BYU basketball coach Kevin Young put together perhaps the best roster in school history this offseason. But he’s still having trouble gauging their readiness for the season opener.

Even with star freshmen like Egor Demin and Kanon Catchings, plus a bevy of returners and transfers, Young said he needs a game at this point.

“It’s hard to gauge really where we are,” he told BYUtv during Big 12 Media Days this week. Because BYU is, ”just going against the same thing every day. So looking forward to competing against somebody else.”

This is the most practice time Young’s had in years. Coming from the NBA ranks, he’s used to a truncated training camp before the season.

“I’ve said this a bunch of late, just the difference in how much you practice in college versus the NBA,” Young said. “I know I’m tired of going against each other.”

To pass the time, he’s taken up NFL fantasy leagues with his family. He joked he was fielding trade offers all day Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“Couple of bad injuries last week,” Young said about his own team’s fate.

Basketball can’t come soon enough for the Young household.

A down year for the Utes?

Utah may have Gianna Kneepkens back this year, but she returns to quite a different program.

Kneepkens’ running mate is gone. Alissa Pili graduated and is now in the WNBA. It means the expectations are lower for the Utes, picked sixth in the Big 12, and Kneepkens needs to take on even more of the scoring load.

“Any time you lose Alissa Pili, who is such a huge part of what we did, it’s not zero-sum,” head coach Lynne Roberts said. “She graduates and you bring in some Saly and it’s like, ‘OK, we’re done.’ It doesn’t work that way. We have brought in a couple really talented players from the transfer portal. But we also didn’t have Gianna Kneepkens last year. That is a big factor.”

Kneepkens said she feels completely healthy after missing most of the season due to a Lisfranc fracture in her foot. She’s been practicing with contact for several weeks.

Whiting overhauls offense

Amber Whiting’s first two seasons in Provo have been a struggle. The team hasn’t produced a winning record and finished ninth in the Big 12 last year.

This season, there are eight new faces on the roster and Whiting has promised a different offensive scheme. She wants to play uptempo and be more efficient from three.

“I’ve given [assistant coach] Lee [Cummard] the offense. So he has ramped it up as far as the pace we want to play,” Whiting told BYUtv. “Obviously he is a 3-ball shooter. He loves the three. So he wants to shoot it.”

Smith keeps it light

Craig Smith’s tenure has been completely ... well, just average through his first three years at Utah. He is exactly 50-50 and hasn’t broken through to the NCAA Tournament.

His team only returns 31% of his team’s scoring from last season and 30% of its minutes. The Utes lost two of their best players in the frontcourt — one to graduation and the other to BYU. He also lost his assistant coach, Chris Burgess, to the Cougars.

No surprise then that Utah was picked last in the league. But Smith is trying to see the positives.

“There is nowhere to go but up,” he said.

The Big 12 will be a step up in competition for the Utes. And Smith said he changed his recruiting strategy to prepare.

“The Big 12 is so good,” he said. “I think we got nine or 10 [teams] in the top 25. It is a physical, rugged league and you know that. So we have to play with physicality. You’ve got to have strength. We’ve always recruited to size. The two years at Utah State, we had the tallest team in the country. ... But it is a different notch. All high-major basketball is physical. But it is a different level. Expect a foul but not the call.”