It’s as big of a win for BYU basketball as the program has ever had. AJ Dybantsa, the nation’s top overall basketball recruit, has committed to the Cougars.
Dybantsa is a five-star small forward from Hurricane, Utah, so the Cougars have always had somewhat of a home-field advantage for the 6-foot-9, 210-pounder from Utah Prep. Still, North Carolina, Kansas and Alabama were all also in the running for his commitment, so the enormity of this decision can’t be understated for BYU men’s basketball coach Kevin Young.
Young is in his first season with the Cougars after a stint in the NBA from 2016-23, which saw him become one of the best young assistant coaches in the game. He was born in Salt Lake City and the Cougars brought him back home to replace Mark Pope — who replaced John Calipari at Kentucky.
So far so good for Young. His Cougars are 6-2 on the court at the time of this writing and he’s now putting together an elite 2025 recruiting class. Dybantsa joins four-star center recruit Xavion Staton and four-star power forward Chamberlain Burgess in Young’s 2025 class.
“It’s an up-and-coming program and obviously my goal is to get to the NBA. (BYU has an) NBA staff from the head coach down to the dieticians and the analytics — I think that was a huge part,” Dybantsa told 247sports regarding his commitment to the Cougars.
“Coach Young, the way he presented his program, he’s not going to sugarcoat anything and he’s going to hold me to standards, NBA standards, and he’s coached some of my favorite players in the league so that was all a plus,” the five-star said.
Simply put, this is a massive pickup for BYU. The Cougars’ 2025 class is now ranked No. 11 nationally.
