If BYU assistant basketball coach Chris Burgess is right, the next few days will be very significant for Kevin Young’s program.
“We have four scholarships to fill,” Burgess told the “Y’s Guys” podcast. “We are very confident that we will reduce this number to two or three in the next 72 hours. You’re never 100% confident until the ink is on the paper, but there are some kids we’ve had on campus that we think fill big needs on our roster.”
On Tuesday morning, ESPN’s NBA Senior Fellow Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Real Madrid’s Egor Demin has committed to play at BYU. According to Wojnarowski, the 6-9 Russian guard is a projected lottery pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. He said Demin will arrive in Provo as one of the most talented recruits in program history.
Since hiring Young, the Cougars have signed two four-star players, including Utah 6A Player of the Year Brody Kozlowski from Corner Canyon High and Elijah Crawford from Augusta, Georgia. BYU also added former Utah center Keba Keita from the transfer portal, and now Demin (per Wojnarowski).
“There’s a lot of momentum right now with BYU basketball and BYU athletics,” Burgess said. “It’s an exciting time. That’s why my family and I were super excited to come back here to Provo. We want to be part of that again.”
The comeback
Burgess was an assistant coach under Mark Pope at BYU from 2019-22 before leaving for the same role at Utah, where he spent the past two seasons.
“The decision was always about growth as a coach. What (Craig Smith) allowed me to do with game preparation, recruiting and practice really helped me,” Burgess said. “I feel like I’m more prepared now (for a head coaching job) than I’ve ever been.”
A phone call with Young changed his plans.
“All Kevin Young knows is the NBA. The NBA is very innovative and college basketball is always two or three years behind,” Burgess said. “When he was talking about the team structure and (sharing) his mindset, I was dying to be a part of it and absorb as much knowledge as I could. At the same time, I felt like I could really help (his) transition to the college game, and not just any college game, but the uniqueness of BYU.”
Lesa Burgess was ready to accept the role before her husband.
“She was really important in terms of being my sounding board and (guiding) me through the process of thinking about why I should come back to BYU,” Burgess said. “During the time she was the sounding board, she wore a blue Nike sweatshirt. The only thing for me about having time was the difficult conversations I had with the players and coaches in the other locker room. That was the only thing that stopped me, but she went all in.”
The Burgess boys unloaded their red shirts the moment they received the news of the job change. The family went to the bookstore and Beckham and Zachary returned to school the next day, wearing BYU blue.
Keba and Fouss
Shortly after Young signed Burgess, Keita entered the transfer portal.
“BYU fans are going to love him. They’re going to love everything he does,” Burgess said. “He’s a lob threat every time on the court. He loves contact. There aren’t many big guys out there who are looking for contact. They want to avoid it. When Keba steps to the ground, he is looking for contact.”
What Keita didn’t want was to keep his Malian mentor, Fousseyni Traore, off the stage.
“He didn’t want to step on Fouss’s toes,” Burgess said. “Fouss said, ‘Bring him to me and I’ll make sure he understands that I’m dying to play with him.’ When Fouss told Keba that, he went all in.”
Young and his team are looking for ways to have Traore and Keita together.
“Everything is on the table. We were watching film of Coach Young’s offense in Philadelphia and Phoenix when they played two big ones,” Burgess said. “There are things we can do to get both of them down. Coach Young wants to dominate the offensive glass.”
NCAA vs.
Burgess played at the highest level of college basketball, reaching the Elite Eight in 1998 and the national championship game in 1999 at Duke. The idea of legally paying players was not even considered, but if the Chamber vs. NCAA runs as expected, universities will be required to share revenue with student-athletes.
“When I entered this profession, the advice I received was to adapt. Adapt to changes. This is where the college game is headed. We have to be able to adapt,” Burgess said. “There’s no reason to complain or complain or say, ‘In my day, we did it like this.’ It doesn’t matter. We have to adapt.”
Mark Comer of Royal Blue, BYU’s official NIL collective, says the Cougars are among the top 15 programs when it comes to NIL support of men’s basketball. Burgess agrees.
“I’m 100% seeing it. It’s so fantastic to see the support, especially when you step away. You step back for a few years and understand the brand that BYU represents around the world,” Burgess said. “The support, the resources and how much people care, they very much live and die with BYU athletics. It’s so fun to come back and feel that hug and love and support.”
Remembering Walton
Burgess grew up in Southern California playing basketball with and against Luke, Nate and Chris Walton, sons of NBA and longtime broadcaster Bill Walton, who died Monday after a long battle with cancer. As an assistant at Utah, Burgess was asked to help Walton before last year’s game at UCLA.
“I get a call, I pick up the phone and I hear, ‘Mr. Chris Burgess, this is Bill Walton,’” Burgess recalled. “He wants to go over the whole team, all 15 guys, including the walk-ons. He said, ‘Don’t tell me anything about basketball, tell me a story about them. I want to know about them. I was so impressed.”
The next day, during the Utah shooting at Poly Pavilion, Walton approached Burgess while carrying a thick stack of papers loaded with his notes.
“He asked me which (player) was so-and-so, and I would point to them, and he would tell the story we talked about the day before,” Burgess said. “It’s a huge loss for basketball in general. He touched so many lives.”
Dave McCann is a sports journalist and columnist for the Deseret News and a broadcaster and talk show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” on ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar”, available at deseretbook. with.
