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BYU Cougars head coach Kevin Young talks with his fellow coaches during a second-round college basketball game in the NCAA Tournament against the Wisconsin Badgers held at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News
Before he could be asked to make a pitch to future BYU basketball prospects about what coach Kevin Young’s program has to offer, Egor Demin supplied one himself during the news conference Tuesday in which the point guard from Moscow, Russia, announced he is declaring for June’s NBA draft.
Demin said nothing about money.
He said nothing about profiting from name, image and likeness (NIL) or the transfer portal, factors that are driving big-time college athletics these days.
He said nothing about regularly playing on national television, against some of the best players in the country.
Instead, Demin outlined what he believes are bringing so much success — and top-notch players — to Young’s program: the first-year coach’s NBA experience, NBA methods, NBA structure and the culture at BYU.
“I am just super happy I made the decision I made (10 months ago) to come to BYU, and another thing I want to say about BYU is that this place is amazing for development,” Demin said. “And to the young guys who are (considering) BYU, this place is full of smart people and dedicated people who are putting in the work into the process for you and trying to make you better, not just on the court, but off the court, and again, it is about everybody — not just coaches and teammates — but everybody in this program and this huge BYU family.”
And then there is this:
“I was coming here with faith, and I am leaving here with a bigger faith, and a stronger faith, in God and (that) good can happen if you believe in that, and if you pray, and dedicate it to the Lord and if you trust Him.”
Those are the strong messages Young and his staff are bringing to recruits as they go about the process of replacing the point guard, a replacement that almost surely will come from the transfer portal. Already, reports have surfaced that BYU is targeting Baylor point guard Robert Wright, who entered the transfer portal on Monday.
And while BYU coaches such as Young and football coach Kalani Sitake have made it clear they will be “competitive” in the NIL space, they have routinely stressed that they are promoting other aspects and benefits of their programs and the university that are far more beneficial to student-athletes than money.
“Just to be clear, because there are all sorts of strange narratives out there, I would just reiterate that there is absolutely no church or university financial support of any student-athlete agreements. Tithing will never be used to support our athletics department in any way, including revenue sharing with student-athletes,” BYU Advancement Vice President Keith Vorkink told the Deseret News Wednesday.
Vorkink, who has oversight for athletics at BYU, said, “That approach will not change even if the House settlement is approved. We are certainly wanting to be in the game and this is the messaging that we share with the collective to the extent that they are involved, but we will never be the highest bidder. That is not our strategy.”
The role of collectives
A report on X on Tuesday stating that “Rob Wright to BYU is a done deal and the NIL amount is $3.5 million” drew a firestorm of activity on the social media website and brought back into play that erroneous narrative that BYU’s collective is outbidding others for top players.
Wright is a highly sought-after guard from Baylor who is reportedly considering some of the nation’s best basketball programs, including BYU.
Speaking generally, and not specifically about the Wright situation, Vorkink said, “the numbers that are thrown around are not correct. It is hard for me to say on every single case, but what I have been seeing recently would not reflect the accurate situation for at least our participation in trying to recruit student-athletes to come to BYU.”
Regarding an ESPN article on Feb. 5 that quoted a prominent BYU booster as saying, “You are not going to outbid us,” Vorkink said that sentiment “is not the strategy of the university.”
So what is BYU’s strategy?
“Our belief is, and if you talk to coach Young, all the way up to our leadership, you will find that we have decided we are in the game, and we want to be competitive, but we don’t want to be a school where a student-athlete is choosing to come here predominantly because of the compensation they would be able to get through some NIL agreement,” Vorkink said. “We want that choice to be driven by our distinctive mission and culture.”
What about AJ Dybantsa, the top basketball recruit who picked BYU amid reports he is getting millions? Young and others at BYU and Dybantsa himself have said those reports contain highly overinflated numbers.
“We are in the game, but we won’t be the highest bidder is our philosophy,” Vorkink said.
Of course, the whole college sports landscape with collectives, NIL and financial agreements with student-athletes could change if the House settlement case is approved by California judge Claudia Wilken within the next week or two. (The House settlement came about after lawsuits challenging NCAA rules restricting athlete benefits, particularly those related to NIL, were combined into one legal action and named after one of the plaintiffs, Arizona State swimmer Grant House. The settlement seeks $2.8 billion in damages to athletes for lost NIL rights and includes a revenue-sharing agreement that will allow schools to compensate players directly, but includes a per-school spending cap.)
Vorkink said whatever happens, no funds from the faith that supports BYU, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will be used on BYU athletics.
Denim confidante Travis Hansen weighs in
Former BYU basketball player Travis Hansen, who is as close to the program as any former athlete not on the payroll could be, echoed those sentiments Wednesday when he made an appearance on BYUtv’s “BYU Sports Nation.” Hansen, who played in the NBA and then professionally in Russia and for Real Madrid in Spain — the same club as Demin did before he picked BYU — took the teenager under his wing when Demin arrived in Utah last summer.
“The reason he chose BYU is they are going to out-love, out-develop, and out-purpose (others),” Hansen said. “So there is this narrative that we outbid people (at BYU). And we don’t. We just out-love them, out-develop them, and out-purpose them.”
Hansen — whom Denim chose to sit next to him at Tuesday’s news conference (along with Young), and whom Denim said was one of his main advisors when he was making the decision whether to turn pro or return to BYU for a second season — made the comments after relating his own experience when he chose Real Madrid years ago despite offers of more money from another European basketball power in Greece.
“So we are trying to find an organization in the NBA that will do that for him,” Hansen said.
The Utah County business owner said NIL wasn’t the chief factor for Dybantsa in choosing BYU, either, as the Utah Prep product from Brockton, Massachusetts, has repeatedly stated since signing with the Cougars last November to the utter surprise of most recruiting experts around the country.
“NIL is an amazing tool. It is not the foundation of who we are. It will never be the identity of BYU. Egor passed up more money to come to BYU,” Hansen said. “There were huge schools — Arkansas (being) one of them — they offered way more money, and he chose BYU because he chose (other aspects that were important to him). In reality, it came down to trust. And you see this with a lot of players. They trust coach Sitake, and (volleyball coach) Heather Olmstead (and other BYU coaches).”
Hansen told the Deseret News in March — for an article on how Young’s NBA methods and culture-building techniques had turned a so-so season into a great one — that it wasn’t NIL money drawing top prospects to the program. It was other, “priceless” elements that are harder to find.
“They are choosing love, trust, development and their ability to progress spiritually, intellectually. That’s more important to them,” Hansen said.
Does BYU have the right stuff for Wright?
Presumably, BYU coaches are making that same pitch to Wright, who started 21 games for the Bears, played in 35, and averaged 11.5 points, 2.1 rebounds and 4.2 steals. He scored 22 points against BYU in Baylor’s 93-89 overtime loss to the Cougars in late January at the Marriott Center.
Another key aspect of Young’s pitch was detailed by the Deseret News last month — that he has brought an NBA model to BYU basketball, complete with a general manager, nutritionist, player development specialists and more.
“There will be players that pass up BYU and go chase money. That’s good. It is probably not the best place for you if you are just chasing money,” Hansen said. “This is a place that is different. It is special. And people are finding that out.”
Indeed, Demin’s lone season in Provo in which he overcame some really bad games in December and January with some spectacular ones in February and March — particularly in the NCAA Tournament — and his testimonials on Wednesday showed that.
“Today I am closing one chapter here, but opening a new one, and I think what is most important to me is that I am not leaving you guys here, I am taking you with me the whole way through my career and through my life and I am willing to represent the BYU logo and the BYU name everywhere I go,” Demin said. “Anything I am doing, it comes with you, too. Everybody who was with me, it was an honor to be here, and just represent the love and wear these BYU jerseys.”
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BYU point guard Egor Demin shakes hands with Nate Austin, BYU director of basketball operations, as he leaves a press conference about his plans to enter the NBA draft at the Marriott Center Annex in Provo on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
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