At the end of May, quite a few eyebrows were raised in the Beehive State when AJ Dybantsa, the top high school basketball prospect in the Class of 2025 and the presumptive first pick in the 2026 NBA draft announced that he had received a scholarship offer from the Utah Runnin' Utes, would be playing his senior year at Utah Prep in Hurricane and then received a scholarship offer from the BYU Cougars.
Shortly thereafter Dybantsa took an unofficial visit to the BYU campus, and on Sunday, Sam Lance of college basketball insider Zagsblog reported that the 6-foot-9, 200-pound Dybantsa will reveal the final 10 schools he is considering attending before the NBA by the end of this month.
As part of Lance's story, he got insight from Dybantsa about 10 of the schools that are recruiting him the hardest, and BYU made the list.
"I mean it's three hours away from Utah Prep so I mean that's kinda far, but I mean it was good," Dybantsa said. "Seeing the campus, I just seen like the overall view, seeing the gyms and everything."
BYU and Auburn are the only two schools that Dybantsa, who hails from Massachusetts, has even taken visits to at this point, and he has made it widely known that his father Ace handles all communication with college coaches.
Regarding his visit to BYU, Dybantsa told Lance, "It was good, that's when I took my Utah Prep visit. Since I was up there I just took an unofficial over there. Coach (Kevin Young) said hopefully he can get me back on an official to take me (through) the whole, like, visit profile and what he has in store for me."
Kentucky (coached by former BYU head man Mark Pope), Alabama, Auburn, USC, Duke, Arkansas, Baylor, UConn and Georgia Tech are the other nine schools listed in Lance's story.
Ace Dybantsa told Lance that his son will visit all of his finalists once he has his list whittled down.
Landing Dybantsa would certainly be a gigantic victory for the Cougars, who have had some huge recruiting wins over the past few months since Young became head coach, as they landed NBA prospects Egor Demin and Kanon Catchings.
