For BYU’s head coach, Kevin Young, the real MVP has always been just one person. It’s someone he’d take midnight flights for after road games and the one whose texts have given him a “pretty spiritual experience.” So, after BYU’s recent win against California Baptist, while many might think the MVP would be Keba Keita or AJ Dybantsa, Young’s answer made it clear it was none of them.

“I wanna shout out the real MVP-my wife. She was at home dealing with a very fussy two-month-old, so I’m headed home to go straight to dad duty. With that being said, I’m outta here,” Young said in the post-game press conference.

However, Melissa’s impact goes beyond standing by him through every high and low.

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Young first crossed paths with Melissa Bailey, known to most as Missy, while she was attending BYU and he was working as a volunteer assistant at Utah Valley University. The two later married in 2011 in the Salt Lake Temple.

Their first child arrived in 2013, just months after Young had been let go from his position as the head coach of the Iowa Energy in what was then the NBA D-League. The two now have four beautiful children, and, looking back, he often says that his understanding of what it means to be a father came from Melissa and her parents a lot.

Since then, Young has been in a lot of spaces professionally. He was with the Delaware 87ers, Philadelphia 76ers, and Phoenix Suns before reaching BYU. And through it all, Melissa was by his side.

“She has been my rock for 13 years,” said Young of his wife in 2024. “The coaching world is one that is not easy on family. It’s not easy on raising little ones and we have three of them — Jude, Van, and Zoey.”

Safe to say, Cougar fans owe her a thank-you. After all, without Melissa, Young might never have come to BYU, and the Cougars might not have opened this season with their first-ever top-10 preseason AP ranking.

When Tom Holmoe, the then athletic director at BYU, sent a career-changing invitation to Young, Melissa sent a long text to Young that helped calm his nerves.

“I was flying from Sacramento to Minnesota, and she sent me a really long text and let me know how she felt about everything that we had going on,” Young said. “That was really impactful for me. She had a major influence on me coming here and what it would do for our family life. She is amazing. I honestly wouldn’t be here if she wasn’t in the mix.”

Also, thanks to Melissa, Kevin Young doesn’t see just coaching as “who I am,” but rather, fatherhood, husbandhood, and family are central to who he is. However, Melissa believes he always had it in him since childhood, and their partnership has only strengthened each other’s core values.

“Kevin has always been able to balance fatherhood and his career because he values being with his family over everything. I think that was ingrained in him from his childhood. His family, and all six of his siblings, are very close,” she said.

And as for how she has navigated the tough terrain of basketball all these years? Well, she returns the love fully.

“A lot of coaches in the NBA would hang around the office after practice or after meetings to just be there, but it always baffled Kevin. He always got his work done as efficiently as possible to get home to the kids and I,” she said.

“I think that’s how I survived all the rigorous years of the NBA schedule, because Kevin made us his No. 1 priority. I think that’s why Kevin stood out so much on the different NBA staffs he was a part of, and what set him apart and what a lot of his colleagues admired.”

Now, it’s more understandable why Young hurriedly said, “I’m outta here,” even after a dominating win.

Kevin Young gives his flowers to Keba Keita as well

BYU returned from its Thanksgiving trip to Florida. Coming to the Delta Centre, the team picked up right where it left off, cruising to a 91–60 win. The team was led by Keba Keita, who tied with Dybantsa for a team-high 22 points and added 14 rebounds, three blocks, and a steal in just 19 minutes. 

“He was phenomenal. He was just an animal out there tonight, and it was good to see him getting rewarded because he does so much dirty work for everyone else,” Young said of Keita.

Well, Keita doesn’t always get the spotlight the way Dybantsa, Rob Wright III, or Richie Saunders do, but his growth from last season is impossible to miss. He’s become a huge piece for BYU this year with his steady scoring inside, strong rebounding, and reliable rim protection.

If you set aside the UConn game (where he only played eight minutes before a head injury took him out), he’s putting up 8.6 points, 7.9 boards, and 2.3 blocks a night. That’s pretty much the ideal production BYU needs from its center to balance out all the perimeter and isolation scoring around him.

Behind Keita, BYU scored 48 points in the paint and dominated the boards 41–29. But it wasn’t only the offense that embarrassed the Lancers. Even defensively, BYU held Cal Baptist to just 33.3% shooting from the field. They forced 14 turnovers, grabbed 12 steals, and swatted seven shots.

And this was one of the cleanest, most complete efforts of the season by the Cougars. Usually, BYU starts slow and needs a strong second half to pull away. But it was different against the Lancers. They led by 16 at halftime, and shot 51.4% in the first half and an even better 60% in the second.

They started with a 14–5 run and never looked back. This marks their third time crossing the 90-point mark this season, pushing them to 7–1 overall. The win was a product of both coaching and outstanding individual performances, both on and off the court.