Utah Prep’s AJ Dybantsa drives to the basket on Highland’s Jemal Smith, left, and Josh Hamilton during a game at Emmanuel College in Boston on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. BYU signed the top recruit in the Class of 2025, AJ Dybantsa, who chose the Cougars over Alabama, North Carolina and Kansas.
Dybantsa is playing at a prep school driving distance from BYU in Utah for his ongoing senior season after reclassifying from the Class of 2026.
Originally from Massachusetts, Dybantsa is a 6-foot-9 combo forward and the headliner in a class featuring Jayhawks commit Darryn Peterson and Duke signees Cameron and Caydyn Boozer, five-star recruits who followed in their NBA dad’s footsteps and picked the Blue Devils on Oct. 11. Carlos Boozer played at Duke and was a two-time NBA All-Star.
Dybantsa has a nearly 7-foot wingspan and made a name for himself as a featured option on the Team USA U16 team, claiming the gold medal.
First-year BYU coach Kevin Young also has landed two other signees for the ’25 class, Xavion Staton and Chamberlain Burgess. The Cougars are in their first season since Mark Pope left to replace John Calipari at Kentucky and feature star freshman Egor Demin, who is averaging 13.3 points, 5.8 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game in 2024-25.
Young had to sweat the signing of Dybantsa after Alabama and North Carolina gained enough traction to compel him to take campus visits this semester.
Reports in October pointed to NIL as one reason Kansas was not expected to be in the running.
Dybantsa was direct in an interview with Paul George on an episode of “Podcast P” the he was looking for a one-year prep course in basketball at his college destination before heading to the NBA.
“Everybody’s gonna think you should have the four or five blue-bloods in there, but I mean me and my family have pillars,” Dybantsa said. “We need a family-oriented school, I need a coach that’s not gonna sugarcoat, I need the best and fastest development plan – I’m trying to be a one-and-done, I need a winning organization and I just picked the best seven schools that I think fit that … I’m just trying to choose the school that’s best for me.”
–Field Level Media
