CHICAGO — Egor Demin won't be returning to BYU, but that doesn't mean that he's done with Utah.
Though he only spent one year in Utah under the tutelage of Cougars head coach Kevin Young, it turned into the perfect home away from home for the 2025 NBA draft prospect. So much so that the 19-year-old already has grand plans to eventually buy a house and retire in the Beehive State once his playing career is over.
"I love Utah. I see myself when I retire from my basketball career, going back to Utah, having a house over there, somewhere next to Travis Hansen in the mountains. I see myself living there after my career."
"I love Utah," he said. "I see myself when I retire from my basketball career, going back to Utah, having a house over there, somewhere next to Travis Hansen in the mountains. I see myself living there after my career."
It's not just about the picturesque nature of Utah, but the deep connections that Demin made while at BYU. He wanted to end up in a place where he could not only find comfort and peace, but also where he would thrive on and off the court while preparing for the next stage of life — the NBA.
With Young having just taken over at BYU after years spent in the NBA coaching ranks, Demin feels like he is more prepared for the pre-draft process than he would have been had he decided to elsewhere.
"More than anybody could imagine, he prepared me for this moment," Demin said. "More than I was expecting. Obviously I wasn't underestimating him, I was expecting him to teach me and I was ready to learn as much as I can and be a sponge. But, yeah, I got so much from him."
BYU Cougars head coach Kevin Young talks with guard Egor Demin (3) during an NCAA men's basketball game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys held at the Marriott Center in Provo on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News
And the moment is here. This week, in Chicago , at the NBA combine, Demin has been ready and determined to prove himself in front of NBA scouts, front office executives and coaches.
In the early days of last season at BYU, Demin projected as a potential top-10 pick. But a minor injury and some major slippage in his shooting numbers had many worried that he could drop out of the lottery.
Despite that, recent mock drafts still have him projected as a lottery (top-14) pick and his shooting performance as well as his interviews with teams at the combine helped to relieve some of the worries.
In the the 3-point drills at the combine, Demin went 14-of-30 on off-the-dribble shots, 17-of-25 on spot-up shots, 14-of-25 in the 3-point star drill and 17-of-28 in the 3-point side drill and also hit 80% at the free-throw line.
Demin has already had interviews with the Atlanta Hawks , Sacramento Kings , Washington Wizards , Brooklyn Nets and Oklahoma City Thunder , he'll have more interviews with teams as the week progresses and then a whole slate of in-person workouts after the combine is over.
In interviews, Demin wants teams to know how dedicated he is to working on his game and improving. He also wants NBA decision makers to know that he's paid detailed and close attention to feedback regarding his shot and worked closely with Young to understand things that NBA teams will expect of him.
"The details of understanding what is a good shot and what is a bad shot, which is not always dependent on the defense," Demin said. "A wide open shot can be a bad shot, speaking about the time of possession, the score — starting from there, and ending with your footwork, your rhythm, getting to the shot, your legs and energy."
In the past, Demin might have considered every open shot a good one, but now he's trying to think through the offense on an even deeper level. That's often something that NBA coaches work on developing in young prospects throughout their first couple of seasons, so on that front, Demin is ahead of the game.
Those developments can only help to boost what teams think about Demin, but really, it's his vision and passing that makes him a desirable prospect and that hasn't changed. His ability to make passes, at the right time, on target and seeing the game multiple actions in advance has earned him comparisons to players like Luka Doncic , but Demin will tell you that it's not his job to try to copy anyone else.
"Luka is pretty obvious — the big guards, passing — but obviously Luka is Luka and Egor is Egor, in a good way. I'm not trying to be like somebody else, I'm just trying to get pieces from different players and different personalities to build my own kind of project of where I'm seeing myself in the future."
In the near future, Demin sees himself living out his dreams as an NBA player and helping a team to win. In the extended future he sees himself returning to where this process started, and hopefully staying close to those who helped him.
"I had a lot of fun being in Utah and I was going there to play basketball, and I found that, I found basketball over there," Demin said. "But I also found a lot of good people and my new lifetime friends and mentors."
Brigham Young Cougars guard Egor Demin (3) passes the ball during a quarterfinals game between BYU and the Iowa State Cyclones at the Big 12 Championship at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, on Thursday, March 13, 2025. | Brice Tucker, Deseret News
