PROVO, Utah — It's a new team, a new level, a semi-new setting, and a new look for Coach Kevin Young.
Young addressed fans, colleagues and reporters in person for the first time as Brigham Young University's new men's basketball head coach on Wednesday. BYU announced his hiring just the day before.
He appeared at the podium clean-shaven — as BYU's Honor Code requires — a fairly significant change from the bearded look that he's had for years (which was half of a two-part question by a reporter at Wednesday's press conference).
Young is currently an assistant coach for the Phoenix Suns, who are preparing for the NBA Playoffs as the #6 seed in the Western Conference. He will remain with the Suns through the playoffs, but will immediately start recruiting and hiring a coaching staff for BYU.
It's not yet known how the roster will look once the 2024 BYU hoops season starts, but Young addressed the players Wednesday and told them that they're his first priority — and he seemed committed to keeping the roster as intact as possible.
He said the players were the first people he saw when he arrived at the Marriott Center, and he gave them their kudos.
"The things you guys were able to accomplish, first year in the Big 12 — absolutely remarkable," he said from the podium. "Cannot wait to have every one of you guys back in a BYU uniform and get to it."
"I've already started building relationships with those guys, and we're gonna take that part of it to a whole another level," he added.
He addressed how this is a "new challenge," but one he's eager to face.
"I've been on a different side of basketball all of my career and as I went through the process, getting this decision, the excitement I had for the new challenge at hand, in terms of transition to the college world coming from the world I was in, got me extremely excited."
It just so happens that Young's last time coaching college hoops was just on the other end of University Parkway from his new gig — he was an assistant coach at Utah Valley State College (now Utah Valley University) from 2005-2006. Since then, he's coached professional teams — several years in the NBA's development league, then with the Philadelphia 76ers from 2016-2020, and the Phoenix Suns ever since.
He also said his time coaching in the NBA has its advantages — he wants to help BYU players make it to the pros.
"A lot of guys have — not a lot; ALL of them — have ambition to play in the NBA," he said. "What I want to do to take it to the next level is make this place the best place in college basketball to prepare young men to play in the NBA."
One of the teams he coached before his NBA tenure was the Utah Flash — the developmental team affiliated with the Utah Jazz at the time. He said he lived in BYU housing at one point, and his wife was a student there when he met her.
Young is a Salt Lake City native and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he mentioned how that was one of the many selling points for this career change.
"The thing that really moved the needle for me and my wife was the environment... What this university stands for, what the mission of this university is," he said. "To be able to do what I love at the highest level from a career standpoint and blend that with my faith, and being able to do it with my wife and my three little ones."
BYUtv sports announcer Dave McCann asked Young, jokingly, about the reaction to him shaving his beard.
Young obliged and said it was a welcome change for his wife, who he said has been wanting him to shave for 13 years.
"She's happy about that," Young said with a laugh.
He also said the Suns players and staff were taken by surprise by his clean-shaven look Wednesday morning — he said he joined them at practice before boarding a flight to Provo for this event.
"We had a good laugh about it," he said.
And finally, Young addressed a question from a member of BYU's student section: The ROC ("Roar Of Cougars"). He said he's eager to meet the student-fans, and he can't wait to experience the energy of a live game at the Marriott Center.
"I'm thrilled about it for my kids, honestly, so they can feel what it's gonna be like in here and how loud it's gonna get in here, the passion that everybody has," he said.
Young also made a comment seeking to ignite a bit of a rivalry among national fan bases.
"I've coached a couple of players that have played at Duke, that I hear might rival the fans here, so I wanna be able to rub it in those guys' faces about how much better this place is," Young said to widespread applause from those in attendance.
His full speech and Q&A can be viewed here:
