Phoenix Suns assistant coach Kevin Young is being hired as head coach at BYU, sources confirm to Yahoo Sports’ Jake Fischer.
Young fills the vacancy left by Mark Pope, who left BYU to replace John Calipari at Kentucky. Calipari left Kentucky to take the job at Arkansas. A native of Salt Lake City, Young is returning to Utah, where he began his coaching career in the United States as an assistant at Utah State in 2007.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Young will continue to coach the Suns during the NBA playoffs. The Suns have clinched the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference and will begin their first-round series against the No. 3 seed Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday. According to the report, Young will begin assembling his BYU team immediately to begin recruiting.
Young, 42, spent eight seasons as an assistant coach in the NBA. He coached five seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers from 2016-21 before joining Monty Williams’ staff in Phoenix as an associate head coach in 2021. He maintained his role with the Suns when Frank Vogel took over as head coach this season.
Before coaching in Philadelphia, Young spent eight seasons coaching in the NBA G League. He previously worked as an assistant at Oxford College from 2008 to 2009, following a year at Utah State.
Young takes over a BYU program that secured a fifth-place finish in its first season in the Big 12 and reached the NCAA tournament as a 6 seed. BYU’s bid for the tournament was its second in the last nine years.
Young was reportedly a candidate for several openings during this hiring cycle. Per Wojnarowski, he also interviewed with the Charlotte Hornets and Brooklyn Nets.
