PROVO, Utah – BYU men’s basketball head coach Kevin Young announced updates to his staff on Friday afternoon.
Akash Sebastian joins the Cougars as director of analytics and strategy after spending the past two seasons with the Phoenix Suns as a coaching analyst, working alongside Young. He also spent a season as a coaching analyst with the Utah Jazz after completing an internship with the Sacramento Kings.
"I’m very excited to have Akash with us here at BYU," Young said. "We’ve worked closely together over the past two years in the NBA. He was instrumental in a lot of the success we had with the Phoenix Suns, working hard behind the scenes to move the needle. He knows how to challenge my thinking as we strive for efficiency, both on the team level and the player level. His ability to build things out from a coding and programming standpoint will also be instrumental as we build our analytics infrastructure."
Samantha Young, no relation to head coach Kevin Young, has been hired as the program’s executive assistant after spending last season as a language specialist for the men’s and women’s basketball programs. She was an integral part in helping the Cougars put a league-high seven players on the Academic All-Big 12 team.
"Samantha is a very welcomed addition to our program," Young said. "She’s a perfect fit for this role with her previous experience helping our players on the academic side. Samantha is a tireless worker and extremely organized. As she transitions into this new role, she will wear many hats as she helps keep all of us on task."
Along with the two new additions, Nate Austin will return for his second season as the director of basketball operations. The program’s all-time leader in games played will continue to be in charge of the day-to-day operations of the program including travel logistics
Michael Davie will remain the director of strength and conditioning & sports science after helping the Cougars to their 31st NCAA Tournament appearance last season. During his first year in Provo, BYU finished fifth in the Big 12 including ranked wins over Iowa State, Baylor and Kansas. Prior to coming to BYU, Davie spent eight seasons with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks helping the organization to its first championship in 50 years. He was instrumental in helping Giannis Antetokoumpo become only the third player in the NBA history be named the Most Valuable Player twice before turning 26.
Jordan Woodson, Andy Wessman, Nik Mains and Dhruv Mehrotra will also join the staff as graduate assistants.