BYU aiming high with top overall recruit Dybantsa

The recruiting wheel never seems to stop spinning for college basketball coaches, taking up most of their time during the offseason while adding to their responsibilities in-season.

BYU coach Kevin Young altered the course of his 2025 recruiting cycle after landing top overall recruit AJ Dybantsa.

"Once we got AJ committed, and we knew he was coming along, we pushed pause on all of our recruiting," Young said at Big 12 media day in Kansas City this week. "We pretty much stopped recruiting any other high school player, including like, really, really good players, in terms of five-star guys, international guys if they were young."

An athletic 6-foot-9 forward, Dybantsa had his choice of schools as the top-rated class-of-2025 recruit in the 247 Sports composite.

When he opted to play at BYU, it changed the program's trajectory.

BYU had a successful first season under Young, earning a trip to the Sweet 16 after two trips to the NCAA Tournament the previous nine seasons. The Cougars got a huge boost when leading scorer Richie Saunders opted to return for his senior season and filled a hole left by Egor Demin's departure to the NBA by bringing in former Baylor point guard Robert Wright III.

Dybantsa immediately became the focal point once he committed to BYU, so Young shifted gears and sought out players who could complement the freshman's considerable skills.

"We look at what we want the team to look like in its entirety knowing he was coming," Young said. "We wanted to prioritize veterans, we wanted to prioritize shooting, we wanted to prioritize perimeter defense."

Players like Dybantsa don't come along very often for non-blueblood programs, so it's easy to see why Young would alter his plans.

A Brockton, Massachusetts, native, Dybantsa was a 2025 McDonald's All-American and a three-time FIBA gold medalist, earning MVP honors at the under-19 men's world cup for Team USA over the summer. He was named the Massachusetts Gatorade player of the year as a freshman and has been MVP of numerous tournaments.

Fluid and bouncy, Dybantsa is an efficient scorer in the post, the midrange and is a superb finisher at the rim. He has an excellent basketball IQ, usually makes good decisions with the ball and is a good defender, able to cover plenty of ground with his long strides.

Projected in some mock drafts as the No. 1 overall NBA pick, Dybantsa is the first five-star high school recruit to sign with BYU since 247Sports began ranking high school players in 2004.

"I think on the offensive side, I can do a little bit of everything - I can score at all three levels," Dybantsa said. "But I think my playmaking is one of the underrated parts of my game. I think I can get to the paint and make decisions within our offense."

Dybantsa's biggest challenge may be adjusting to the physicality of the college game.

In high school, he was often the best player on the floor - sometimes by a longshot - so it was easy for him to coast at times, particularly on defense.

Young has been working with his freshman to keep up his intensity and it was certainly there in BYU's exhibition game against Nebraska last Saturday, when he had 30 points, seven rebounds, three assists, three steals and a block.

"You have to pay way more attention to detail when you’re in college," Dybantsa said. "I kind of built some bad habits when I was in high school, so I’m trying to get rid of them."

Dybantsa has garnered attention every step of his young basketball career. Now, he's added some spotlight to BYU's program.

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