BYU job a full-circle moment for rising NBA coaching star Kevin Young

PROVO — The most important decision when Kevin Young was prompting a move from the NBA to coach college basketball at BYU didn't lie with Young but with his wife, Melissa.

The only problem? When Young first heard about the opportunity, he was in the middle of interviewing for a handful of head coaching jobs in the NBA, his Phoenix Suns were on a lengthy road trip before this weekend's playoffs, and Melissa Young was at home in the Phoenix area with the couple's three children.

So as he considered the option to put aside his long-standing desire to be a head coach in the NBA to return to college for the first time since 2006, he kept telling people he "just wanted to get home" and consult with his better half.

"It's been a wild ride," Young said as BYU introduced him as the 19th head coach in program history. "But, obviously, we're happy to be here."

As BYU president Shane Reese said prior to introducing his new coach, Young is a family man first and a committed member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who happens to be a brilliant basketball mind "that is going to take the Cougars to the next level."

"We are welcoming to the Cougar family an incredible addition in the entire family," Reese said following a whirlwind recruitment that included charter flights to Phoenix with him and advancement vice president Keith Vorkink. "Through our interview process, it became infinitely clear that we had our man for the job to head our next era of Cougar basketball."

There were plenty of dignitaries that attended Young's opening press conference at the Marriott Center, including Dave and Cheryl Rose; Utah Jazz majority owner Ryan Smith; Jazz executive and former BYU star Danny Ainge; head football coach Kalani Sitake; former players Jonathan Tavernari, T.J. Haws, Eric Mika and Spencer Johnson; and players from the current roster including Trevin Knell, Dallin Hall, Fousseyni Traore, Tanner Hayhurst, Jared McGregor, Atiki Ally Atiki and Dawson Baker.

But Young made sure to single out his wife a couple of times, because her influence on him standing at the podium was as vital as anyone else.

One of the biggest decisions he's made in the past 48 hours was on his face. Coaches and front-facing figures at BYU don't normally wear facial hair, so the well-trimmed beard and mustache that Young has borne since his days in the NBA G League likely had a shelf life as he prepared to fill in his office in the Marriott Center Annex after the Suns' playoff run that starts Saturday at Minnesota.

So when he walked into the Phoenix-area practice facility Wednesday morning before boarding a plane with his family for Provo, the Suns players, coaches and staff looked at him side-eyed. Who was this fresh-faced child in front of them, one they had never seen without a beard since he got to the Valley in 2020?

Lucky for Young, the most important voice in his life approved.

"We had a good laugh about it," he said of his co-workers in Phoenix. "But funny enough, my wife has been wanting me to shave for 13 years. The fact that here it is, she's happy about that."

Of course, that didn't make the decision any easier.

"I made sure the coach option for the beard was in there," he later told KSL.com. "But my wife wanted it to go anyway, so it was a win-win all around.

"My kids, on the other hand, were like, 'who is this guy?' But it's all good."

The fresh-faced Young may look like a new man, and in a lot of ways, he is.

The 42-year-old coach has spent most of his career in professional basketball. After a Division II career at Clayton State, Young began his career at Oxford College and Utah Valley before joining the Utah Flash as an assistant coach in 2007.

During his time in Orem, which included a stint as head coach from 2010-11 before the club was sold to the Philadelphia 76ers to become the Delaware 87ers, the club's staff was housed in a section of BYU's on-campus housing. He even attended several BYU games, including a visit by then-No. 6 Wake Forest that featured future NBA All-Star Jeff Teague as well as BYU's Jimmer Fredette and Jonathan Tavernari in 2009.

While living in Provo, Young also met his wife, and the couple embarked on a courtship and marriage that would take them to Iowa, Delaware, Philadelphia and Phoenix before returning to Utah County when he was installed as head coach at her alma mater.

But Young knows his strengths as well as anybody. X's and O's haven't been a problem in his basketball career, nor has work ethic or relationships, as his Suns players have attested over the past 48 hours.

"I'm excited for him and his family," said Suns star Devin Booker after joking about the "K-Y-U" job. "He's somebody that I developed a great relationship with, somebody that I wish I could have played college basketball for, and to have somebody to recruit me like him. I'm going to be keeping close eyes on the program and everything he's doing. I know they're in really good hands. I know he got a good deal; it's good to see him and his family taken care of."

But he also knows his limitations. He hasn't had to recruit in college for over a decade; but even there, he has a masterful resource in his brother Justin, the former basketball editor at Rivals.com who has managed his own recruiting database at HoopSeen since 2013.

Owning limitations is all about surrounding yourself with the right people. For Young, that will include a staff of assistants — including a group that have already reached out since he took the job Tuesday morning.

Filling out that staff will be a top priority for Young, second only to retaining as much of the current roster as he can, he said.

"I think I have a pretty good understanding of where I need to fill in the gaps," he said. "Obviously here, the recruiting piece is such a massive one. That will be my No. 1 goal. But being able to blend it, being able to recruit, but also coach. I'm looking for well-rounded guys."

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