The roster reshuffle has already started in Provo.
Less than a week after the Cougars played in the Sweet 16, head coach Kevin Young’s staff is busy adding and subtracting to their program for 2026.
Veteran guard Dallin Hall announced he was entering the transfer portal this week.
The other notable departures so far are former four-star guards Kanon Catchings and Elijah Crawford. Both were expected to leave following the end of the season — and didn’t crack Young’s 10-man rotation in March. But it is significant for what it signals about BYU’s program moving forward.
In years past, Catchings and Crawford would have been centerpieces on BYU rosters. A four-star player was hard to come by in Provo, particularly with a prospect like Catchings who has NBA potential.
But with Young trying to build a Final Four team, they no longer fit. Catchings was too much of a defensive liability to get significant minutes — even as a 6-foot-9 sharpshooter who could score in bunches. And Crawford was crowded out in a backcourt that included potential NBA lottery pick Egor Demin and veterans Hall and Dawson Baker.
But Young is accumulating talent and that means the inevitability of players being pushed out. It leads to moments like this, where four-star freshmen, who Young signed, need to move on.
Something like this will likely happen next year too.
At the moment, BYU’s top end playmaker is set. The No. 1 recruit AJ Dybantsa will enroll in Provo at the end of the month. Xavion Staton, the best rim protector in high school, is also on the way.
Young signed former French pro Dominique Diomande from Washington this week too.
The jury is still out on retaining pieces like Richie Saunders others. But Young will continue to build this roster like last year — amassing as much talent as he can. The days of BYU’s old roster-building methods are over.
The Big Thing
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Southern Illinois Salukis quarterback DJ Williams (2) is sacked by Brigham Young Cougars linebacker Jack Kelly (17) as BYU hosts Southern Illinois, NCAA football in Provo on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024.
This could be BYU’s best linebacker unit since Fred Warner was donning Cougar blue.
The trio of Isaiah Glasker, Harrison Taggart and Jack Kelly is everything Jay Hill envisioned when he came to Provo. The combination of length and speed is his prototypical mold for a linebacker.
But it almost didn’t happen. Hill said Kelly could have gone to the NFL Draft, particularly after the first month of last season when projections were high on the former Weber State star.
“He had a lot of people in his ear, I think like game three or four, where projections came out and he was super highly touted. It continued that way,” Hill said.
Hill has a long relationship with Kelly dating back to when Hill was the head coach at Weber. He pitched Kelly on becoming one of the best linebackers in the country if he came back.
“Our relationship, it was important to him and important to me, that we could have a conversation,” Hill said. “But Jack came back because, I think, he thinks it’s the best thing he can do. One more year playing inside linebacker, I think he can be one of the top linebackers in the country for sure.
“So it is good for BYU that he came back. It is good for me, selfishly, that he came back,” he continued. “And I think it is good for him. There were a lot of conversations that went into that.”
Fourth down
(McDonald's All American Games) BYU commit AJ Dybantsa practices ahead of the McDonald's All-American game on Tuesday in Brooklyn, New York.
BYU has its first McDonald’s All-American playing in New York since 2000. AJ Dybantsa laced up the high school showcase on ESPN.
2. Angel, taking flight
The All-American dunk contest featured Dybantsa dunking over WNBA star Angel Reese. Reese is 6-foot-3, by the way.
Right now, BYU’s basketball team has only lost three players to the transfer portal. That, combined with the departure of four seniors, means there are seven open scholarships on BYU’s roster.
But knowing Demin and Saunders have decisions to make about their future, that number could grow to nine. Baker could be thrown in the mix, pushing the open scholarship total to double-digits.
BYU knows how it will fill some of the open spots. Dybantsa, Staton and Diomande are three. But it still leaves more spots to fill for Young.
BYU basketball is adding to the roster, but the football team is cutting. BYU has to get down to 105 players by opening day next year. Player meetings start next week to begin the process. They intend to go into fall camp slightly above the 105 limit and do more cutting closer to the opening week.
