Just a Second ... BYU Mens Basketball Now has Four Top 100 Recruits Signed for the 2024-2025 Season?!?!?! Yup.

EDITOR'S COMMENT: In case you don't know, I'm a self-avowed sports fanatic of almost every sport and athletic endeavor, one with a special place in my heart for the main home team of my youth, the San Francisco Giants, as well as the teams and athletes of my alma mater: Brigham Young University.

As such, I have watched in growing wonder ... no, make that disbelief ... as I have seen the potentially revolutionary transformation that appears to be unfolding in Provo at the "Lord's University," at least in its Athletics Department, ever since 16 April 2024, the day BYU announced that it had hired Kevin Young as Head Coach of its Mens Basketball Team.

That said, without revisiting here everything that's happened since Coach Young spoke at his introductory press conference, let me now get to my perspective on the latest surprising news to come out of "The Y" ...

BYU Mens Basketball now has four Top 100 incoming freshman for the 2024-2025 hoops season.

Specifically, last Tuesday, 18 June 2024, BYU announced that it has signed a Financial Aid Agreement with Kanon Catchings to play for the Cougars in the 2024-2025 season.

According to ESPN, Catchings is the No. 35 ranked player of its Top 100 collegiate basketball prospects in the country for the upcoming school year.

In case you were not paying attention, BYU's Kanon Catchings announcement happened less than 24 hours after telling the world it had signed a National Letter of Intent with EuroLeague phenom, Egor Demin, who has also joined its Mens Basketball Team.

With the addition of Catchings and Demin, BYU now has four top prospects slated to play for its team this next school year:

• Brody Kozłowski — (named by ESPN as the No. 92 player among its Top 100 recruits for the 2024/25 season; Kozlowski was the first recruit signed by Kevin Young, the new Head Coach of BYU's Mens Basketball Team), and
• Elijah Crawford — (named by ESPN as the No. 98 player among its Top 100recruits for the 2024/25 season; Crawford was the third recruit signed by Coach Young),
• Egor Demin (noted above) — (projected as a Top 10 pick by ESPN in its way too early 2025 NBA mock draft; Demin was the third incoming freshmen recruit signed by BYU's Young), and now,
• Kanon Catchings.

This means that in just over two months on the job at BYU, HC Young has flipped hoops-recruiting on its ear at The Y, with

• Four Top 100 freshman prospects added to the roster, plus
• Two "Power 5" Transfer Portal player signings (both with significant playing time under their belts, respectively), and
• The return of six players from last year's roster, four of which played a ton of minutes in the 2023-2024 season).

To be clear, I suspect it is highly likely that at least 1 of these 4 incoming freshmen will be "One and Done," meaning they will play for BYU for one season and then opt for the pros, most likely the National Basketball Association.

Which begs the question:

Why has Young been so successful on the recruiting trail, with players, coaches, and staff members?

I believe it all boils down to that one sentence he shared in his introductory press conference, that one sentence I highlighted in "ANALYSIS/OPINION: I Suspect BYU's Kevin Young is Likely to Become Its Most Transformative Head Coach Ever. Here's Why." —

"What I want to do, to take it (BYU) to the next level, is make this place the best place in college basketball to prepare young men to play in the NBA*."

Obviously, BYU hoops ain't played one lick of ball against anyone but themselves yet, so it is highly premature to be dreaming 'bout high BPI ratings, conference championships, and March Madness.

Nevertheless, it IS fun.

In fact, I kinda feel like I've got the immortal words of rap star DMX playing over and over in my head:

"Y'all gonna make me lose my mind!!!"

Nevertheless, for those interested, BYU's roster page notes that Catchings has pretty interesting b-ball genetics, with his

• Mother, Tauja, playing college basketball at Illinois and landing a WNBA draft pick;
• Grandfather, Harvey, spending 11 seasons in the NBA; and his
• Aunt, Tamika, being a four-time Olympic gold medalist while also being named a WNBA MVP and 10-time All-Star with the Indiana Fever. [Yes, that's the same Indiana Fever that WNBA rookie sensation Caitlin Clark plays for.]

Anyway ... it's certainly been a fascinatingly interesting inaugural off-season for BYU under rookie Head Coach Kevin Young.

But as far as the actual, inaugural season for Coach Young?!?!?!

We. Shall. See.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

In case you're not aware of Utah Money Watch, our goal is to publish Utah-focused monetary, financial, and/or business news, context, and analysis on a timely/regular basis, ideally information NOT available through any other source.

[You might think of us at the opposite of Bloomberg, CNBC, and/or The Wall Street Journal, each of which focus on international/national news first and rarely report on local happenings. Conversely, we are passionately focused on uncovering the most important monetary, financial, and/or business news and information that impact the organizations and people of Utah.]

Here again, the intent is to publish news, information, context, and analysis NOT available through any other source.

To that end, this article was originally published and distributed to our Subscribers at approximately 7:40am (MT) on Monday, 24 June 2024.

However, if you are seeing this report sometime after this date/time and you are interested in seeing similar reports and/or other Utah-focused monetary/financial/business news, context, and analysis write-ups in the future on an instantaneous basis when they are published, you can do so by subscribing, FOR FREE, to Utah Money Watch.

This will take less than 30 seconds and can be done from any page on the Utah Money Watch website.

Simply,

1. Click on a "Subscribe" button on any Utah Money Watch webpage,
2. Enter in your name in the proper field in the popup window that appears on-screen, and
3. Enter your preferred email address in the proper field too.

That's it. And "Yes," it really is that simple.

And ... it IS free.

So we hope to see you join us as a subscriber of Utah Money Watch.

Thanks.

Team Utah Money Watch