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

BYU guard Robert Wright III (1) chases down the ball after it got loose from an Iowa State player during an NCAA basketball game held at the Marriott Center in Provo on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News 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. 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. 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.