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PROVO — As Mark Pope and his staff scour the transfer portal landscape for the best potential additions to the BYU basketball team, it serves as a prominent reminder that perhaps the best addition is coming to Provo in short order.
Collin Chandler is a 6-foot-4 guard from Farmington, who was rated as a four-star prospect by 247Sports, as well as the No. 33 prospect nationally, when he signed with BYU as part of the 2022 signing class.
Chandler opted to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints prior to enrolling at BYU and is set to return home from his two year service early this summer.
Former BYU basketball great Kevin Nixon was a recent guest on Cougar Sports and spoke about his expectations for Chandler based on his knowledge. Nixon has been heavily involved with the local AAU basketball circuit and has subsequently built a good relationship with Chandler and his family.
"He's an unbelievable basketball player," Nixon said. "He's an unbelievable athlete, and he can go wherever he wants on the basketball court, with or without the basketball. He's a super-talented kid."
So what can Chandler add specifically to BYU's 2024-25 campaign, with Pope working to replace Spencer Johnson and potentially Jaxson Robinson while supplementing an already thin guard line?
Indeed, BYU should return the services of Dallin Hall along with the addition of Dawson Baker, who was sidelined for almost the entirety of last season due to injury, leaving an opportunity for Chandler to come in and compete immediately.
"My feeling is that he's going to play and log similar minutes as Dallin did as a freshman," Nixon said. "He's going to get on the floor, because athletically he's something that BYU may not have at that level."
Hall returned home from his own mission service just a few months prior to the 2022-23 basketball season and wound up starting in 21 of the 34 games played that season, while averaging 7.3 points per game, 3.2 assists and 20.7 minutes played.
It was a contribution beyond what most reasonable expectations were of Hall at the time but necessary given how thin the Cougars were at the point that season.
Chandler comes to BYU with loftier recruiting credentials than Hall and subsequently higher expectations from fans and media alike.
While Hall joined a Cougars program with several questions playing in their final year of West Coast Conference affiliation, Chandler will be joining a squad that experienced a renaissance last season in a better-than-expected Big-12 rookie campaign.
"It's going to take some time," Nixon said, "and I know a lot of people are going to put pressure on him. ... The expectation is going to be there, and he's probably going to be a preseason all-freshman (selection) in the Big 12. ...So there will be pressure, and there might be some growing pains, but I see him as the type of player that is going to make the same strides as Dallin made."
Regardless of what type of contribution Chandler makes as a freshman, Nixon is confident the future could bring some truly exceptional play.
"As a sophomore, junior or a senior, I see him as being a star at BYU," Nixon said. "He has all the tools and all the ability to do that, and he has a great work ethic. He's a great kid, he comes from a great family, and he's the perfect BYU kid."
But for the coming season, should expectations be tempered for Chandler? What will he contribute during his first season at the collegiate level?
"I hope that we can be patient enough with him to take his lumps — to get acclimated from a mission is really hard," Nixon said. "But everyone's different, and I'm really anxious to see how he is when he gets back, and how he acclimates to the situation, but he's the type of kid that BYU doesn't get very often. But with (BYU) playing in the Big-12, he's the type of kid (BYU) has to have. He could … be the type of player that transcends the program."
