BYU guard Trevin Knell became the team’s shot doctor during the 2022-23 season.

Since he couldn’t immediately fix his injured right shoulder — that was up to surgery and a lot of rehab — Knell redshirted and helped his men’s basketball teammates where he could.

“Shot doctor … that’s the name Coach (Mark) Pope gave me,” Knell said. “Analytically, I looked at basketball from a coaching standpoint to find out what the coaches would be looking for and what I could do to help the team. We were really young last year, so my teammates would always come up to me and ask, ‘What do you see?’ We really fed off each other and established a good relationship that way.”

Knell is, in many ways, a stereotypical BYU basketball player. He graduated from Woods Cross High School in 2017 and served a church mission to Uruguay, so he’s older. He’s married as well, to Tatum (August of 2021).

He says his teammates call him, “The Dad.”

“My wife said when she was growing up and went to BYU basketball games there was always one guy who was older,” Knell admitted. “She just never thought it would be her husband.”

Knell, who graduated with a business degree in the spring and has been accepted to BYU’s MBA program in marketing, has one more season of eligibility to call himself a Cougar.

“It’s just a great opportunity to keep playing,” he said. “I’ve talked to a lot of alumni — Yo (Yoeli Childs), Jake (Toolson), TJ (Haws), any of the guys I played with my freshman year — and they always say, ‘Man, I wish I was back in the Marriott Center. I wish I was playing in front of those fans again.’ It’s a different stepping stone than where I thought I’d be at this point, but I’m excited to continue this journey.”

The 6-foot-5 Knell led the state of Utah in scoring at Woods Cross (25.4 points per game), showing off a sweet 3-point stroke and utilizing his strength and size to score in additional ways. He originally committed to Cuonzo Martin at Cal, but Martin left for Missouri when Knell was serving a mission. Knell decided to play at BYU and saw limited minutes as a freshman in 2919-20. Over the next two seasons, he played in 62 games and started 28, making 123 3-pointers and shooting 42% from beyond the arc. He had some memorable moments, scoring 20 points on 5 of 10 from the 3-point line in the 2021 WCC Championship Game against Gonzaga and going 5-for-8 from beyond the arc in a 2022 NIT victory against Northern Iowa.

A nagging shoulder issue that kept popping up the 2021-22 season resulted in off-season surgery.

“An injury like that is so devastating,” Knell said. “When they told me I needed surgery I was crying. We went through a really intense conditioning program and my mindset was that I would come back and play last season, to help the team. When we got to conference play, Coach Pope and I started having that conversation. I was still not sure how my shoulder would do with contact. I was just not 100% mentally prepared. I was nervous about whether my shoulder could take a hit. So a couple of games into conference, we made the decision to redshirt.”

Knell credits his wife, Pope and strength and conditioning coach Erick Schork with helping him carry on through that difficult time.

“Coach Pope and Coach Schork really helped me change my mindset,” Knell said. “I could look at it like, ‘poor me, why did this happen to me?’ or I could change my attitude and figure out what I could learn from this setback.”

Knell said he is ready, both mentally and physically, for the upcoming season.

“The craziest thing is that I’m shooting the basketball better than I have my entire life,” he said. “My shot feels way better every day. Coach Pope gets upset when I’m not shooting 80% from the college 3 and the NBA 3. I’m like, ‘Alright, I got you. I won’t leave the gym until I get it.’ I’ve been extending my range every single day.”

Knell spoke glowingly about the three graduate transfer additions to the roster. Ally Khafila (Charlotte), Ques Glover (Florida and Samford) and Dawson Baker (UC Irvine) are all on campus practicing with the team.

“Ally, we’re really close. I call him ‘my Egyptian Magician’ because he’s a wizard with the basketball. He’s working extremely hard and we’re so blessed to have him because of how he can shoot it and pass it. That will really set us apart from other teams.

“Ques is super funny. We’ve gone to Top Golf a couple of times and he has a super-fun character to him. The other day in practice I was coming off a screen on a backdoor and I rarely get the ball because teams are playing me to shoot 3-pointers. But Ques threaded the needle perfectly to me for a layup. I went over and hugged him and told him I was so excited to play with him. He’s so fast.

“Dawson can do it all. He’s super talented and he’ll fit right in. He’s a high character dude and shoots the crap out of the ball. All three of those guys are going to step right in a contribute for us.”

Knell and his teammates, who will take a summer tour to Italy in mid-August, are constantly reminded about the challenge ahead playing in the Big 12 for the first time.

“Dallin (Hall) and I have been talking about it,” Knell said. “We’re like, ‘Let’s go hoop, let’s go play pick-up, let’s get in an extra lift,’ because we’re not OK with people counting us out already. We have an underdog competitive mindset. We want to go prove people wrong, so the Big 12 is definitely on our minds.”