NBA Scouts Will Have Strong Presence At BYU/Baylor Game

PROVO, Utah – The Marriott Center will be a hub for NBA scouts on Tuesday night when BYU hosts Baylor.

That’s because two of the top NBA draft prospects for the 2025 draft will be battling against one another. A pair of heralded freshmen in BYU point guard Egor Demin and Baylor guard VJ Edgecombe.

BYU/Baylor will be packed with NBA scouts

Around 30 NBA scouts from 15 teams in the Association are expected to visit Provo to watch the Big 12 clash. The Utah Jazz and Brooklyn Nets will have more than one person represented, a source tells KSL Sports.

Edgecombe has been projected as a Top-Five pick next June, while Demin, in recent aggregate mock drafts, is also knocking on the door of the top-five range.

Demin comes into the matchup after two highly productive games last week in wins over Colorado and Cincinnati. In the blowout win over Cincinnati, Demin knocked down three 3-pointers.

Now, he gears up for a matchup that will feature two of college basketball’s top young players on the same floor against one another.

“It’s always interesting to play against those teams,” Demin said on the upcoming matchup against Baylor and VJ Edgecombe. “I hear about them playing in Europe or in Russia and watching them play in March Madness and having those players who are going to draft. Every team is interesting to play against. There’s always good competition in the Big 12, as I already know.”

Demin is no stranger to games that feature many NBA scouts in attendance. There was a large gathering of NBA scouts in December when BYU traveled to the East Coast to face Providence. Demin suffered a knee contusion early in that game. Then, earlier this month, there were more than two dozen NBA scouts to watch BYU’s Big 12 game at Houston.

Potential NBA first-round picks: Egor Demin & VJ Edgecombe

Along with Edgecombe and Demin, other potential NBA draft prospects in this game include Baylor’s Robert Wright III, Norchad Omier, and BYU’s Kanon Catchings and Richie Saunders.

“We feel like we foster an environment here that helps guys develop and get better. We obviously have an NBA lens on everything that we’re doing. So when I talk to my friends in the NBA, I think those guys are clearly on radars,” BYU coach Kevin Young said Monday when asked about Egor Demin and Kanon Catchings’s potential NBA trajectories.

“There’s been a lot of traffic that’s coming in and out of here. I get calls all the time. A bunch of people are coming in tomorrow as well. So we’ve had no shortage of eyes on those guys. I think a lot of that stuff kind of plays itself out as the season goes along, draft season goes along, workouts go along, and interviews go along. So yes, I do think they’ll be there sooner rather than later, but that is a relative statement.”

BYU comes into the matchup with a 13-6 overall record and a 4-4 mark in Big 12 Conference play. Like BYU, Baylor is on a two-game winning streak and sits at 13-6 overall. The Bears are a game ahead of BYU in the league standings, at 5-3 in Big 12 action.

BYU vs. Baylor

Date: Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Location: Marriott Center

Tip-Off: 7 p.m. (MST)

TV: ESPN2

Radio: KSL NewsRadio (102.7 FM, 1160 AM)

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X: @Mitch_Harper.

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