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PROVO — One game does not make a trend, but BYU basketball ended a nasty run with Tuesday night's win over Oklahoma State.
With due respect to Trevin Knell's 18 points, give plenty of credit to the Cougars' ball handlers for that one — both of them, including the flamethrower from longtime point guard Dallin Hall.
The Cougars' former starting point guard tied a season high with 14 points on 4-of-4 shooting off the bench, while Demin stuffed the stat sheet with 10 points, eight assists, five rebounds, two blocks and two steals in the 85-69 win over the Cowboys.
The five-star freshman from Moscow, Russia, wasn't nearly as efficient as the junior from Plain City. But in shooting 3-of-9 from the field and just 1-of-4 from 3-point range, Demin eyed his role on the team at least equally as Hall, who has taken to his new role from the bench for the past two games with notable aplomb.
"When you're playing against aggressive teams, it's hard to play alone," said Demin, the former Real Madrid prospect and projected NBA draft pick who had just one 3-point make in six previous games dating back to Thanksgiving. "It's easier to play together, especially when I can be confident in when (Hall) has the ball in his hands. He can be confident in me, too."
Hall wasn't available to speak with the print media after the game, but in a postgame interview with BYUtv, he echoed similar sentiments as his teammate.
"I trust in my teammates, my coaches; they've all been on me a lot the last couple of weeks to be more aggressive." he said. "I feel like I started to step into that role a little bit tonight.
"I'm growing in my comfortability, especially these last two games," Hall added of Demin. "We go in in spurts separately, and that allows us to get a good feel for the game. At the end of the day, we both have a great feel. We're both really dynamic off the ball, can shoot, drive, and pass it. You surround it with the guys we have on this roster, and it makes us really scary."
BYU coach Kevin Young continued to tinker with his starting lineup, inserting Rutgers graduate transfer Mawot Mag into his top five for the first time all year alongside Demin, Trevin Knell, Richie Saunders and Keba Keita.
Four of the five finished with double-figure scoring against an Oklahoma State team that ranks 113th in KenPom. Mag finished with 6 points, two rebounds and two steals, and was one of the best defensive players on the court during his 20 minutes.
But just as important as the final score, a 16-point win that skidded over the projection of 13.5 points in some corners of southern Nevada, was the result itself. After losses to then-No. 14 Houston, Texas Tech and TCU where one thing or another consistently failed BYU — including 3-point shooting, late-game defense and turnovers, to name a few — the Cougars' first job was to find a way to a win, albeit against an opponent that nearly every metric favored the Cougars.
"We just needed a win, period," Young said. "The fact that it wasn't just a blowout was good; we had to have some grit to get it done."
Perhaps a few more threes, some better defense or one or two fewer turnovers would have the Cougars staring at 4-2 in league player instead of 3-2 in Big 12 play instead of 2-3, or better. But Young's job isn't to deal in hypotheticals.
The former Phoenix Suns top assistant relies on results. And his team needed one badly as it hits a run of five consecutive winnable games, per KenPom, beginning Saturday at in-state rival Utah (7 p.m. MST, ESPN+).
"I wanted our guys to know that the sky is not falling," he said. "We are a really good basketball team but it hasn't gone our way. We got two options: either shrivel up and die, or figure it out.
"I thought the response I saw from our guys was a step in the right direction."
Midway through the 2024-25 season, eyes are falling on BYU men's basketball — whether it can prove itself as an NCAA Tournament team, or fall by the wayside as another good team in a conference of great ones.
That's nothing different for Demin, who has had eyes on him — from opposing fans and coaches, from NBA scouts and executives, and from his potential future — since the 18-year-old opted to play for the Cougars instead of one more year (or more) in Spain.
None of it as any different from the pressure he puts on himself every day, he said.
"To be honest, it's not that much pressure from outside as from myself," Demin said. "I want to be as effective as I can be for this team. I want to play my game and I know how I can play. Coming to this court and having the ROC and fans around me, there's no pressure."
