Did BYU Deserve To Get Burned By Rob Wright?

Did BYU deserve to get burned by Rob Wright?

In this video, I break down Rob Wright entering the transfer portal and why this move feels like one of the most shocking transfer portal developments in the Big 12 so far. After Rob Wright previously indicated he would either stay at BYU or go pro, the Cougars are now left scrambling and facing a brutal question: did BYU have this coming after the way they landed him from Baylor in the first place?

I dive into why Baylor fans are laughing, whether this is just transfer portal karma, what it says about BYU’s roster heading into next season, and whether Kevin Young and the Cougars can still build a strong team despite losing such a key piece.

If you follow BYU basketball, Big 12 basketball, the transfer portal, NIL, college basketball roster building, or the growing chaos of player movement, this is a story you need to watch.

Chapters:
0:00 BYU just got played by Rob Wright
0:59 BYU’s big three is officially gone
1:30 Why this loss hits so hard
2:24 Rob Wright’s old promise to stay
3:21 Did BYU deserve this?
3:45 Why Baylor fans are laughing
4:45 Did BYU have this coming?
5:14 Transfer portal karma?
6:02 No guardrails in college sports
6:50 Why Rob Wright is leaving
7:37 Kentucky and Arkansas money angle
8:34 Can BYU survive this loss?
9:31 Kevin Young and BYU’s next move
10:18 Stephen A. Smith takes a shot at BYU

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#BYU #BYUBasketball #Big12 #CollegeBasketball #TransferPortal #RobWright #KevinYoung #BaylorBasketball #NIL #KentuckyBasketball #ArkansasBasketball

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

BYU just got played by Rob Wright, point guard from last season. Did the Cougars actually deserve this? Did they deserve their fate that was handed to them by Rob Wright? This is the most shocking transfer portal edition to me so far from the Big 12. He had just said he would either stay at BYU or go to the NBA. So what gives here? Why is Rob Wright leaving? And do Baylor fans have a right to be laughing right now? Okay. Let me just answer that one first. Yes, Baylor fans. Not that you needed my permission, but yes, I can understand you having a good chuckle over this one. All right. This is going to be a really different looking BYU team next year. I think we can officially say that. Richie Saunders not going to be around. Obviously, he has graduated and wish him the best in the healing process from his injury. AJ DeBonsa, I mean, regardless of what he's been saying, teasing, like, oh, you know, I might come back. AJ DeBonsa is going to be in the NBA. So there goes the second of the big three, and then the third of the big three. You're counting. One, two, three. Just count them with me. That's Rob Wright. And um, boy, he's now transferring. He is headed to the transfer portal. And this one, this one surprised me, man. This one surprised me to see. I know Baylor fans will call me naive for that. Um fans, I'm sure for BYU were already looking forward to the portal because you knew, hey, AJ's gone, and yes, we have Brian Branch, but like we're gonna need to go get some firepower in the portal, and we've got the finances, we have the resources, we have the reputation now to do this. Okay. And at the same time, looking around, like I want some reinforcements here. I want something different. I did not like what I saw at the end of last season, which was BYU going four and eight in the final 12 regular season games and losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Texas despite a Herculean effort from AJ DeBonsa, who was doing his damnedest. Okay. Uh I would imagine, though, it sure seemed like everybody was counting on Rob Wright being back, man. Especially because, and again, I will I will say here, Baylor fans, I know what happened last year, but it was not that long ago. I saw this J. Drew quote, man. I saw this J. Drew quote, okay? Let's check this out. I didn't get my scenes set up well today. Sorry, guys. Um, little tidbit from my chat with Rob Wright last night. The sophomore told me that if he does leave BYU after this season, it will be for professional basketball and not for the transfer portal. Now that was on March 11th, that was less than a month ago. Here we are now. What's happening? Uh he's leaving. He's going to the transfer portal. Uh so look, all is fair in love, war, and the transfer portal these days. That's just the bottom line. There's not much you can do about it. It's a pretty lawless place. You've got to understand that things like these can happen. But to me, it was still jarring, okay? Like, I mean, I we just this was not that long ago. Now, did BYU deserve this? And will BYU survive the hit? Please do subscribe to the channel. Pushing toward 35k subs and getting there. Very close to 32, everybody. Thank you very much for helping. But a ton of you are watching the channel right now who are not subscribed, just one click, it would really help me out. Uh, Rob Wright was a contentious ad last year for BYU. Okay, this is why I asked the question did the Cougars deserve this? He transferred within the conference, first of all. That's always going to be more contentious, that's going to ruffle some feathers. And second of all, as Baylor fans will vehemently tell you, and it was reported, uh Rob Wright had signed an NIL agreement with Baylor last year. Not just like, hey, I'm I'm gonna be here, I'm in, like verbally, but had signed something. We've now seen this play out a couple of times. Most of the time, the student athlete still was able to get out of it, like you know, Darien Mensah, for instance. Um this one, Rob Wright was gone. He was he was a BYU cougar, and this in some ways wrecked the Baylor roster. I mean, it really hurt. That was a team that struggled this year, struggled to like find much of an identity and consistency, and I think it was ready to be built around Wright. That was certainly the the narrative last year when he left for BYU. So Baylor fans are gonna feel no shame in laughing as this happened, and I saw that in my Twitter mentions, which again I understand. Did BYU really deserve this? I will just say, again, all is fair in love and war in the transfer portal. And there's the old saying, like in relationships, right? Uh you leave them like you found them. You leave them like you found them. And that that typically is relating to if you get together with somebody who is cheating on their spouse or girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever at the time, you're probably gonna lose them that way too. Like you leave them like you found them. Wright makes a commitment to Baylor, leaves, makes at least a verbal commitment to Jay Drew in the locker room after the NCAA tournament, leaves. Um, you just have to be prepared for that. You got to be prepared. That's a possibility. Like you had certainly seen that before. And this is I'm not trying to like specifically attack the character of Wright here either. It's just the reality of where we're at. It's just the reality of where we're at. Like these things are going to continue happening as long as there are no guardrails. Now we'll see about the uh, you know, President Trump's executive order, how well that'll be enforced, and one-time transfer and all that. But for right now, anything goes. And if you're gonna play in this game, if you're gonna swim in these waters, if you're gonna go after the Rob Wright's and A.J. DeBonsas of the world, and you're gonna be bringing in players of that caliber, you're gonna deal with this sometimes. So I would just say, to an extent, yes, I suppose you deserve it, but also you're gonna win your fair share going the other way. And it's just gonna happen and it's gonna be painful sometimes, it's gonna be awesome others, and uh it's just the way of the world right now. Whether you like it or not, it's the way of the world. Now, honestly, I don't know that very many people do like this at all. Why is he leaving? And this is again why I will say if you're gonna swim in these waters, you're gonna deal with some of this. Well, look, some of what we have seen, the the reporting on what Wright is going to do now, is potentially go to Kentucky or Arkansas. Okay, now I got something to tell you. I got some news for you. If Kentucky or Arkansas are involved in this, if that's where he's gonna wind up, Rob Wright's getting a bag. He's getting some money. There's going to be a lot of money involved. Kentucky, very well publicized, whether Mark Pope wanted to admit it or not, uh, had a$22 million roster last year. Now that did not get them to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament, but they had a$22 million roster last year. It's a ton of money. They're gonna have some money to splash there. Um, I don't know if you've been to Northwest Arkansas. If you've been to the Fayetteville area, Bentonville, like there's quite a bit of money there. Uh Tyson, Walmart, all that. They've got some money. John Calapari is also there as their head coach, so uh they're they're bankrolling him right now. He's probably going to get paid. And I suppose there's an extra layer of twisting the knife here if he goes to play for former Cougar head coach, Mark Pope. But look, BYU can certainly survive. Like BYU should be should be fine. This is definitely not ideal, uh, but they should be fine. I'm not going to say this is some addition by subtraction scenario, mainly just because like the teams that we've seen have real success, like legit great success, have generally been teams that have a very good mix of experience and transfer portal then sprinkled in, right? Like it's the sprinkles, it's not the actual cake itself. And you're now going through like replacing that big three. It's just that there's so much production that you're gonna have to replace in the transfer portal now if you are if you are BYU, that I worry a bit about what that does to the ceiling of the team next year. Or maybe it's is it more apt to say what it does to the floor of the team next year? Like you know, a team with a lot of returning production probably has a higher floor. Maybe that's the better way to say it. But um, at the same time, I mean, look, when when Richie Saunders went down and you really needed DeBonsa and Wright to carry you two, the season didn't go that well. So I don't know. I mean, you can I can see how you would look at this and just be like, you know, we'll be okay. I would just say you'll be okay because I do think you have a very good coach, even though he took a lot of flack, and I had opposing Big 12 fans tell me I should be more critical toward him. Maybe that's still true. I still think Kevin Young's a pretty good coach that dealt with a ton of injuries last year, and we'll see how it goes. I still think you got a good coaching staff. I still think you got a lot of um NIL support there, and I would imagine they're gonna put together a pretty darn good roster. But we do know it's gonna look it's gonna look a lot different. I pretty darn good roster. I think solid roster for sure. Solid roster for sure at BYU next year. We'll see beyond that. Uh now, despite the fact that I think BYU is set up to still be a player in this era, which they I mean they've already shown by pulling in another five star top of the line recruit for this next year. Um ESPN Stephen A. Smith still took a big shot at BYU, came after the Cougars with a pretty ridiculous take. Uh, click here to find out what that is.