BYU Steals Rob Wright Back From Kentucky; Is BYU the Better Program Right Now?

BYU got Rob Wright back, beat out Kentucky in the process, and raised a wild question about college basketball in the NIL era: is BYU actually the better program right now?

In this video, I break down how BYU landed Rob Wright again after his trip to Lexington, what this says about the Cougars’ NIL power, and why BYU vs. Kentucky is a much more legitimate debate than a lot of people want to admit. Between Kevin Young, Mark Pope, transfer portal chaos, and the changing power structure in college basketball, this is a huge statement for BYU basketball.

I also get into what Rob Wright’s return says about player movement in the portal, why BYU’s roster is coming together in a big way, and how schools with money, coaching, and momentum can now go toe-to-toe with blue bloods like Kentucky in recruiting and roster building.

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Chapters:
00:00 BYU vs. Kentucky after Rob Wright
00:58 Why Rob Wright entering the portal was shocking
01:47 How BYU got Rob Wright back
02:38 What Kentucky’s involvement says about the market
03:34 Why BYU fans can still rally around Rob Wright
04:07 Is BYU close to Kentucky as a program?
04:52 Kevin Young, Mark Pope, and the bigger debate
05:44 Why blue blood status means less now
06:37 BYU’s recent wins over Kentucky
06:54 Why BYU may have the better setup right now
07:46 What this means for BYU basketball moving forward
08:28 The new reality of the transfer portal

#BYU #BYUBasketball #RobWright #KentuckyBasketball #MarkPope #KevinYoung #CollegeBasketball #TransferPortal #NIL #Big12

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Does BYU have a better basketball program than Kentucky right now? I actually think we need to raise that question because the Cougars just dunked all over Kentucky in the portal by landing Rob Wright. Yes, that Rob Wright, who just left. He's back. And he did this all basically as he was on the flight back from Lexington. Uh, in this video, I'll tell you how it happened, what it says about the NIL power that BYU has, speaking of, and why the programs are actually in this era much closer than you'd think. So I did that video within the last like 10 days about being shocked that Rob Wright entered the portal. And I got a lot of comments, and fair enough, from people being like, Man, how could you be shocked? Like, how could you really be shocked that Rob Wright entered the portal after he signed an NIL agreement with BYU or with Baylor the year before, and then still chose to go to BYU. And hey, fair enough. I I that I it was a very similar situation here where Rob Wright had said during the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City, I'll either go pro or I will be back at BYU. And I took him at his word for that. I was like, okay, well, he's he's gonna be back. And then he enters the portal. And it's like, all right, I look again, John, all is fair. You said it yourself, all is fair in Love War in the transfer portal. I should not have been surprised, but I was. But you know what? And I've been waiting to say this. Somebody better use this as a headline. You don't even have to give me attribution. Rob was right all along. You're welcome. Uh Rob Wright did wind up coming back to BYU. He is now, as BYU said on its official Twitter account, signed, sealed, and delivered. Okay, so how did it all go down? And why am I making this a big picture point about BYU versus Kentucky and the program stature? All right. It sounds like BYU tried to agree with a number on him around or after the NCAA tournament, like as all that is happening, but right decided, like, hey, I want to test the market here. There's crazy money. I mean, to the point of the conversation to begin this live show. Flory Badunga is getting$5 million. Like, there's crazy money out there. I'm sure BYU gave him a competitive offer, but when the money is as wild as it is right now, like I can understand being like, you know, I just I want to test the market a little bit here, see how crazy this gets. And that was pretty obvious to see when you saw the schools that were interested in him. Louisville, Arkansas, Kentucky. Like these are Louisville seems to be spending more than anybody right now. Kentucky spent more than anybody last year. Arkansas has John Calapari and the Walmart money, the Tyson money, right? I mean, like these are places you would be looking if you're trying to maximize the dollar figure there. And if you're BYU, I can understand not wanting to like totally overcommit there. You need a roster with legitimate depth as BYU found out last year. They didn't have enough depth to withstand uh a slew of injuries. It needs to be a deeper roster that's probably not as reliant on three players. Eventually, it does sound like though, the money between BYU and Kentucky got pretty close. Jeff Goodman tweeted that he heard that the money in the end was close to equal, which does show the NIL power that BYU has. And then Matt Norlander from CBS Sports, another one of the big news guys in college hoops, said that at the end of the day, Rob Wright just wasn't really that eager to attend a third school in three years. So, hey, as much as it sucks, and you have to like swallow your pride a bit as a fan to get here on this and just be like, hey, I you can love our school and still say there is like crazy life-changing money out there. I've got to at least explore this and see what I could get. And if it's an extra million and a half dollars, like I, you know, I gotta listen. I all's fair and love and war in the transfer portal. Now he's back. Now you can rally around him. And to me, it makes two big points about BYU's program. One of them is that in this day and age, I really think BYU's program, you can argue, is pretty close to on par with Kentucky. And it's not, you don't just need this example to see that. It's a general statement about where we're at in college basketball right now. So hear me out on this, okay? And please do subscribe to the channel. It takes one click, it is totally free. Helps me out a bunch if you do do that. BYU is pretty pretty well strapped when it comes to NIL. If you're offering close to the same of what Kentucky is putting out there, you've got some cash. Kentucky's desperate. Spent 22 million last year. Mark Pope barely got him into the tournament. They got to the second round, that's it. Uh, so that's a good sign. If you had any doubt about how much BYU can spend, and that is a part of this. Like they've they've got some money in the era where that matters more than anything. I would also say, like Kevin Young, for the doubters there, of which there were many by the end of the year that were telling me, hey, you need to be more critical of him based on how that team finished last year, it's clear that the guys do like playing for him. Like Rob was not going to go and playing for him over Mark Pope. I mean, that was the decision, right? The former BYU coach or the current BYU coach. That's that's another piece of this that's uh that's really interesting. But if you're if you're talking about BYU versus Kentucky, and it doesn't have to be BYU, but any, you know, insert well-funded power five program here versus Kentucky or Carolina or Duke or Kansas, any of the blue bloods, there's just really not that much difference anymore. And this has been a fascinating case study in it. The North Carolina job opening was a fascinating case study in it. Tommy Lloyd turned them down, Dusty May turned them down. Ben McCollum didn't even like let it get to the point where he could officially turn them down. It's just there's not that big of a difference if you've got the money these days. If you've got the money and a passionate fan base and you're in a good league, the jobs are much more equal than they used to be. Okay. And if you start looking at like what BYU has done now, it's like they they got Rob Wright from Kentucky, and then they literally took Colin Chandler back, a prodigal son of sorts, uh, from Kentucky after he scored 10 points a game for Mark Pope last year and shot 41% from three-point range. So I'm not here to tell you that like BYU's got the history of Kentucky. That's all great, man. But Jamal Mashburn is not winning you any recruiting battles in 2026. Jamal Cashburn might. Man, I'm on fire with the puns today. But Jamal Mashburn is not. Uh, Jamal Mashburn kids was a great player for Kentucky back in the 90s. Um BYU right now, I think, has a better coach, competitive dollars. If you're Rob Wright and you're looking at the situations right now, like Kentucky fans are freaking out about the portal and where they're at right now. At least at BYU, you're looking at it like, all right, well, there's there's a lottery pick that I'm gonna be playing with, right? Uh now Colin Chandler left Kentucky to come there. Another couple of transfers signed this week by BYU. The roster is starting to come together. Shooter from Syracuse, a bit more of a glue guy from Clemson. The roster's rounding into form here, and you've got, I know that you don't want to rely on this as much as you did last year, but you've got with Bruce Branch, somewhat of an AJ DeBonsa replacement, and then Colin Chandler. If you want to say that's somewhat of a Richie Saunders replacement, you've got sort of like a big three to build around here. I don't think BYU is going to want to be as reliant on that as they were around the big three this past year, but it's a pretty good nucleus right now. So things are looking good. I think it says a lot of good things about the BYU program right now, and uh I would be very happy about this. I know it's like readjusting your expectations to not be like, well, hey, this guy sort of cheated on us, man. It was, you know, but you can't really look at it like a dating analogy here just because of what college athletics is right now. In the past, like five years ago, if it were like, hey, this guy went into the portal and then came back, I can see how you'd be. It's like, well, you come up to your girlfriend, you're like, hey, can I just like hop on Tinder tonight and like see what's out there, and then I'll decide if I want to stay with you or not. That's basically what happened, but like that's the norm. That's just the that's the society that we live in. Very polyamorous, I suppose, in college sports these days. And I think there still is a story where you can rally around Rob Wright here. And I don't think that'll be too much of a problem for BYU fans. But it is crazy how much that's all changed recently in college athletics. Things are looking good for BYU right now, but that didn't stop ESPN Stephen A. Smith from taking a huge shot at the Cougars. Uh, click here to find out why.