While no one ever said that recruiting in the NIL era was cheap, on Tuesday, BYU Basketball gave a new meaning to the word pricey.
According to a report from On3’s Pete Nakos, BYU is reportedly prepared to pay the nation’s top-ranked prospect upwards of four million dollars.
The player in question happens to be the No. 1 player in the Class of 2025, five-star small forward AJ Dybantsa, who is focusing his college recruitment on six different teams: BYU, Kansas State, Kansas, North Carolina, Alabama, and Auburn.
Coming out of Utah Prep in the Class of 2025, Dybantsa is listed as a five-star prospect by the 247Sports index and the nation’s top-ranked player. The 6-foot-9 forward is listed as the top player at his position and the top-ranked player in the state of Utah.
“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 score from his spots (even in a half-court game), AJ Dybantsa is the best prospect in high school basketball,” 247Sports’ Adam Finkelstein said. “Dybantsa possesses a lethal pull-up game with a high release and a smooth ball rotation. He’s been a celebrated prospect since before he entered high school. Yet he has avoided the pitfalls of early stardom by consistently improving his game at each level. He was the leading scorer in the 2023 Peach Jam as an underclassman and shows flashes of untapped potential on defense thanks to his size and movement skills. The bottom line is this: Dybantsa controls his own future. If he continues on his current path, then there’s no one in high school basketball with more potential than him.”
Dybantsa took visits to all six of the schools on his cutdown list, including Auburn on March 2nd, Kansas State on August 30th, Kansas on September 6th, North Carolina on September 20th, Alabama on September 27th, and BYU on October 11th.