After 40+ days of wandering in the offseason wilderness, Kevin Young has led his program to the big man promised to BYU basketball. No basketball team is complete without a leader at its base, and now that leader is Jaxon Kohler, a starter and team captain with Tom Izzo's excellent Michigan State program.
It took a lot of luck to get him, too.
After completing his senior season in Lansing, Kohler joined the Utah Jazz Summer League team under the assumption that his college eligibility had run dry. Historically speaking, this was a well-measured decision for Kohler. But the modern age of college athletics dances on the grave of history; the age of NIL has ushered in endless confusion about the definition of a student-athlete and blurred the line between collegiate and professional sports more than ever before.
Thanks to a California injunction, Kohler and his peers from the recruiting class of 2022 were granted an additional year of eligibility in line with the NCAA's new five-in-five legislature, which affords college athletes five years of eligibility from their graduation.
The ticking clock was extended in this graduating class's favor -- Jaxon Kohler was back on the market.
And like a shark in iron-rich waters, Kevin Young and BYU basketball were in the right place at the right time. Starved of a starting caliber center in the cutthroat Big 12 Conference, the Cougars were desperate to plug the final leak in their lineup.
That's when Kohler entered with a cannonball's splash.
Kohler is an excellent prospect for any program in the nation, and his roll of suitors can confirm as much. BYU wasn't alone in those shallow waters -- Kentucky, Kansas, and Louisville all took a bite at the transfer portal's biggest intruder.
Be it BYU's proximity to home (just a short drive to Kohler's hometown, American Fork), the program's need for a starting center, or Kevin Young's exhillarating system, the ravenous Cougars snatched their target, and one even better than the candidates they had whiffed on throughout the offseason.
Kohler makes BYU basketball a Final Four contender, completing a roster already stuffed full of talent.
But beyond just positional need, Kohler's skill set offerings are expansive. In fact, if the Cougars had a player like Kohler in 2025-26 -- a year where perimeter trio AJ Dybantsa, Rob Wright, and Richie Saunders were left to fend for themselves in a harrowingly shallow roster -- they could have reversed some of the most tragic results of the season.
Jaxon Kohler is the missing piece for BYU basketball
Opponent | Result | Opp. Two-Point FG% | Rebound Differential |
|---|---|---|---|
Texas (NCAA Tournament) | L, 71-79 | 52.3% | -9 |
1 Arizona | L, 83-86 | 58.5% | +2 |
8 Houston | L, 66-77 | 53.7% | -4 |
Oklahoma State | L, 92-99 | 65.1% | 0 |
UCF | L, 84-97 | 55.0% | -6 |
In the terminal loss to Texas in the Round of 64, BYU was bodied down low by the Longhorns, and thoroughly out-rebounded as Keba Keita collected just four boards all game.
In winnable games against great teams like Arizona and Houston, interior defense was a major issue, keeping the Cougars out of reach without a stopper.
In humiliating losses against Oklahoma State and UCF, the Cougars had no interior presence either as a rebounding leader or with any interior defense to speak of.
Essentially, the Cougars failed to control the game where it mattered most: effort stats.
Jaxon Kohler is an elite rebounder and excellent rim protector -- the exact archetype of player who could have elevated Kevin Young's tattered defense against the razor sharp programs that populate the Big 12.
Add to the mix the fact that Kohler shot an exceptional 38% from three-point land on good volume with Sparty last season, and he fills in perhaps the most glaring flaw in last season's makeup: reliable scoring and creation on the fringes.
This year's roster will feature capable scorers in Robert Wright III, Collin Chandler, Bruce Branch III, and elite point-piling support from role players Dawson Baker, Nate Pickens, Tyler Betsey, Jake Wahlin, and more.
Jaxon Kohler is yet another weapon in the arsenal and the missing piece to complete what could be the best BYU basketball team to date. A gulp of fresh air for a program starved of reliable contribution a season ago.
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