Kevin Young Discussed BYU’s NIL Donors During NCAA Tournament

NEWARK, N.J. – At the East Regional inside the Prudential Center, BYU basketball is the new guy on the block.

It’s a regional with the bluest of blublood, Duke, western basketball powerhouse Arizona, and a new-age powerhouse Alabama, which has become a second weekend fixture under Nate Oats.

BYU hoops has a winning history, but the program hasn’t often put together seasons similar to the one head coach Kevin Young accomplished in his first year.

The Cougars are in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2011, and this is only their third visit to the second weekend since seeding began in the NCAA Tournament.

Many have pointed to BYU’s potential NIL warchest for the sudden success.

Last summer, CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander polled anonymous college coaches to ask which programs they believed had the best NIL situations.

BYU was a program with the third-highest votes.

Boosters like Paul Liljenquist, CEO of Focus Services, have even told ESPN.com, “You’re not going to outbid us” when discussing BYU’s NIL capabilities.

Since Kevin Young was hired as BYU’s head coach last April, the Cougars have assembled a recruiting class for the 2025 cycle in the Top 10, featuring the country’s No. 1 recruit, AJ Dybantsa.

They landed five-star point guard Egor Demin from Real Madrid to join the program this season. Demin is projected as a potential NBA Lottery pick this June.

Kevin Young was able to retain key personnel from last year’s team in Richie Saunders, who emerged as the Big 12’s “Most Improved Player” this season.

Saunders considered following Mark Pope at Kentucky. But chose to play for Kevin Young.

BYU also pulled Dallin Hall back out of the transfer portal. They also landed transfers Keba Keita from Utah and Mawot Mag out of Rutgers, who have emerged as starters for this year’s Sweet 16 team.

Kevin Young discussed the BYU basketball donor base

On Wednesday in Newark, Young was asked during his press conference previewing the Sweet 16 against Alabama how much credit for BYU’s current success should go to its donor base.

“I mean, if you can show me a school whose donor bases don’t deserve credit, I’m all ears. That’s just what it is. People make a lot of that in today’s landscape. But I think anymore, that’s the starting point,” Young said.

“That’s not a separator, in my opinion. It’s not–especially as things are changing even more, that stuff starts getting a little bit more regulated. It’s not going to be a needle mover; it’s going to be a starting point.”

When Young was exploring the possibility of taking over as BYU’s head coach, he contacted a friend of his, Saint Joseph’s head coach Billy Lange.

Lange told Young, a longtime NBA assistant unfamiliar with college basketball, to find out about BYU’s NIL situation.

From those conversations with BYU admins in the interview process, Young believed BYU’s NIL was in a position to be competitive the moment he took the job.

Passion of BYU’s base

Young points to the passion of BYU’s donors and the fan base as a big reason for that.

“One of the reasons I wanted to come to BYU was because of the fan base, donor base, base in general,” said Young. “I know a lot of people have school pride, but I think BYU is unmatched, quite frankly, just in terms of how much people love the school, what it stands for, and the amount of alumni that have come of BYU who are extremely successful, much of which still live out in Utah.

“If anyone has been out there, you drive south on I-15 from Salt Lake and you just see startup after startup, tech company after tech company, successful person after successful person. And most of them went to BYU.”

BYU basketball: Looking to check all of the boxes

Along with the NIL support, Young has looked to build an NBA-style program at BYU. From the coaching staff down to the nutritionists, many of the individuals in Young’s BYU program have ties to the NBA.

That was highlighted as a key reason why AJ Dybantsa chose BYU over Alabama, North Carolina, Kansas State, and others in his recruitment.

“This place is set up to succeed. I’m definitely riding the wave of a lot of that. But it’s so much more than that,” said Kevin Young.

“What you’re seeing, I think anyway, in college sports, is you have to have the whole package. You can’t just have one part of it. You’ve got to be able to have the fun. You’ve got to be able to have a blueprint. You’ve got to be able to have systems. You’ve got to be able to have player development. You’ve got to be able to have a style of play, and that’s what we’re trying to do is to check all of those boxes.”

BYU vs. Alabama

Regional Semifinals – 2025 NCAA Tournament

Location: Newark, New Jersey

Arena: Prudential Center

Date: Thursday, March 27, 2025

Tip-Off: 5:09 p.m. (MDT)/7:09 p.m. (EDT)

TV: CBS

Radio: KSL NewsRadio (102.7 FM, 1160 AM in Utah — Extended pregame begins at 3 p.m. MDT/5 p.m. EDT)

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSLsports.com and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X: @Mitch_Harper.

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