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BYU's Trevin Knell, left, dribbles against teammate Keba Keita during summer practices at the Marriott Center Annex on Thursday, July 25, 2024.

Abby Shelton, BYU Photo

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The BYU men's basketball team huddles up during summer practices on Thursday, July 25, 2024.

Abby Shelton, BYU Photo

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For a 3-point sharpshooter like Trevin Knell, playing for new BYU men’s basketball coach Kevin Young has been a dream scenario so far.

“Every time Coach Young draws up a play on offense, it works,” Knell said.

It seems like a good match. The 6-foot-5 Knell is a 39% 3-point shooter in his career in Provo and the team’s second-leading returning scorer (10.6 points per game). Young made his offensive genius reputation as the highest paid assistant in the NBA before taking over the BYU program this spring.

The Cougars are deep into their summer workouts with just a couple of weeks left. Time is limited with the coaches on the court in the summer but Knell loves what he’s seen so far.

“It’s been super fun,” Knell said. “There are a lot of different schemes going on and the lingo for offensive and defensive play calls are completely different. So there’s a lot of learning. But it’s been super competitive, that’s probably the biggest difference in the summer workouts. The coaches really want us to compete whether we’re in 5 on 5, 3 on 3 or whatever. There’s been a learning curve but I feel like this past week we took a huge step in understanding everything and in our chemistry.”

Knell, who added a teardrop jumper to his offensive tool box last season, has been working mental strength coach Craig Manning as well as with new assistant coach John Linehan on his footwork.

“With 3-point shooters, you don’t think about footwork that much but it’s important,” Knell said. “Coach Linehan is super dedicated to footwork. It’s really helped me personally with getting my shot off a split second earlier and with my balance.”

Knell said the one-hour practices allowed by the NCAA are very professional in nature.

“Every day, as soon as you step on the court, you’re going,” he said. “There are no warm up shots in practice. The coaches expect you to already have been in the gym and gotten your shots up. They expect you to be warm as soon as you step on the court for practice. Everything is a pro-like mentality so you can go out there and compete at the highest level.”

There are seven new players on the roster, including two freshmen (Egor Demin and Kanon Catchings) who have been listed as possible first-round NBA draft choices in 2025.

“The talent level is through the roof,” Knell said. “I think we’re one of the best teams in the country in talent level. We’ll see how well we play together and we’re continuing to understand how guys play on the court. We have a leaders board to keep track of when we’re matched up with different guys. The cool thing is, nobody has their own agendas. Everybody just wants to do whatever it takes to win. It’s awesome being around so many high character dudes.”

Knell was asked about the newcomers and commented on each one.

Catchings

“We call him ‘KC.’ He was going against me in practice yesterday and that was unfortunate (for me). He hit a lot of shots against our team. He’s a special dude with the way he can spread the floor. He’s so young but he’s starting to open up so we can see who he is as a person.”

Demin

“We call him ‘Turtle.’ He’s somebody that has all the tools to do anything he wants. And if he’s open for a 3 and sees a guy in the corner more open than he is, he’ll make the extra pass. It’s cool that as highly rated as he is he is putting his own agenda aside and that’s super unique. He’s going to be really good having that mindset.”

Freshman guard Elijah Crawford

“Eli is just a ball of energy. He has an understanding of the way he’s going to get on the floor and that’s defense, so he’s working extremely hard on that side of the ball. He’s quick and fast. He’s uber athletic and has a nice stroke. He’s not afraid to ask about something if he makes a mistake.”

Transfer post Keba Keta

“Yesterday I was under the hoop when somebody threw an alley-oop to Keba. I was like ‘There’s no way he’s getting to the ball’ but he grabbed it one-handed and threw it down. It’s awesome to have someone like Fous (returner Fousseyni Traore) that plays with his back to basket and can score, then someone like Keba who runs the floor and is super athletic. When he’s in there he really opens up the floor for our shooters.”

Transfer guard Mawot Mag

“He calls me ‘Klay Thompson.’ Mo is someone who I already feel an awesome connection with on the court. He can score from all three levels and is really talented on the defensive end. He’s super long and really has a great understanding of that side of the ball.

‘One thing I noticed right away is he is a great passer. At practice one day he got a steal and was going up for a contested shot at the rim but went under it and passed it our to me for a wide-open 3.”

Freshman forward Brody Kozlowski

“He can really shoot it. I love playing with Brody. I’ts fun to play with a guy who played in Utah (at Corner Canyon) in high school. He’s also a really good golfer so when he misses a shot at practice, I tell him ‘It’s all in the hips, just like your golf swing.”

Junior college transfer forward Max Triplett

“Max is super athletic and can really jump. It’s been really fun having him out on the court. He works hard and really listens. There’s only one Richie (teammate Richie Saunders) but Max is kind of another Richie out there.”

Once BYU is finished with summer practices they have a break for a few weeks. Midway through September the team will get together for official practices and Knell said he can’t wait.

“Even though we’ve only been together for six weeks, I feel like once we get to the longer practices (in the fall) we’ll really understand where everybody fits,” he said. “I’m excited for the practices to go from just one hour to two hours.

“Our mindset is we can do something special this year. Your end goal in college basketball is always to win the whole thing. We want to win our preseason games, win the Big 12, go to the NCAA Tournament and make some noise. With our core group and the guys coming in to compliment us, we feel like we can make all that happen.”

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