How much will Egor Demin in NBA impact program? – Deseret News

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BYU ushered in a new era of leadership with the elevation of deputy athletic director Brian Santiago to replace retiring AD Tom Holmoe.

This appointment is an attempt by the administration to continue the momentum shown in football and basketball this past year in the Big 12. What we’ve seen is BYU take a huge leap in recruiting the past year. It is no secret that Santiago has proven to be a huge asset for BYU in fundraising and building relationships with donors. It also doesn’t hurt that his golfing buddy is Utah Jazz and Utah Mammoth owner Ryan Smith.

In this piece, I outline how one of Santiago’s biggest challenges is finding somebody to be his own Brian Santiago.

Here are some of our stories from the past week on this major change in Cougar sports:

• What Brian Santiago said about his detractors  (Jay Drew)
• Brian Santiago explains his promotion priorities (Jackson Payne)
• BYU makes it official after reviewing 50 candidates (Jackson Payne)

Question of the week

Egor Demin is climbing up NBA mock draft boards. How does Demin’s draft impact Kevin Young’s pitch to BYU basketball recruits?

Jay Drew: For the first half of the 2024-25 season, it appeared that Egor Demin’s development was going to become a fly in the ointment in first-year BYU coach Kevin Young’s proclamation that the Provo school would become a pipeline to the NBA under his watch. Demin was struggling, and slowed by a lower leg injury that was probably worse than most people knew.

But Demin’s remarkable turnaround, and the way he has seemingly zoomed up NBA mock draft boards, could be another feather in Young’s cap. The Russian’s well-documented performance in the NBA combine has been fun to watch. He told reporters all season he was a better shooter than his percentages showed, and he went out in Chicago and proved that.

If Demin is a lottery pick — and he should be, I’ve come around to believe — that will only give Young more ammunition with recruits when he outlines his ability to use NBA methods and NBA-type resources at BYU to develop them for professional basketball.

I just had a conversation with new transfer guard Nate Pickens, from UC Riverside, and he talked extensively about those NBA ties and said it was the No. 1 reason he chose BYU over several other suitors.

Dick Harmon: Egor Demin remains Kevin Young’s first lottery pick recruit and it was imperative that he ultimately be the banner man for BYU’s basketball program under a new regime. Demin did struggle for part of the season, and his shooting wasn’t impressive as he struggled to find a role as a facilitator and point guard with Fouss Traore, Keba Keita, Richie Saunders and Trevin Knell. But if you look at the last 10 games of his freshman year, he was impressive as an all-around passer, shooter and finisher at the rim.

Demin’s NBA stock has climbed steadily since the end of the season. He’s made shots at the combine at an impressive rate, displayed excellent shooting mechanics and impressed NBA scouts and player personnel directors with his interviews and personality.

If Demin can go No. 10 to 12, it would be key in Young’s pitch to sell NBA preparation at BYU. With incoming freshman AJ Dybantsa projected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft, that would be the second car in a train gaining momentum. It doesn’t take much imagination to see that incoming sophomore from Baylor Robert Wright could be a lottery pick next year and that would add rocket fuel to Young’s pitch at high-stakes recruiting of five-star elite high school players.

I spoke to a referee this week who officiated games Dybantsa has played. He said if he were allowed to come out now, he’d be picked before Duke freshman Cooper Flagg.

Cougar tales

Last week in this newsletter, we reported the BYU football program was far from done, and on Monday it was officially announced that the Cougars had flipped 2026 three-star receiver Terran Saryon from Washington of the Big Ten. He had previously chosen the Huskies over Oregon.

Saryon is a shifty slot receiver who has close ties to previously announced 2026 commit Brock Harris, a tight end from St. George. The two had become close during seven-on-seven competitions in the offseason.

The Cougars also added Sefanaia Alatini, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound three-star defensive back and receiver from St. Francis in Oakland, California, making a huge foray with this 2026 class. He had offers from Arizona, Boise State and UNLV.

BYU’s men’s and women’s track and field teams took second place in the Big 12 championships after Texas Tech’s sprinters scored a gob of points in the final day. The Cougars, more suited to prepare for the NCAA championships where those points will be spread out among the field, saw several meet and school records fall during the competition. You can read about Ben Barton winning the decathlon and James Corrigan’s title run in the steeplechase here. Corrigan won the 5,000 meters and broke the meet record, as reported here.

In the women’s competition, Megan Hunter broke the two-minute barrier in winning the 800 meters and Lexy Halladay-Lowry won the 5,000 in the final day of the championship.

Here’s a piece reviewing the struggles of men’s volleyball going down the wire in 2025.

From the archives

From the X-verse

• Tipton predicts BYU hoops will recruit elite level (@Tiptonedits)
• Dybantsa visits first Latter-day Saint meeting (@Cougwire)
• BYU fanbase ranked No. 7 (@ghanson)

Extra points

Fanalysts

Comments from Deseret News readers:

1. Coaching, NIL and culture are all important to attract talent. NIL must be competitive with what a player can get elsewhere, but coaching and culture are the deciding factors.
2. How many one-and-done players did BYU have from this past year? ONE. How many one-and-done players will BYU have next season? Probably ONE. U make it sound like every player is a one-and-done. Not true.
3. There’s many substantial donors to the NIL collective. If you think it’s just one, you’re mistaken.
4. There’s still LDS kids on the team and more in the pipeline. We would have had three more on this year’s team but Hall, Chandler and Wahlin chose to leave BYU for another school after committing.

— CougFaninTx

The continuous money references are making the comments section for BYU basketball beyond boring. Can we maybe create a chatroom for all of those who want to continue harping on BYU over NIL? Maybe they can go there and have a big happy boring community together. The rest of us can focus on what appears to be a possibility of an exceptional basketball season.

— Valhalla

Up next

• May 22 | 8 a.m. | Baseball | vs. Arizona at Big 12 tournament
• May 23| 8 am | Men’s golf | NCAA Championships
• May 28 | 9 a.m. | Track and Field | NCAA West Prelims