It’s common knowledge that BYU is working hard on the recruiting trail to try and land the nation’s top basketball in the 2025 class, AJ Dybantsa.
On Friday, ESPN’s Paul Biancardi released an official list of the seven finalists for the consensus No. 1 recruit in next year’s class, and the Cougars, unsurprisingly, made that list.
It’s a top seven that includes four Big 12 schools — BYU, Baylor, Kansas and Kansas State — as well as Alabama, Auburn and North Carolina.
Dybantsa and his father, Ace, discussed each team on the top seven with Biancardi.
AJ Dybantsa, a 6-foot-9 wing, is transferring to Utah Prep in Hurricane for his senior season. He is expected to be a one-and-done at the college level before moving on to the NBA.
In June, he took an unofficial visit to BYU.
“After my unofficial visit and conversations with Coach (Kevin Young), he can bring me in and play me like a pro with his knowledge of the NBA with the (Phoenix) Suns and taking it to BYU,” Dybantsa told Biancardi.
“He also mentioned he coached Joel Embiid. He knows what he’s talking about. It’s a big campus and facility.”
BYU has landed multiple high-profile recruiting targets since Young took over for Mark Pope as the Cougars’ head coach, headlined by Russian prospect Egor Demin and top 40 2024 recruit Kanon Catchings, who will both play for BYU in the upcoming season.
Could the Cougars really land the No. 1 recruit next year, too?
Three weeks ago, details about a timeline on Dybantsa’s recruitment emerged as he competed in the renowned Nike EYBL Peach Jam in Augusta, South Carolina.
At that time, Sam Lance of college basketball insider Zagsblog reported that Dybantsa was targeting the end of July to release a list of the top 10 schools he is considering attending. His father also mentioned that Dybantsa will visit each of the finalists once he had that list whittled down.
Five days later, on July 19, On3′s Jacob Polacheck reported further details about Dybantsa’s recruiting process — and it included his father saying “we’re shooting for (next) February” for his son to make a commitment.
Thus far, BYU and Auburn are the only two schools Dybantsa has visited.
Regarding BYU specifically, Ace Dybantsa told Polacheck, “People can assume because we’re going to Utah Prep that we’re going to BYU. When we were in California, people were staying we were going to USC. It doesn’t really matter to us.”
