4. How will Egor Demin respond to the Big 12?

Let’s talk shop for a second and get some strong statements off our chests. I’ll start, and then you guys can send me your tweets, passenger pigeons, whatever you’d like.

I think Demin, BYU’s 6-foot-9 slo-mo playmaker from Moscow, is quite possibly the most talented manipulative playmaker we’ve had in college basketball since Tyrese Haliburton left Iowa State in 2019. I also think he’s the most talented basketball player to wear the Cougars uniform since Danny Ainge. Jimmer Fredette was a shotmaker, I get it, but Demin’s command over the flow of the game is different.

Opinions on Demin to this point have been positive but guarded, yet the 18-year-old who last played for Real Madrid showed the entire repertoire in his debut earlier this month against Central Arkansas. He sold his shot high and then threw live-dribble darts to shooters low. He lofted lobs off the backboard in traffic—this was absolutely a pass—to his big. He caught the ball on the short roll and moved the low man with his eyes to open a kick to the corner for a 3. And if there’s a prospect in this class that has better overhanded pass touch and placement, I would love to see them.

I let out a yawp that scared the [REDACTED FOR CB] out of my dog as I was pulling clips from Egor’s first game under new BYU coach Kevin Young, who migrated to Provo from the Phoenix Suns. I concede the caveat that it was against a vastly inferior opponent; I just think the mental acuity of what went down in that game feels like it’ll translate to the rest of the schedule. Ignore the size of the opposition and observe the casual boredom that Demin exhibited as he yawned and made the correct decision on the first four pick-and-roll plays of the game, each with a different outcome.

The beauty here is that BYU’s transition to the Big 12 will provide Egor opportunities to be tested on both ends. I’m very eager to see what Kelvin Sampson and Bill Self draw up for him and how he handles it, not just on offense but on defense. It’s possible that we were seeing a lack of respect for the opponent, but the attention to detail from Demin was subpar at times. That will get tested in the Big 12, and it could put some stress on the idea that Demin is such an elite offensive player that his defensive issues can be tolerable on a winning team.

Will I be able to stop myself from getting overexcited? That’s the question. Better yet, I’ll ask a question that I should probably contemplate on Saturday nights while I’m tweeting and watching the Matrix sequels on YouTube TV: How high is too high? Demin is a prototypical bonus playmaker and scorer within an offense: He perhaps lacks the offensive assertiveness or toolbox to fully carry an elite offense, but he’s versed enough as a shooter and a reader of the game to hurt whatever the defense chooses to do.