AJ Dybantsa, nation's No. 1 overall prospect, watching future college team BYU in Sweet 16

Andrew Nemec | Mar 27, 2025

Brigham Young Cougars 2025/-2026 top recruit Aj Dybantsa joins the student section against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Marriott Center. Rob Gray-Imagn Images / Rob Gray-Imagn Images

The No. 6-seed BYU Cougars are set to take on No. 2-seed Alabama in the East Region of the Sweet 16 on Thursday in Newark, New Jersey.

That's a long trip for the Cougars.

But it didn't stop Utah Prep (Utah) five-star small forward and BYU signee AJ Dybantsa from making the trip along with his parents, according to ESPN's Jonathan Givony:

AJ Dybantsa and his family in Newark to watch his future school, BYU take on Alabama in the Sweet 16. pic.twitter.com/8Ngj77Lu9h

— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) March 27, 2025

The nation's No. 1 overall recruit is not only the highest-rated prospect in BYU recruiting history, he is also the basketball program's first-ever 247Sports composite five-star signee.

Dybantsa, a 6-foot-9. 210-pound small forward, committed to BYU in December, choosing the Cougars over fellow finalists Alabama, Kansas and North Carolina.

He explained his reasoning during a special episode of ESPN's "First Take."

"I mean, a lot stood out on my visit," Dybantsa said. "Obviously, coach Kevin Young there. My ultimate goal is to get to the NBA. He coached my favorite player of all time, Kevin Durant, and he had high praise about him. On my visit, head coach all the way down to the analytics guy, analytics guy all the way down to the dietician is all NBA staff, even the strength coach."

"If it's all NBA, I'm trying to get to the NBA, I think it's going to be the best development program for me."

Dybantsa projects as a near-lock to be a one-and-done player and is generating signiicant buzz as the likely No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.

That would be another significant development for BYU, as the program hasn't developed an NBA lottery pick since Jimmer Fredette went No. 10 overall in the 2011 NBA draft.

Here's what 247Sports had to say about him, in part, as a prospect:

"A 6-foot-9 jumbo wing with a wingspan exceeding 7-feet, an emerging 200-plus-pound frame and an advanced understanding of how to get to his spots and create his own shot in a half-court game, AJ Dybantsa is the best prospect in high school basketball. The bread-and-butter of his individual offense has always been his mid-range pull-up. ...Over the years, that trademark of his arsenal has only become more dangerous as he’s developed the handle and footwork to consistently create space. Simultaneously though, he’s expanded his offensive game, begun to utilize his length and athleticism to put more pressure on the rim, and extended the consistency of his shooting range out to the arc. ...The next step in his offensive evolution is the ability to play through more contact at the rim. ... When Dybantsa is at his best, he is impacting the game on both ends of the floor. His movement skills are exemplary for a player his size and he’s able to cover the court like almost no one else in high school basketball. He’s shown flashes of being able to create a lot of havoc on that end of the floor, but hasn’t yet committed to it quite as consistently as he has his scoring prowess. ... Dybantsa has been a celebrated prospect since before he entered high school, and has avoided many of the pitfalls of early stardom by consistently improving his game at each step in the process. ... The bottom line is this: Dybantsa controls his own future. There is no one in high school basketball with more potential than him and if he continues to raise the bar with each passing year he has an exceptional future in front of him."

Still, the (likely) one-year "Dybantsa Era" of BYU basketball won't come until next year.

And if this season is a warm-up, BYU fans have every right to be ecstatic about the future of the program.

After all, a trip to the Elite Eight is one the line Thursday - even while Dybantsa is in the crowd and not yet donning a jersey.

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