What Big 12 coaches, players said about new BYU basketball coach Kevin Young and his Cougars

BYU head coach Kevin Young addresses the media during Big 12 men’s basketball media day, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. | Charlie Riedel, Associated Press

KANSAS CITY — As has been widely reported, the Big 12 is the first conference in the history of the Associated Press Top 25 preseason college basketball poll since its first release in 1961 to have five teams among the top 10.

Top-ranked Kansas, No. 4 Houston, No. 5 Iowa State, No. 8 Baylor and No. 10 Arizona — coming over from the Pac-12 — are those teams, so naturally they were feted heavily Wednesday at the Big 12 basketball media day Wednesday at T-Mobile Center in downtown Kansas City.

Coaches and players from Utah, picked 16th, and BYU, picked ninth, were also at the 16-team event, but drew far less fanfare and attention. While the hiring of new BYU basketball coach Kevin Young to replace Kentucky-bound Mark Pope and Young’s eye-popping recruiting haul his first year has been huge news in the Beehive State, it hasn’t caused much of a stir across a league with Hall of Fame coaches and national title contenders.

Kansas’ Bill Self, Houston’s Kelvin Sampson, Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd and Baylor’s Scott Drew were the big draws among coaches, while Arizona’s Caleb Love, Houston’s L.J. Cryer, Kansas’ Hunter Dickinson (the preseason Big 12 player of the year) and Iowa State’s Keshon Gilbert were the notable players in attendance.

Not a lot of reporters wanted to talk to BYU’s contingent of Young, Fouss Traore and Trevin Knell, and that was OK with them. Junior guard Dallin Hall was scheduled to attend, but was ill, according to BYU basketball spokesperson Tyson Jex.

“Our mindset is we haven’t done anything yet,” Knell said.

Still, Big 12 coaches and players questioned by the Deseret News about the hiring of Young and his recruiting efforts, and willingness to leverage NIL in his recruiting pitch, were happy to talk those topics.

Here’s a sampling:

Baylor’s Scott Drew is the reason…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/big-12-coaches-players-said-172121960.html

Author : Deseret News

Publish date : 2024-10-24 17:21:00

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