After AJ Dybantsa and Rob Wright’s commitment, Egor Demin reviews HC Kevin Young’s 2nd season at BYU

Kevin Young took over the head coaching job at BYU with top incoming players like Egor Demin on the roster. In his first college season, he led the BYU Cougars to a Sweet 16 appearance in March Madness. It was the team's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2011.

Part of the reason the team could succeed was the addition of recruit Egor Demin. Demin joined the team as a freshman and had an immediate impact, averaging 10.6 points, 3.9 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.2 steals per game. However, Demin will not return because he has declared for the 2025 NBA draft.

Fortunately for Kevin Young and the Cougars, he has done well in making additions, including transfer Rob Wright and No. 1-ranked recruit AJ Dybantsa, according to ESPN. Demin appeared on BYU TV Sports Nation on Thursday and spoke about how he thinks the Cougars will do next season in Kevin Young's second season as head coach.

"I think looking at the second season for KY as a head coach and obviously, it's a different team and different group from what we built in the first season, I'm super excited to see how it's all gonna work better because I'm pretty sure the first season for everybody was a, let's see what's right and let's see what's wrong," Demin said. "Obviously, for us that we found a good rhythm in a good moment of the season."

"I think now it's even gonna be easier for the coaching staff and KY especially and the guys who have already been there with these new structure. I think it's gonna be so much more confidence in that team and the guys are gonna know how to start the season, and they won't have these little moments of finding the rhythm as we did last year." (9:12)

When is Egor Demin projected to go in the 2025 NBA draft?

Ahead of the 2025 NBA draft, Egor Demin is projected to be a mid-first-round pick. USA Today released a mock draft on Friday, in which he went 14th. Similarly, SI released a mock draft on Friday, in which he went 18th. His commitment to BYU greatly improved the team's roster last season.

The Cougars are now in a good position to recruit, having secured the No. 1-ranked recruit in the 2025 class, AJ Dybantsa. It will be interesting to see how Kevin Young uses his top recruit in his second season as head coach.

About the author

Alexander O'Reilly is a journalist at Sportskeeda from Kingston, Ontario with over seven years in the field at companies including SenShot, RVBlogger, Monarch Media, WordAgents, GSeC LLC, and IGC.

His favorite college team is Duke, and his favorite sporting memory was Duke winning March Madness in 2010. JJ Redick was Alex's favorite college player when he was young but more recently, Caleb Williams gets the nod. As the Chicago Bears are Alex's favorite NFL team, this was a perfect match.

Alex's proudest moment came when he was interviewed by a radio station in Ottawa on his opinion on recent moves by the Ottawa Senators, which gave him a confidence boost and the knowledge that he could succeed as a writer.

Aside from sports, Alex likes to spend his time playing games. He is also very passionate about running and strives to improve at the half and full marathon distances.

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Edited by Abhimanyu Gupta