Top NBA head-coaching candidate set to go to college with BYU job

Just before the Phoenix Suns hired Frank Vogel to replace fired head coach Monty Williams, NBA pundit Bill Simmons had repeatedly insisted Phoenix would hire Young to be their new head coach.

Perhaps Young also believed this, since Phoenix quickly gave him a raise that make the 42-year-old the league's highest-paid assistant coach. Now, after former BYU coach Mark Pope left for the head job at Kentucky, Young is set to return to his hometown of Provo to coach the Cougars.

Young has an extensive coaching history in Utah. He was an assistant coach at Utah Valley State College before working as an assistant and later head coach of the G League's Utah Flash. He also coached the same franchise after they moved and became the Delaware 87ers, the affiliate of the Philadelphia 76ers.

He's also a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a requirement for BYU head coaches (though not for assistants). All head coaching hires at BYU are subject to the approval of the Board of Education and Board of Trustees, which has a great deal of overlap with top church officials.

That may be why BYU was so aggressive in targeting Young as a replacement, though he's clearly highly-regarded in the basketball world. Young has interviewed for four different NBA head jobs, including with the Suns last season.

It looks like the Cougars are going to make an incredible hire. And Young has abandoned, or at least put off, his NBA dreams in favor of a chance to build his own college program, which he'll start once Phoenix's playoff run ends. The NBA's loss is BYU's gain.