Analysis: Signing of Collin Chandler, and Rob Wright’s return, are huge wins for BYU, Kevin Young

In the space of about four days this month, BYU’s basketball program went from one seemingly destined for the bottom half of the Big 12 standings in the 2026-27 season to one that could contend for one of those coveted top four seeds in the conference tournament next March.

That’s how huge recent developments have been for coach Kevin Young and his third squad in Provo, a squad whose future was looking bleak with the assumed departures of its three best players from a group that probably underachieved a tad last season.

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Young’s first big win came last Saturday, when two-year Kentucky player Collin Chandler announced he was “coming home” to the place where he originally signed before a church mission to Sierra Leone and England and a fairly successful stint with former BYU coach Mark Pope and the Wildcats.

Even more impressive, Young kept the ball rolling Wednesday when point guard Rob Wright III said he would return to BYU after having entered the transfer portal last week. Making the news even sweeter for Young and BYU was the fact that Wright visited Kentucky earlier this week, but decided to stay in Provo.

“I’m Back,” Wright posted on X with a 38-second highlights video that ended with the phrase: “No place like home.”

Assuming superstar freshman AJ Dybantsa declares for the NBA draft as the probable No. 1 pick — a return to BYU would be a complete and utter surprise — in June, Wright’s decision means that BYU should have at least one starter back off the team that went 9-9 in the Big 12 and 23-12 overall.

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That’s also significant, seeing as how Young said after the Cougars’ 79-71 loss to Texas in the NCAA Tournament that next year’s team would be built around Wright.

“Rob is the best point guard in college basketball,” Young said in a school news release Wednesday after news broke earlier in the day that the Wilmington, Delaware, native was returning. “He is poised to lead our team as the floor general and help be an extension of our staff. I am looking forward to continuing to coach Rob and help him develop his game.”

Sources say Wright told BYU coaches Tuesday night that he was returning, which is probably why the school had a news release ready to go shortly after he made his own announcement Wednesday morning.

But the good news didn’t stop there.

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Clemson forward Jake Wahlin, a Provo native, announced on X that he, too, was heading back home with the words, “Let’s work cougar nation.” Wahlin committed to BYU and Pope out of Timpview High in 2021 and then inked with Utah after a church mission and played two seasons on the Hill for coach Craig Smith.

The 6-foot-10 Wahlin will have one season of eligibility remaining, while the other prodigal son returning to BYU, the 6-5 Chandler, will have two.

BYU had not announced Wahlin’s arrival as of midday Wednesday, but Young “recently watched Wahlin’s film and made an aggressive push this week to land Jake,” according to Robby McCombs. The BYU insider also reported on the Vanquish the Foe website that Wahlin had other Power Four offers, including some from Kansas State, Cincinnati and Cal.

Monday, Young got his second commitment from the portal, landing Syracuse wing Tyler Betsey. The 6-foot-8 shooter who has been called a “floor-stretcher” by Travis Branham of 247Sports averaged 6.7 points and 2.8 rebounds for the Orange last year and should be a nice complement to Wright and Chandler.

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Now BYU desperately needs a big man who can protect the rim and score; obviously, Young and his staff know that, and they have set their sights on several 7-footers, most notably UConn center Eric Reibe, according to several outlets.

The Cougars are also reported to be wooing Utah’s Keanu Dawes, whose uncle, Derek Dawes, played for BYU in the early 2000s.

As for landing Chandler last week, Young said the former Farmington High standout will give the Cougars another shooter and playmaker that they so desperately need.

“His passion for the game and his ability to make winning plays all over the floor is going to make everyone around him better,” Young said in a school news release. “He showed that he is one of the premier 3-point shooters in the country last season and wasn’t afraid to take and make big-time shots.”

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Still, this year’s team will be built around Wright, a scoring point guard who averaged 18.5 points and 4.6 assists last year and shot a sparkling 41% from 3-point range. His return is also fortuitous for BYU because another point guard on the BYU roster, KJ Perry, has entered the portal.

Perry, rated as the No. 1 junior college recruit in the country, redshirted after joining the program midseason and traveled with the Cougars, but was never really a good fit for BYU, according to a source close to the program.

Meanwhile, Wright was a good fit, on and off the floor, and his return — and the fact that BYU fought hard to keep him — says as much.

Wright’s marquee highlight came when he nailed a 3-pointer to beat Clemson at Madison Square Garden in December, but the 6-1 speedster was also largely responsible for helping BYU beat his former school in February in Waco, among other outstanding performances.

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That outing convinced this reporter that BYU would do whatever was necessary to keep Wright in the fold in 2026-27. Wright has a mental toughness similar to Saunders, and Jimmer Fredette.

Throughout the past year, since he left Baylor and joined BYU last May, Wright gave three one-on-one interviews to the Deseret News — one via Zoom when he signed in April, another in January for an article about blending in with Dybantsa and senior Richie Saunders, and the third at the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City after he nearly lost a tooth.

In the last two interviews, Wright went out of his way to express how much he loved playing for Young and the Cougars, and how much he was enjoying Provo. Asked after the Cougars’ 105-91 win over Kansas State on March 10 whether he would be a one-and-done at BYU like Dybantsa almost surely will be, he shook his head and said that if he decides to stay in college and not turn pro, it would be at BYU.

“I am super excited to be a part of the BYU family, and I just love it here,” he said.

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Nothing about college sports should surprise anyone anymore in this day and age of NIL and the transfer portal, so when Wright decided to test the waters last week, I was not surprised. With the money out there, he would have been foolish not to.

That’s why his decision announced Wednesday was also not surprising. Nor was Kevin Young’s ability to deliver, yet again. It has become, as Young would say, a proof of concept.