BYU's Kevin Young shares more details from Rob Wright's transfer portal escapades

When Rob Wright III hit the transfer portal soon after the Cougars' early exit from the NCAA Tournament, BYU basketball was hit hard. Already tasked with the monumental chore of finding replacements for Richie Saunders and AJ Dybantsa, Kevin Young's program was banking on a return from the team's starting point guard.

The only returning member of the starting lineup, the team needed continuity to build off of last season's struggles. That continuity should have arrived behind Wright, a player whose talents and comfortability within Young's system was invaluable in the endlessly changing landscape of college athletics.

But after negotiations fell through, Wright dove into the transfer portal. He came dangerously close to committing to Mark Pope's Kentucky program, too. Call it divine intervention, a strong offer from BYU basketball, or Pope's apparently horrific recruiting touch, but Wright and BYU came to terms, and all was forgiven.

That doesn't make the entire saga any less mysterious, however, as many wondered what happened between Wright and his team to force him out the door after just one year.

Kevin Young shed a bit of light on the offseason panic, and reassured that there's no tension between the sides.

"I wouldn't say it was unexpected," Young admitted in an interview with KSL Sports. "We would have liked to get something done ahead of time, obviously -- even months ago, to be honest. I think that's just a product of the sport now. It's very difficult ot do multi-year deals, and sometimes things can get out of my hands or out of his hands."

"I wanted to be here, I wanted him here, and how we got here is kind of in the past at this point."

"He can [be the leader of the program]," Young continued. "He has been already in the offseason. I do think he's the best point guard in college basketball. His resume would speak towards that. I know there's areas of his game that he wants to showcase even more from the point guard position."

One point of friction was that had Wright opted to sign with Kentucky, he would be joining his third team in as many years since joining Baylor as a five-star freshman from Montverde. He followed the money to BYU, where a hefty sum and the allure of teaming up with AJ Dybantsa. Had he made the jump, he would have gathered a reputation as a one-and-done type of point guard mercenary -- exactly what Baylor fans accused their former point guard of after exiting Scott Drew's program.

Young touched on this point as well.

"He has been a bit of a traveller, with his career path but look that's kind of what [college basketball has] become now."

Wright's exploration of the transfer portal is nothing new in college basketball, and it certainly wasn't personal between him and the BYU program he called home as a sophomore. Now back in blue, Wright is ready to lead the Cougars into the next phase of Kevin Young's vision.

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