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BYU men's basketball coach Kevin Young watches practice at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., on Wednesday, March 26, 2025. The Cougars will meet Alabama in the Sweet 16 on Thursday.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Richie Saunders adjusts his headband during practice at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., on Wednesday, March 26, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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NEWARK, N.J. — On Wednesday the four teams remaining in the East Regional — BYU, Alabama, Arizona and Duke — practiced on the floor of the Prudential Center for the first time and participated in news conferences.

Alabama coach Brad Oats was asked several questions about playing BYU, your typical news conference fare. Cougar coach Kevin Young answered a lot of questions about himself.

Young is familiar to basketball fans in the New Jersey area, having worked as an assistant coach for the Philadelphia 76ers, who play about 90 miles away. Young is intriguing because of the immediate success his style has produced in Provo in just his first season.

“I think probably where it’s helped the most is, I’m big on reference points,” Young said. “I was fortunate that pretty much every year in the NBA I was on a good team that made it to the playoffs and oftentimes made deep runs. By virtue of that, you’re putting together 100 games plans for the season. You’re part of that and obviously geared toward stopping the best players in the world.

“So I’ve referenced many of those game plans often with our coaching staff and with our players. I think when you can say, ‘This is how we stopped Damien Lillard,’ or this is how we stopped whoever, that gives them the right eyes a little more.”

Young said his NBA style of operations has really taken hold in Provo.

“In terms of recruiting, I kind of planted a flag when I got the job and said I wanted to make BYU the best place in college basketball to help guys get to the League. I think we’re off to a good start there. I think Richie Saunders is a prime example of just our development structure.

“Our whole operation is basically designed to have a development background. I’m able to tell the story of guys I’ve coached or experiences I’ve had, and that certainly resonates with the players.”

A new game: There have been plenty of comments around college basketball at the sudden and surprising rise of BYU basketball under Young, specifically as it pertains to NIL. Access to a Power 5 conference was huge, but in truth, there was always money available for the program. Now that compensating players is not against the rules, the Cougars are thriving in that space.

Young was asked about how much credit should go to the donor base for his program’s success.

“If you can show me a school whose donor base doesn’t deserve credit, I’m all ears,” he said. “That’s just what it is. People make a lot of that in today’s landscape, but I think, anymore, that’s just the starting point. That’s not a separator, in my opinion. It’s not. Especially as things are changing even more, that stuff starts getting a little bit more regulated. It’s not going to be a needle mover, it’s going to be the starting point.

“So that being said, one of the reasons I wanted to come to BYU was because of the fan base and the donor base. I know a lot of people have school pride, but I think BYU is unmatched, quite frankly. Just in terms of how much people love the school, what it stands for and the amount of alumni that have come out of BYU who are extremely successful.”

Young added: “This place is set up to succeed and I’m definitely riding the wave of a lot of that.”

The Maestro: Senior guard Trey Stewart said he was chatting with assistant coach Chris Burgess about how good Young is during practice on Wednesday.

“I went up to Burge in practice because KY drew a play up,” Stewart said. “His X’s and O’s are incredible. Like, if you give him a white board, he’s gonna draw something up and it’s the most amazing play I’ve ever seen. It’s beautiful. It’s like Mozart, it’s a beautiful song he’s writing.  I think the main thing for all of us is that we trust him because of his humility, especially where we’ve gone through some rough patches.

“KY was new to the college basketball scene, but he was very humble to come ask us questions and then when things weren’t working like as we see them throughout the season. I know we’ve gone through some struggles, but he was humble and learned, and all our coaches kind of adapted and made changes. He’s been like hoping to listen to us, so that’s given us a lot of confidence in him, because it’s more like a professional relationship, rather than just like, I’m the coach you listen.

More Tater Tot lore: The legend of Saunders and Tater Tots continues to grow.

Last week, Saunders signed an NIL deal with Ore-Ida Potatoes, the company his great-grandfather founded and where he invented the Tater Tot. On Wednesday. Ore-Ida created a new logo with “Ore-Richie 15” on it and floated it out on social media. Fans can claim free Tater Tots from the opening tip of Thursday’s BYU-Alabama game and ruing the game.

The company also announced that if the Cougars win the NCAA Tournament, a limited edition version called, “Richie’s Tater Shots” would hit the shelves.

According to social media reports, an Ore-Ida delivery truck driving around the BYU campus was painted with a picture of Saunders bearing the words, “He’ll cook again! and “Victory never tasted so good!” written on the side.

Saunders said Young encouraged him to treat the opportunity like a professional and have the conversation with Ore-Ida during the season.

Saunders added that the whole thing hasn’t been a distraction.

“I think the reason we’re here is to play basketball, and when you win at basketball, good things happen off the court,” Saunders said. “Just in closing, I would just say you focus on the basketball. This stuff can be little things that you have to take care of, but your focus is not trying to promote Tater Tots. It’s about winning games, and in turn, the Tater Tots are going to win, too; know what I’m saying?”

Saunders teammates have had a good laugh about the whole thing, even asking “Where are the Tater Tots?” at team meals.

Freshman Egor Demin, who is from Russia, said he tried Tater Tots for the first time.

“It was good,” he said. “It’s potato, I guess. I found out that it’s potato. I always thought it was something sweet.”

Not-so total recall: Most of the current BYU players were in grade school the last time the program reached the Sweet 16 in 2011, 14 years ago.

“I’m trying to do some quick math here. I was, what, eight?” Saunders said. “I remember watching them, though. It’s funny because now some of those guys are on our staff. I can remember watching these games and just being super excited for them.”

Senior Trevin Knell, being touted as the oldest player in the NCAA Tournament at 26 years of age, had the best line.

“They would probably joke that I was on the team,” he said. “I don’t even remember. I was probably in school watching them, trying to sneak it on my phone and trying to tune in. I’ve talked to Jimmer (Fredette) a ton. he’s given me a ton of help, a ton of advice for the first two round. I called him again on Monday and he gave my some advice going the Sweet 16.

“We’ve got to play our brand of basketball, at the end of the day. Alabama is going to play theirs, we’re going to play ours. It’s going to be a fun, fast-paced game, and I’m excited.”

Familiar foes: Five of BYU’s nine losses are to teams in the Sweet 16: Two to No. 1 seed Houston and one each to No. 3 seed Texas Tech, No. 4 seed Arizona and No. 6 seed Ole Miss.