Teenager Egor Demin impressed the crowd and media members alike by speaking in three languages — English, Spanish and Russian — at his news conference Tuesday morning announcing he was leaving BYU after one season in Provo and entering June’s NBA draft.
Then it was BYU basketball coach Kevin Young’s turn.
“I only speak English, sorry guys,” Young said, drawing laughter.
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While Young won’t be able to duplicate Demin’s remarkable linguistic skills, the big question now becomes whether he can replace the talented 6-foot-9 Russian point guard on the basketball court. Demin’s departure leaves BYU without a true point guard on its roster, seeing as how lightly used freshman Elijah Crawford and three-year contributor Dallin Hall jumped into the transfer portal within days of BYU concluding its surprising season with a 113-88 loss to Alabama in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
Hall, the 6-4 rising senior from Plain City, Utah, and Fremont High, went into the portal last year and returned, at Young’s urging, but a well-placed source said it is unlikely that he will return to BYU this year, given his diminished role in 2024-25 after he was an honorable mention all-Big 12 guard in 2023-24.
Crawford, who appeared in 21 games and averaged only 5.2 minutes per game, probably isn’t ready to be a starting point guard in the Big 12, which is what Young and company need as the former NBA assistant coach heads into his second season.
Asked by the Deseret News where he goes from here in regards to his point guard situation, Young said his coaching and support staffs have already been preparing for the likelihood that Demin would be a one-and-done guy.
“Well, you know, one thing that I really tried to do when I took this job was to set up an infrastructure that allows us to cover a lot of ground in all parts of our program,” Young said. “So we essentially have an NBA front office, so to speak, that has been scouting players really since the day we stepped foot here.
“So our staff is very well-versed (in prospects). We have a lot of connections all over the country, all over the world as well. So we have a good handle, I would say, on who is out there,” he continued. “We are relying on the work that we have put in for many months. I don’t ever want to make any rash or quick decisions.
“In today’s day and age, in college athletics, I think you can get caught up in the storm that is the portal. So we are trying to just be calculated in the moves that we make, and we feel like we are on a decent path to do that.”
The current recruiting dead period ends Thursday, which is when players can begin taking campus visits. Coaches have been able to contact players for a few weeks now, which is how BYU coaches were able to land Washington transfer forward Dominique Diomande last week.
However, the 6-foot-8 Diomande, who averaged 16 points and six rebounds per game playing professionally in France before signing with the Huskies — but never playing — does not play point guard.
Fellow wing AJ Dybantsa, the No. 1 high school recruit in the nation who signed with BYU last November before having a sensational senior season playing for Hurricane’s Utah Prep, can probably play some point guard, but that won’t be optimal.
So Young acknowledged he is in the market for one, while also noting that players such as Demin with otherworldly vision and passing skills don’t grow on trees. What advice did Young give the teenager when he found out “a few days ago” that the guard was heading to the NBA?
“I just told him, whatever his decision was, we were going to be fully behind him. These types of decisions are so personal for every guy, so I just shared with him my experience with guys coming into the (NBA) and things that are challenges, just as a rookie in general, but also going through the draft process,” Young said.
“I think it is a lot more grueling than people understand — how much mental energy goes into going through all the interviews, and the workouts, and this and that. So, I just tried to give him my experience on that side of it, and tried to just give him a little head start as he kind of goes into the process.”
According to BYU basketball recruiting expert Robby McCombs of Vanquishthefoe.com, one point guard in the portal to keep an eye on is Baylor’s Rob Wright, who torched the Cougars for 22 points on 6-of-12 shooting in 39 minutes in BYU’s 93-89 overtime victory over the Bears in late January.
Unlike Demin, Wright is more of a scorer than a passer, having averaged 11.5 points and 4.2 assists last season.
Princeton’s Xaivian Lee, is another BYU target, although the 6-foot-4 point guard is expected to test the NBA draft process, according to Jonathan Givony of Draft Express.
Losing Demin could be huge, depending on who BYU finds to replace him, but there’s no question that in the long run it could be extremely beneficial to the program, which hasn’t had a player drafted into the NBA since Jimmer Fredette was picked 10th overall in 2011.
When he took the job a year ago this month, Young promised to start a BYU pipeline to the NBA, and Demin’s path, coupled with Dybantsa’s almost certain status as another one-and-done player, is making that pledge come to fruition.
Young said Demin’s decision, based on confidence that he will be drafted relatively early, “is validation in a lot of ways” for that promise.
“We essentially have an NBA front office, so to speak, that has been scouting players really since the day we stepped foot here.”
— BYU coach Kevin Young
“We feel like we can offer an environment that can really help young men get to the NBA. Egor is the first. Richie (Saunders) will probably be a close second, in terms of guys we have this year. And I think there are other guys on our team this year that have a chance as well,” Young said. “And then as we build for future years, we will have a track record that we will be able to speak on that I think will be really attractive for players.”
Speaking of the 6-foot-5 Saunders, a rising senior who attended the news conference, Young spoke as if the Riverton and Wasatch Academy product will return to BYU in 2025-26, which would be a big development, especially in the light of Demin’s departure.
“We got a lot of good players that are coming back from last year’s team. I think the continuity piece next to a high-end talent like AJ is going to be critical. Richie is a guy that really put himself on the map in a major way this year, so you are going to have a lot of talent that is out there on the floor,” Young said. “We are just trying to make sure we put the right pieces around those guys and continue to build on what we have done.”
However, after the news conference, Young acknowledged that even though they are planning as if Saunders will return, he really doesn’t know yet what the all-Big 12 player will do and doesn’t want to speak for him.
“I am sure he will say something soon enough,” Young said.
Presumably in just one language.
