PROVO — Kevin Young is trying to make good on his promise of turning BYU into an NBA developmental pipeline.
The first-year men’s basketball head coach announced the hire of former NBA G League head coach Will Voigt as an assistant Monday afternoon, bringing Voigt to Provo with more than 20 years of basketball coaching experience.
Most recently, Voigt was the head coach of the G League’s Austin Spurs, where his top prospects included David Duke Jr. and RaiQuan Gray. The Spurs went 20-14 since Voigt was hired June 28, 2023 as the ninth head coach in franchise history.
Voigt, 47, took his first coaching job as an assistant at Texas in 2001, and has worked in Norway, China, Germany and Egypt since then, as well as coaching Nigeria to the 2015 AfroBasket title that included a win over Angola and qualifying the D’Tigers for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
“Will is someone I’ve had great respect for,” Young said in a statement from the university. “He is a creative thinker, very organized and has an unmatched work ethic. Will has years of head coaching experience in the NBA G-League, as well as vast experience coaching all over the world, including in the Rio Olympics. He’s not afraid to push the envelope creatively, especially on the defensive end of the floor. Will is a high-level coach who I will lean on heavily.”
A native of Cabot, Vermont, Voigt led the Vermont Frost Heaves to back-to-back ABA championships in 2006-07. He initially served as video coordinator for the San Antonio Spurs form 1999-2001 before spending time on Mike Dunlap’s staff at Division II power Metro State and as head coach of the G League’s Bakersfield Jam (now Motor City Cruise) from 2009-14.
Voigt joins a coaching roster at BYU that also includes former BYU and Utah assistant Chris Burgess, and Stanford assistant Brandon Dunson.
Also Monday, former BYU men’s basketball assistant coach Nick Robinson was announced as the next director of basketball operations at Kentucky. The one-time Southern Utah head coach will join Mark Pope’s staff in Lexington that also includes top assistant Cody Fueger in reuniting a group that went 110-51 in five years in Provo.
“Nick Robinson has worked in college basketball in every capacity from being a special assistant to the head coach to the head coach himself,” Pope said of Robinson. “He’s had incredible success, worked in every area of the country, has a great track record and an incredible future in front of him. Along with being a terrific coach, he was a great player in his own right, hitting one of the most famous shots in the history of the Pac-12. As a Stanford grad, he’s incredibly intelligent and has boundless energy and intensity. Nick is meticulously organized and extremely passionate about building a high-level program. We’re happy to have him on staff.”