BYU finds its next head coach in Phoenix Suns assistant Kevin Young

BYU pulled a name from the NBA to replace Mark Pope.

Kevin Young, the longtime NBA assistant coach, will take over in Provo. He was associate head coach for the Phoenix Suns last year and just interviewed to be the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets.

He will join BYU when the Suns’ playoff runs ends. But he will begin recruiting immediately.

Young has spent the last 12 years in the league, going from the G League to becoming a head coaching candidate. He started with the Utah Flash and then spent four years on the Philadelphia 76ers staff and another four with the Suns.

Prying him away from the NBA — where there is no NIL or year-round transfer portal — represents a big win for BYU. Now in the Big 12, the salary and the job status was enough to get an NBA coach to come down to the college level.

Young is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Young was born in Salt Lake but played high school basketball in Georgia.

Athletic director Tom Holmoe considered several options during the process. But Young was the biggest name among them. For BYU to make a significant hire after Pope left for Kentucky was important for the trajectory of the program.

The Big 12 will only get more difficult next year as it moves to 16 teams.

Young’s first task will be putting together a roster. Several impact players — including Dallin Hall, Aly Khalifa, Richie Saunders and Jaxson Robinson — are deciding where they will play next year. The Cougars just lost their best recruit, Collin Chandler, to Kentucky.

Young’s first introduction to the transfer portal will come quickly. The last time he coached at the college level was in 2008 at Oxford College in Georgia. He also briefly worked at Utah Valley before that.