Let's get right into it and start with BYU women's basketball:
This one will probably be the easier of the two because the women do not have nearly as many players coming and going as the men. The only two starters on the women's side who are leaving are Lara Rohkohl, who is graduating, and Marya Hudgins, who is entering the transfer portal. We're also losing Heather Hamson, Hattie Ogden, and Braeden Gunlock, who all played occasionally, but not a lot. Meanwhile, Kailey Woolston, who was arguably BYU's best player a couple years ago, just returned from her mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and freshmen Stella Sakalas and Vahayliah Seumanutafa are also joining the team. Notably, Kennedy Woolston, Kaylee's sister, has signed with BYU, but she will serve a mission first and won't join the team until 2028-29.
Now, what makes this a little challenging is the fact that all five of the players leaving are essentially forwards (technically, Marya Hudgins is listed as a guard on all the official rosters, but she has the height of a forward, she plays like a forward, and I'm pretty sure the guy who announced the starting lineups at all the games always referred to her as a forward). Meanwhile, Delaney Gibb, Sydney Benally, Kailey Woolston, and Olivia Hamlin, who are arguably the four best players on the team, are all guards. What is BYU going to do about that?
I'm guessing they'll go with a lineup of three guards and two forwards. The three guards will most likely be Benally, Gibb, and Woolston. (Hamlin is definitely good enough to be a starter, but if she wasn't last year, she probably won't be this year. She may be one of those players like Jaxson Robinson who just like coming off the bench.) At forward, I see no reason to remove Brinley Cannon, and replacing Lara Rohkohl with Bola Yussuf seems like a no-brainer considering they were basically interchangeable this last season.
G Sydney Benally
G Delaney Gibb
G Kailey Woolston
F Brinley Cannon
F Bola Yussuf
As for other players who will be part of the rotation, we'll obviously see plenty of Olivia Hamlin and Kambree Barber just like we have before, and assuming Arielle Mackey-Williams doesn't tear her ACL a third time, she'll probably get some playing time as well. I would also be surprised if we didn't see some significant minutes for Stella Sakalas, who was the third-ranked overall prospect in Illinois, and Vahayliah Seumanufala, who was on the U19 Australian World Cup squad. The real question is who is going to play backup to Bola Yussuf at the 5? I can see this going three ways: we pick up another player, we give Mariam Traore signficantly more playing time, or we just play small ball while Bola is on the bench like we often did last year when Rohkohl and Yussuf were both in foul trouble.
Now, let's look at men's basketball:
This is going to be tough because BYU only has one returning starter from last year, and that's Rob Wright. The good news is that they have a lot of great players coming in. Bruce Branch is the sixth overall prospect in the class of 2026, Dean Rueckert is a 4-star recruit, Colin Chandler had four stars and was the third leading scorer for Kentucky this last year, and Jake Wahlin started in the majority of the games for a very good Clemson team. Plus, Dawson Baker is back, and he was the only player outside the big 3 to average double digits before going out earlier in the season.
It goes without saying that Rob Wright will be one of the guards, and Colin Chandler will most likely be another. Bruce Branch will almost certainly be one of the forwards. The big question is who will be what Mark Durrant always calls, "The big fella, the man in the middle." Right now, Jake Wahlin is both the tallest guy on the team and the best candidate for this position, although he generally played at the 4 for Clemson and not the 5. Ideally, BYU can get someone taller who is more of a traditional 5, but for now, that's who I'm going with.
Now that we have two guards and two forwards, the remaining spot could really be a guard or a forward. It's probably between guard Dawson Baker and forward Dean Rueckert. I'm going to go with Rueckert because for one thing, BYU needs all the size they can get if they don't have a 7-footer, and for another thing, Baker has seemed pretty comfortable coming off the bench in the past.
G Rob Wright
G Colin Chandler
F Dean Rueckert
F Bruce Branch
F Jake Wahlin
Along with Baker, some other guys who will most likely be a significant part of the rotation are Nate Pickens, who was expected to be a big part of the rotation last year, Tyler Betsey, who was a solid part of the rotation at Syracuse, Brooks Bahr, who is a three-star prospect who just came back from his mission, and Khadim Mboup, who may have to be Jake Wahlin's back-up at the 5. I also wouldn't be too surprised to see Brody Kozlowski get more minutes.
Who knows what will happen in the next 6+ months before the season starts, but for now, this is what I've got.
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