BYU basketball is joining elite leaders in race for this coveted international center

Starting center this, starting center that. I get it. BYU basketball's hunt for an elusive 7-footer is delivering the same level of results as the search for a massive 20-foot-long anaconda. Oh, so close, so many times, but the safari continues. Sure, the Cougars could manage to salvage the big man struggle by securing the commitment of players like Michael Kuzic or Luigi Suigo -- and I pray every night that this will come to be -- but don't sleep on the possibility of Senegalese center

With that jotted down, it's no surprise that Kevin Young and his staff are hot on the trail for highly-recruited international center Momo Faye, who might fit the bill of the paint anchor and physical enforcer that the team needs to compete at the highest level of college basketball. Fate could be a guaranteed key rotational piece for a team at worst.

BYU doesn't need four starting 7-footers -- they probably couldn't do that if they tried. Don't overlook Faye for his size of 6'10"; he plays much bigger than that.

Athletic and fearless at the rim, he's not the delicate ballerina that so many center prospects appear to be in this recruiting class, tossing three pointers from a distance so as to avoid bumping bodies with the physical bigs that would await them in the Big 12, or another power conference.

No, if those three-point shooting 7-footers are ballerinas, Faye is Terry Crews crashing through drywall with his muscles bulging and eyes popping. Powerful, driven, and a don't-budge-an-inch force in the paint. He doesn't shoot three-pointers, and he doesn't need to. He's airborne, catching lobs and tearing the rim from the backboard. He's planted in the paint, patiently awaiting the right moment to finish the job and flush the rock through the cylinder.

Oh yeah, and he's not too shabby when it comes to protecting the rim on the defensive end, either. He was a freak of nature playing pro hoops in Europe last year, and promises to dominate at the college level next season.

That's the type of player many hoped Keba Keita would be in a disappointing senior season. It's the type of player that BYU basketball would love to have in '26 to right the wrongs of last year.

Rated as a four-star recruit, rumors are growing that BYU, St John's, and UNC are the frontrunners to host Faye's freshman season, though St John's is given a slight edge over the other two competitors for the moment.

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