this one transpired in fewer than three days, according to sources.
For instance, Pope was hired on April 10, 2019, some 16 days after Dave Rose announced his retirement on March 26. BYU went weeks before it replaced Bronco Mendenhall with Kalani Sitake to guide its football program.
Indeed, it is a new era in BYU sports, ushered in by a new face, and a bearded one (currently) at that.
