New BYU Cougars men's basketball coach Kevin Young is getting his first taste of preseason media days at the college level, as the Big 12 Conference is holding them in Kansas City this week ahead of the hoops season.
On Wednesday afternoon, Young fielded questions from media for about 10 minutes and spoke about Egor Demin, NIL and more. Here are some of the highlights of what he said.
On Demin, the Cougar freshman who could end up being an NBA lottery draft pick next June: "Just his overall feel for the game is really impressive. Guys like playing with him 'cause he passes the ball. We'll kind of use him all over the court, and I think he'll be somebody that people really grow to enjoy watching play."
On how his NBA experience has shaped his views of name, image and likeness: "The NIL space, it's just a different word for kind of how things operate in the NBA. I find a lot of similarities there, and so quite frankly it's been a real comfortable space for me to be in. I think we've got good people at BYU that have kind of helped manage that, navigate that, but it's been more like the NBA than I thought it would be."
On the Big 12: "Extremely competitive. It feels like the entire league's in the Top 25 ... you can sell the Big 12 when you're out recruiting. Even for me, I've had BYU in the back of my mind, at some point thought this was maybe something that could happen, but once they made the move to the Big 12, for me personally it became a lot more attractive because of how good the league is and you're playing against the best players and the best coaches every night, and so I think what I'm expecting is just an absolute gauntlet of a schedule and look forward to competing against the best coaches and players."
On the NIL situation at BYU (there have been numerous reports that the Cougars have one of the best NIL situations in the country, in large part thanks to alum and tycoon Ryan Smith): "BYU has an unbelievable fanbase, an unbelievable amount of support, and so being able to see what that translated to from the NIL space has been something I tried to do my homework on quite a bit before taking the job."
