A star is born

Everyone paid attention to BYU’s dominant performance last night, right? Nothing else was going on.

1. BYU’s (Demin)inant new player

The hype surrounding BYU freshman Egor Demin entering the season didn’t match that of Cooper Flagg, but maybe it should have.

The Russian teenager who’s projected to be an NBA lottery pick looked the part on Tuesday night’s 88-50 win over Central Arkansas.

He scored 18 points (7-of-11 shooting, including 4-of-6 from 3) with four rebounds, 10 assists and ZERO turnovers. Ugh, he did miss his one free throw, though. Guess he’s not perfect. But legit? Yeah, he’s that.

The poise Demin showed in the pick & roll game was incredibly impressive. I know it’s Central Arkansas, but Demin navigated pick & rolls with patience and made smart decisions on whether to pass or drive. He will create a ton of points for his teammates with his pick & roll prowess.

“Tonight we saw (Demin) be more aggressive as a scorer,” BYU coach Kevin Young said, via the Deseret News. “We had a good conversation yesterday after practice about just him making the right play. So the other night in the exhibition, him making the right play was not shooting and passing the way they were defending our team.

“And so tonight he saw some opportunities. They went under some screens and he made them pay. And then his feel as a passer is so unique, especially with his size. I think the interesting thing with him is he can do a lot, based on how the defense is playing us. That is something we will just have to see how they are playing us, and he will adjust accordingly.”

The Cougars were favored by 30.5 points, so the win wasn’t surprising. But they didn’t seem to miss point guard Dallin Hall, who was out with an injury.

We got a nice peek at the way Young wants to play: pushing the tempo and shooting. The Cougars went just 15-for-44 from 3, but they continued shooting. That’s a great sign for a team who should shoot closer to 37 or 38% than 34%.

It also showed that they’ll have more than just Demin, too. Richie Saunders seemed to make a jump, scoring 16 points on 11 attempts, with eight rebounds. Kanon Catchings was another key cog in his college debut with 17 points (6-of-13 attempts).

By the time BYU faces Ole Miss on Nov. 28 in the Rady Children’s Invitational, we could have a ranked matchup of two of the sport’s best offenses.

2. The other Tuesday results that mattered

It wasn’t a substantial slate on Tuesday, but there were a handful of matchups worth noting.

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