It only took one practice session for new BYU basketball coach Kevin Young to realize that transfer portal addition Mawot Mag’s reputation for being an outstanding defensive player is well-deserved.
“He is elite defensively, for sure,” Young said in a one-on-one interview with the Deseret News last week. “It has been good for our freshmen (Kanon Catchings and Egor Demin) to have to go up against him, as an example, in practice and stuff. He’s tough to score on.”
Mag is a 6-foot-7 wing, or small forward, who played his first four seasons of college basketball at Rutgers, where he was widely regarded as one of the best defenders in the Big Ten, maybe the country, before injuries cut short his third and fourth seasons.
The graduate student, who fled war-torn Sudan for Egypt with his family when he was 2 years old and grew up in Australia, entered the transfer portal in mid-March. He signed with BYU in early June after also considering USC, Clemson, San Diego State and Southern Mississippi.
“A lot of (being good defensively) just comes from my heart,” Mag said in late July. “I just feel like I have the heart to get better. I am a competitor, too. So I never back down from a challenge. I always compete with the best players. That’s the way you get better.”
Mag said he’s also been the benefactor of “great coaching and great teammates” along the way, even back to his time at California powerhouse Prolific Prep before the former three-star prospect moved across the country to Rutgers, which is in New Jersey.
“I just use all the different pieces I’ve received from my background,” he said. “I use all the information and feedback I get from other people and try to put it all together and try to be the best player I can possibly be.”
Mag averaged 9.1 points and 3.8 rebounds in 17 games last season for the Scarlet Knights, and 5.5 points in 80 career games at Rutgers. But it is his defensive prowess that most excites Young and the NBA-heavy staff the new coach has gathered in Provo.
Last February, Maryland coach Kevin Willard said Mag is “probably the best college defender I’ve seen in a long, long time.”
Mag has eight siblings and left Australia when he was just 15 to pursue his dream of eventually playing in the NBA. He says he quickly learned that while he honed his offensive skills, particularly his shooting accuracy, he would need to establish a calling card. That calling card is hard-nosed defense.
“Practices (at BYU) have been very competitive this summer,” he said. “We have done a lot of competitive drills, and a lot of up and down running. I feel like the guys are giving me a good taste and feel of playing (in the Big 12), and what that’s like.
“Some of the guys were here last year. Everybody is getting used to playing with each other,” he continued. “I feel like the Big 12 is similar to the Big Ten. It is very physical, and everybody is a high-level basketball player. So you gotta compete, and you gotta work hard.”
Young said two weeks ago that the “defining characteristic” of the talent-laden group he has assembled in Provo through four months on the job is its competitive spirit, and Mag is one of the guys who leads the way.
“I don’t know if that is just me being a jaded NBA coach, because you don’t get to practice hardly ever in the NBA, and you come here and these guys are going extremely hard,” Young said. “I don’t know if it is that, or just that we got a group of highly competitive guys that are pushing each other. That is hands down the thing that has stood out the most.”
Mag’s family belonged to the Dinka Tribe in South Sudan, Africa, and Dinka is his first language. He also speaks English well, and a little bit of Arabic. His Catholic family had to leave its home country during the Sudanese Civil War and spent time in a refugee camp before living at a relative’s apartment in Cairo, Egypt.
So he’s had a lot of challenges in his life, which Young referred to when BYU announced his signing.
“Mawot is an outstanding young man who has overcome a lot of adversity in his life,” Young said. “… We love the edge that he plays with. Mawot’s experience, energy and toughness are welcome additions to our program.”
One of Mag’s major goals is to play for the South Sudan national team, the same one that almost beat the eventual gold medal-winning United States before the Summer Olympics and gave Team USA another good test at the Paris Games.
To reach the NBA, his primary goal, he knows he needs to become a better shooter.
“What I am focused on mostly this summer is my shooting and playmaking,” he said. “I feel like my defense has been good, but I also want to improve in that. I am mostly just working on my body and making sure I am healthy and ready to go once the season starts.”
Mag missed 10 games of the 2023-24 season for what was reported as “knee soreness,” after having suffered an ACL tear the previous year.
“I am good at getting to the rim, using my size. I feel like I am a capable shooter. Last year I wasn’t able to shoot well. I didn’t have the best percentage,” he said of his 38.7% accuracy from the field. “But I feel like this year I am going to improve significantly and yeah, help my team in any way possible.”
Learning about BYU and the state of Utah
Mag said he “knew of BYU” when he was first contacted by new BYU assistant coach Brandon Dunson, but wasn’t exactly sure where it was, or what the letters stood for. He did know the Cougars played in the Big 12 and recalls watching parts of their NCAA Tournament loss to Duquesne.
“I had to look some things up,” he said. “I knew a tiny bit, nothing too crazy. … I hadn’t heard of Mormons (members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which supports BYU) at all. I didn’t know BYU was a (church) school.”
Now he does.
“Provo is a little different compared to where I have lived in the past — Melbourne (Australia), California and New Jersey,” he said. “It is nice and quiet, the kind of place I was looking for. The coaches and players are great. … I am still getting used to the mountains, and of course, the different rules. But it is, like, a good different.”
Mag said he has bonded with all of his teammates, but especially the guys he is living with — Demin, Catchings and freshman Elijah Crawford.
“There are a lot of really great people here,” he said.
Why he picked BYU
There were undoubtedly some NIL incentives involved — that’s a reality in major college sports these days — but Mag says the biggest reason he chose BYU was because of Young and the coaching staff he has assembled: Dunson, Chris Burgess, Will Voigt, Tim Fanning and John Linehan.
“Coach Young has been head assistant coach of the Phoenix Suns. He’s coached Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker,” Mag said. “He has extensive basketball knowledge. He just knows the game of basketball.
“He just told me on my visit that he can help me get to be a better basketball player and grow and become the person I want to become. So I liked what I heard, and yeah, I came.”
Mag said he also liked the way Young emphasizes position-less basketball, although the small forward considers himself able to play multiple positions.
“I feel like I am a three (small forward),” he said. “That is the position I am very comfortable playing. I am interchangeable and very versatile. I just want to help the team win and do what it takes.”
