I am back! After a week long cruise vacation, I am back this week with all of the latest BYU sports news. There has been a TON of things going on with BYU Basketball in this ever changing off season so lets dive right into it.

Assistant Coaching Announcements

So BYU has announced two assistant coaches to be with Kevin Young and his staff. Those two guys are Brandon Dunson and Christ Burgess.

Brandon Dunson is an intriguing pick for assistant coach. He is not LDS and doesnt have any ties to BYU. But he is well known in the west coast coaching carousel and has been a great, proven recruiter. He was a big driving force in recruiting Andrej Stojakovic to Stanford before Stojakovic decomitted. Dunson has been an assistant coach at Stanford, and spent time at Nevada, Cal State Fullerton, and Denver.

Chris Burgess is a name that might sound very familiar and thats because he was a BYU assistant coach on Mark Pope’s staff from 2019-2022. He was an assistant at Utah for the last two years. But getting Burgess is a massive win for BYU. He is a Utah alumni and has strong ties there. But he now comes back to BYU. He is also a great in state recruiter and a great big man coach. It seems that Kevin Young is really prioritizing strong recruiting coaches so far.

BYU has now filled 2 of the 5 allotted assistant coaching slots. BYU, last year, only used 4 slots, so I wonder if BYU will stop at 4 and only hire 2 more. Time will tell, but its getting pretty exciting to see who Young could hire as an assistant coach. Barret Peery and anther NBA assistant coach are some people who have been floated around for the last two spots. Both would be huge gets if BYU can convince them to come.

Players Committing and Coming Back

The next big news is that BYU has had a couple of guys come back and commit to playing next year. Dallin Hall entered the transfer portal and he has decided to come back to BYU after some great talks with Coach Young. BYU Sports Nation talked with Hall and what made him to decide to come back and his experiences with Coach Young. You can check out that video here.

The other exciting news is that both Richie Saunders and Dawson Baker have decided that they are coming back too. Saunders put his name into the transfer portal earlier, but has since decided to come back. That is really good as he could be in line for a starting spot next year. Baker wasnt in the transfer portal but there was speculation, as with any team with a new coach, that he could transfer.

BYU did have one other person transfer and that was Atiki Aly Atiki. He has put his name into the transfer portal and hasnt decided where he will go yet. With him and Aly Khalifa transferring, BYU now has a need for a frontcourt player. I expect them to be really active in getting 1 or 2 big guys to come.

And this is where some welcome news comes in. BYU did sign and get a commitment from recruit Brody Kozlowski. That is a big get for BYU! Both of his parents played sports at BYU. Hes just outside the top 100 recruits in the nation and is ranked #3 in Utah. He is listed as a Forward at 6’7. With both him and Isaac Davis, who are both forwards, coming into the team next year, I expect BYU to go shopping for a true Center in the portal. With a couple of freshman forwards coming, BYU needs help at the center position.

BYU Basketball Misc. News

It was announced that BYU will play Providence in the Big 12 – Big East battle this next year. BYU was excluded from this battle this last year, but will get to compete in it this year. BYU had a rather lackluster non conference schedule this last year, but this upcoming year the non conference schedule is shaping up to be pretty good.

Here is new assistant coach Brandon Dunson talking with BYU Sports Nation about the different needs for BYU as they look at transfers and who they want to bring in for next years team, his hiring process, and finding more assistant coaches. This is super insightful! BYU right now has 4 scholarships available if Jaxson Robinson doesnt come back. With those 4 scholarships, It looks like they will try to add one more facilitating point guard, defensive/rebounding/athletic center, and an athletic shooting guard or small forward for defense.

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