Looking Back with Hindsight — What Could Have Been Different for BYU This Offseason?

After an 0-2 week that included a blowout home loss to UCF and road loss to UCF, BYU is 20-8 on the season and looking at a losing Big 12 record. BYU is a lock for the NCAA Tournament even if they lose out, but it’s not the season fans hoped for. Fortunately in college […]

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Looking Back with Hindsight — What Could Have Been Different for BYU This Offseason?

Nov 15, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; UConn Huskies guard Silas Demary Jr. (2) is fouled by BYU Cougars guard Richie Saunders (15) while shooting the ball during the second half at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images | Eric Canha-Imagn Images

Robby McCombs

Mon, March 2, 2026 at 12:27 AM UTC·
7 min read

After an 0-2 week that included a blowout home loss to UCF and road loss to UCF, BYU is 20-8 on the season and looking at a losing Big 12 record. BYU is a lock for the NCAA Tournament even if they lose out, but it’s not the season fans hoped for. Fortunately in college basketball you can salvage the season with a run in March, but even the most optimistic of BYU fans don’t have very high hopes for a March Madness run this season.

You can debate how much injuries impacted BYU this season, but they’ve certainly played a role. Richie Saunders is obviously the biggest of those. BYU was showing cracks before Richie got hurt — they were 2-5 in the 7 games before his injury — but were competitive in each of the losses and had the firepower to be dangerous in March Madness. Richie was the glue that kept the team afloat, and without him BYU either lacked energy or were beat on effort plays against UCF or WVU, something that didn’t happen much to BYU this season with Richie. Outside of Richie, the losses of Dawson Baker, Nate Pickens, and Brody Kozlowski all have various impacts. Dawson Baker had 12 points versus UConn and 11 versus Wisconsin before he got hurt. His shooting and senior leadership have been sorely missing.

Taking the injuries aside, there are some “what-if” scenarios that could have gone differently for BYU’s roster construction this offseason. It’s easy for me to play this game with hindsight of nearly a full regular season, but I’ll play it regardless.

Here are a few scenarios that could have changed the fortunes for BYU.

What if BYU had used Xavion Staton’s NIL Money Elsewhere?

Xavion Staton was the first big commitment of BYU’s 2025 recruiting class. Xavion committed to BYU in November 2024, after Chamberlain Burgess and a month before AJ Dybantsa. Xavion is one of the highest commits in BYU history, a 4-Star prospect ranked the #37 prospect in the class. He chose BYU over finalists UNLV, Stanford, and Michigan.

Staton was a highly rated prospect, but everything I heard of in the scouting community was that he was at least a year away from contributing. And there’s nothing wrong with getting a recruit like — you need multi-year players in the program. Looking back, the issue was that BYU paid a considerable amount of NIL for a player that wasn’t expected to meaningfully contribute in year one. And in a year where BYU knew it would go all in with AJ and others, making one of your more expensive roster additions a guy that wouldn’t play in year one and could always transfer after a season may have not been the best move. In some ways, it seemed like BYU was going for the big recruiting splash to rachet up excitement among fans and boosters. I’ve had multiple people give me NIL numbers for Staton, and all of them have been closer to a $1M than $500K.

If BYU had decided to pass on Staton, could they have gotten someone like Carter Welling five months later in the transfer portal? Welling — the Corner Canyon HS product — entered the transfer portal after winning WAC DPOY at UVU. BYU recruited Welling, and sources close to Welling told me BYU pitched him on being the backup Center to Keba his first year on team that would compete for a final four, and then step into the starting lineup year two as a center. Ultimately, Welling took a 7-figure offer to transfer to Clemson, something BYU couldn’t get close to touching for a backup center with the money they allocated to Staton. If BYU didn’t use that money on Staton, they could have gotten closer to Clemson’s number and Welling may have decided to stay home rather than heading across the country. Welling has been a nice piece for Clemson this season, averaging 10 points and 5 rebounds in just 20 minutes per game. Clemson’s ability to score in the block would have been a nice option for BYU this season.

Nothing is that simple or linear, but what BYU’s staff has to be asking themselves is if Staton’s NIL money for this season should have gone to someone that could have been an instant contributor.

What if Silas Demary Committed to BYU?

Georgia transfer Silas Demary was one of BYU’s first main targets in the transfer portal. He was one of the first point guards BYU targeted to replace Egor Demin. BYU was one of Demary’s finalists before he ultimately committed to UConn. Demary is a big 6-foot-4 guard, averaging 11 points, 6.5 assists, and 4.6 rebounds on 47% shooting from the field and 43% shooting from three.

BYU ultimately ended up with Rob Wright, and Wright has been good for BYU this season. He can be a sieve on defense and can get tunnel vision on offense, but he is a big-time scorer and has won BYU multiple games. Having Wright around for multiple years could be a great foundation for the program and Wright could go down as an all time great at BYU if he stays for three years, so I’m by no means calling bringing in RW3 a mistake.

BYU didn’t pass on Demary, but what if they had gotten Demary instead of Wright? Demary probably doesn’t average as many points as Rob does, but he would make BYU’s defense better and is a great rebounder at guard and has put up big assist numbers. At a minimum, he would have shored up some of BYU’s deficiencies of slowing down opposing guards.

What if BYU Had Gone with Another Player Over Kennard Davis?

This one is the fuzziest of the three. BYU brought in Davis to be a 3-and-D guy, and the three part of that hasn’t really come along. Davis is averaging 7.7 points on 29.5% shooting from three. Needless to say, BYU was hoping for more. Davis had the ball in hands more at SIU and was the defacto point guard at times, and his role just isn’t that at BYU.

I don’t blame the coaches for getting Moo because it made a lot of sense on paper at the time, but they no doubt wish that he was more of a floor spacer for the team.

If BYU had a do-over and go into a time machine, one guy I think they would have pursued more is UNC transfer Cade Tyson, who BYU had reached out to in the portal. Tyson was one of the nation’s best shooters in two seasons at Belmont, but rode the bench at UNC last season and averaged just 2.6 ppg. Tyson ultimately ended up at Minnesota, where he has been one of the B1G’s best players. A 6-foot-7 wing, Tyson is averaging 19.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, and shooting 42% from three on over 5 attempts per game. Tyson may have given up some of the defensive end, but if you paired him with AJ, Richie, and Rob? That offense may have been the best in college basketball with that floor spacing for AJ to operate.

Conclusion

Ultimately, it’s easy for me to play this game from the comfort of my couch. No team has unlimited NIL, and BYU made decisions which at the time made sense on paper. BYU made a decision to have a Big 3 and then build around them. That hasn’t worked out due in part to injuries, but also due to some roster decisions that haven’t panned out.

Kevin Young is still learning the college game, and I think this season will be another learning experience when he builds next year’s roster.

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