‘I literally have BYU pumping through my veins’: Lee Cummard eager for the opportunity to lead the Cougars’ women’s basketball program

In 2005, Lee Cummard first arrived at BYU as the Cougars’ latest prized basketball prospect.

More than 1,500 points, 97 victories and two All-American selections later, Cummard cemented his place as an all-time program great in Provo.

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Now, two decades after his basketball journey at BYU began, he’ll attempt to author a new winning legacy on the Marriott Center hardwood — this time as the head coach of the Cougars’ women’s squad, with his hiring to the position officially announced Monday.

“At BYU, there is a tradition of winning, OK? There’s a commitment to it, and I fully intend to live up to that commitment and that winning tradition,” Cummard said in his introductory address Monday at the Marriott Center Annex in Provo.

“As I told the players earlier today, excellence is the expectation. That’s how we do everything. It’s in our mindset, it’s in our approach to things, it’s in our preparation, it’s how we work. That’s the expectation, and they know that and they’re wanting that.

Cummard said he arrived 20 years ago “as a kid that really didn’t know what he was getting involved in here at BYU. The way that this place has shaped my life has been tremendous. I’ve grown in every aspect of my life, as a person in my spiritual walk, and I’ve grown tremendously in my relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

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“I want everyone to know that that’s where we’re going with this program. We want everybody that comes here to be who they are supposed to be. I shared that with the group this morning, that whoever you’re supposed to be, that’s what the expectations are for you, and I know that they’ll improve as individuals on the court, but most importantly, off the court.”

Cummard, a BYU women’s assistant since 2019, was named the team’s interim head coach after Amber Whiting parted ways with the program on March 8.

However, it became clear for athletic director Tom Holmoe and his fellow decision-makers that Cummard was “the right coach at the right time for here at BYU,” leading Holmoe to remove Cummard’s interim tag for what may be the veteran AD’s final major coaching hire of his career.

“He’s tough,” Holmoe said of Cummard. “He has this right balance between fire and ice. He can be strong, he can be tough, he can be very competitive. He also can be compassionate. He can be understanding, he can have a listening ear, and it’s just what we need at this point in time.

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“We’re super stoked to have one of our very own that’s been a champion here at BYU in the past and will be a champion here again in the future.”

Following a professional career that kept him as close to home as the NBA D-League’s (now G League) Utah Flash and took him as far away as Japan, Cummard entered into coaching as a graduate assistant at BYU in 2016 under his former college coach Dave Rose.

Two years as a GA led to a season as an assistant on the men’s staff, which then opened the door to joining the Cougars’ women’s program in 2019 as an assistant to Jeff Judkins.

Thus, Cummard is a shared branch between the coaching trees of two of the most influential basketball figures in BYU history — a distinction he views as a true honor.

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“Dave is the GOAT of BYU men’s basketball, and coach Judkins is the GOAT of BYU women’s basketball. They have the resumés to support that,” Cummard told the Deseret News following his introductory press conference.

“To be able to say I worked with those guys, I wear that with pride. What they’ve done for me as a person and a player, I don’t discount that at all. I’m extremely grateful for my time with them and what I learned from them.”

As for the identity of his own program, Cummard shared a desire to lean into both the high standards found at BYU as well as his own personal basketball background.

“Excellence will be the expectation,” Cummard said. “BYU is a fantastic university that has all the support in the world needed to succeed and to fly, and we intend to do just that.

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“I think for me right now, what I’m solely focused on is driving what this is going to look like for the group and who’s going to be part of this. I’m going to be really stingy about the culture or the BYU way of doing things, and the girls know that and are excited for that.

Cummard said he envisions the program looking like how he played — “scrappy, tough, work ethic there. Tom (Holmoe) talked about competitiveness. We’re going to have all of that, and you’re going to be able to see that when we’re on the court — and a lot of 3-pointers.”

Cummard also cited Kevin Young’s men’s team at BYU as a source of inspiration for his forthcoming operation. The two current Cougar head coaches go way back — when Cummard played for the Flash during the 2009-10 campaign, Young was one of the Flash’s assistant coaches.

“I want people to really enjoy watching the group play,” Cummard said of his team moving forward. “Using the men’s basketball team (as an example), as an (alumnus), I was really proud of the way they represented things this year.

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“We’ll do it our own way with great people, but as somebody who watches games, I want people to walk away thinking, ‘Hey, they played really hard, they played the right way, they shared it with each other. There was a genuineness about how they interacted with each other and cheered each other on when somebody made a great play,’ and I think everything else will kind of take care of itself, truthfully.”

The Cougars are 10-26 in Big 12 play since moving from the West Coast Conference, and improving such results will require further investment into the program.

Amid the ever-changing landscape of college athletics — especially women’s basketball — Cummard expressed confidence in BYU’s athletic department being able to support his vision to raise both the program’s performance and ceiling.

“(BYU) has been tremendously supportive. They want us to go out and get the best players that we can, and they’re totally on board with that and supportive of that,” Cummard said.

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“They know that we are going to recruit people that want to be here, high character kids that align with what this university is all about. It’s not necessarily a member (of the church) or non-member issue, just, ‘Hey, if you’re a good person and want to be a part of something bigger than yourself, you’re going to have a great time at BYU.‘”

The most crucial recruiting effort for Cummard will be that of keeping Cougars star guard Delaney Gibb in Provo, but according to Cummard, Gibb — the unanimous 2025 Big 12 Freshman of the Year — is already planning to run it back at BYU.

“I’ve had some great conversations with Delaney. Everybody on the team currently wants to be here, and we’re excited about that,” Cummard said.

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“We know we have to add a couple things in the (transfer) portal, but we want this place to be about development, coming here and working and earning your stripes. Delaney is a fantastic human being and player and she wants to do it with the group, and that what’s most special about her.”

Cummard knew he wanted to stay in basketball as a coach from the moment he hung up his playing shoes. Running and retooling a program is already a thrill for him, but doing so at the only university he’s ever known makes the experience all the more special, he said.

“I’m ingrained in this place. My kids are ingrained in this place. We’ve been here for so long,” Cummard said. “I told the group this morning, I literally have BYU pumping through my veins. That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been other opportunities, and at the time, some of them got explored and most of them were easily pushed aside.

“I’ve had a lot of people in my corner for a long time here at BYU and they’ve been really supportive as far as keeping me moving forward … But the whole (experience) from May 1st of 2005 until now, just the journey has been such a blast. I really feel like, for some reason, I’m supposed to be at BYU, and I’m not mad about that. This is, like I said, an unbelievable place, and for the people that want to be here and dive into this place head first, amazing things will happen.”

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Cummard later discussed how the game of basketball can be applied to life.

“You can tell a lot about a player based on the way they play and how they’re going to do in their next endeavor,” he told the Deseret News. “Being on a team, striving for something, working hard towards it, committing to it, sacrificing for it, there’s just so many applications from the basketball court and being on a team to how it impacts the rest of your life.

“My wife always jokes, ‘How can you like basketball so much? You play it in the morning, you work at it every day, you watch it at all times, and that’s all you want to talk about.’ There’s just something about the game and the beauty of it, the journey of it and being on a team is just such a beautiful thing. I’ve never worked a day in my life because I just love (basketball) so much.”