AJ Dybantsa

Chuck Everett · Post #481 » by **Chuck Everett** » Thu Mar 12, 2026 11:21 pm

Dybantsa already has had a tremendous start against Houston. His ball handling and decision making upon seeing teams a second and third time, is really great.

azcatz11 · Post #482 » by **azcatz11** » Fri Mar 13, 2026 2:45 am

Chuck Everett wrote:Dybantsa already has had a tremendous start against Houston. His ball handling and decision making upon seeing teams a second and third time, is really great.

He’d be talked about differently if he was on a good team. Not sure what happened to BYU but they went from a team full of shooters to none. Saunders wasn’t even good this season. Keita has stagnated and they have a white euro shooter shooting 30% from 3.

Could you imagine the hype if he was on Duke?

Chuck Everett · Post #483 » by **Chuck Everett** » Fri Mar 13, 2026 3:54 am

azcatz11 wrote:
Chuck Everett wrote:Dybantsa already has had a tremendous start against Houston. His ball handling and decision making upon seeing teams a second and third time, is really great.

He’d be talked about differently if he was on a good team. Not sure what happened to BYU but they went from a team full of shooters to none. Saunders wasn’t even good this season. Keita has stagnated and they have a white euro shooter shooting 30% from 3.

Could you imagine the hype if he was on Duke?

Four different BYU players got injured/out for the season. Stripped them of their depth. I am glad he went to BYU. Him sharing with Boozer would have been useless to his development (and unfair for everyone else). Spread the wealth.

The-Power · Post #484 » by **The-Power** » Fri Mar 13, 2026 9:52 am

He has nights where the efficiency isn't there, and he can be prone to a bunch of turnovers. But there's few players where you just watch them for a game and on several occasions think – ‘yep, that one's definitely going to be an offensive star’. Dybantsa is one of the few. Quite a few things to be cleaned up on offense and the defense is very mediocre but he's going to be a problem to defend for NBA teams as well.

tontoz · Post #485 » by **tontoz** » Fri Mar 13, 2026 1:05 pm

Looks like he ran out of gas in the 2nd half. Not surprising playing the 3rd game in 3 nights. He is firmly at 1 for me.

whitehops · Post #486 » by **whitehops** » Sat Mar 14, 2026 1:37 am

i haven't watched him at all this season but seen a lot of hype online. he's on track to be the first freshman to lead the country in scoring and he's averaging pretty much what durant did at texas.

is there any reason to think he isn't going to be a virtual lock to be a franchise player at the next level?

Marvin Martian · Post #487 » by **Marvin Martian** » Sat Mar 14, 2026 2:52 am

whitehops wrote:i haven't watched him at all this season but seen a lot of hype online. he's on track to be the first freshman to lead the country in scoring and he's averaging pretty much what durant did at texas.

is there any reason to think he isn't going to be a virtual lock to be a franchise player at the next level?

Franchise player like Derozan in TOR or Ant in MIN? Because he is more like the former than the latter

SeattleJazzFan · Post #488 » by **SeattleJazzFan** » Sat Mar 14, 2026 5:23 am

Marvin Martian wrote:
whitehops wrote:i haven't watched him at all this season but seen a lot of hype online. he's on track to be the first freshman to lead the country in scoring and he's averaging pretty much what durant did at texas.

is there any reason to think he isn't going to be a virtual lock to be a franchise player at the next level?

Franchise player like Derozan in TOR or Ant in MIN? Because he is more like the former than the latter

Better than both.

Chuck Everett · Post #489 » by **Chuck Everett** » Sat Mar 14, 2026 5:40 am

whitehops wrote:i haven't watched him at all this season but seen a lot of hype online. he's on track to be the first freshman to lead the country in scoring and he's averaging pretty much what durant did at texas.

is there any reason to think he isn't going to be a virtual lock to be a franchise player at the next level?

Hopefully he ends up out East. And yes, barring injury (and he's kind of a tank), he is a franchise-alerting two-way wing. Teams entire game plan will be to stop him. People bring up McGrady a lot, but I like his makeup a lot more between the ears.

DonaldSanders · Post #490 » by **DonaldSanders** » Wed Mar 18, 2026 9:27 pm

Watched some highlights of him and was extremely impressed, looks like a future star.

Having said that, I haven't seen that much blatant carrying since I watched an old Jordan Poole highlight reel. Is it just becoming more accepted with the next generation is taking carrying & traveling even further? Some of this stuff looks really wild that it wasn't whistled.

BigGargamel · Post #491 » by **BigGargamel** » Wed Mar 18, 2026 9:33 pm

whitehops wrote:i haven't watched him at all this season but seen a lot of hype online. he's on track to be the first freshman to lead the country in scoring and he's averaging pretty much what durant did at texas.

is there any reason to think he isn't going to be a virtual lock to be a franchise player at the next level?

Only generational players are locks IMO. And I use that term very seriously. Like - Shaq, Duncan, LeBron and Wemby. That's pretty much it in the past 35 years.

But, I see no way he's not at least a multi time All Star. He is not perfect, but he is ahead of where people thought he would be. They thought he'd be a terrible shooter and lazy defender, because he didn't have to do either in high school. He needs to improve, but has the potential to be plus in both areas. Those are parts of the game that can be improved with reps.

Offensively, he's the type of guy you need in the playoffs. Someone who can carry your team when things break down. I'm taking him #1 and not even really thinking twice about it.

Shock Defeat · Post #492 » by **Shock Defeat** » Fri Mar 20, 2026 2:21 am

He tried to carry BYU by himself but it wasn't enough when you are playing with scrubs. Reminds of KD at Texas actually

Caneman786 · Post #493 » by **Caneman786** » Fri Mar 20, 2026 2:44 am

AJ Dybantsa's collegiate career is over, as the 6 seed BYU Cougars lose 79-71 to the 11 seed Texas Longhorns (that just made it out of the first four two nights ago in a nailbiter against NC State) in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

In the loss, Dybantsa scored 35 points and pulled down 10 rebounds (1 offensive rebound). He played every minute of the game. He shot 10/18 from two-point range, 1/7 from three-point range, and made all 12 of his free throws. He had 1 assist and 5 turnovers, and also recorded no steals or blocks, and only had one personal foul.

For the season, AJ ends having played all 35 of his team's games. He averaged 34.8 minutes a game.

For the major box score stats, he averaged 25.5 points per game, 6.8 rebounds (1.5 being offensive), and 3.7 assists a game. He also recorded 1.1 steals and 0.3 blocks a game, as well as 3.1 turnovers and 1.2 personal fouls.

AJ almost certainly has ended the season as college basketball's scoring champion (in points per game). As of right now, he still leads the country in overall points and free throw attempts, but those may change as more games are played. Second place Cameron Boozer is 107 points behind AJ, so he could reasonably beat him (if he played 5 more games and kept up his season average in those games). Darius Acuff Jr. (right now 3rd in total points and trailing Boozer by 6 points) also is another contender to take that title, but neither of them are gonna be near him when it comes to points per game.

He made 56.8% of his two-point attempts, 33.1% of his three-point attempts, and 77.4% of his free throws. His 3-point attempt rate was .245 and his free throw rate was .490. His overall true shooting percentage was exactly 60.0%, which is significantly above the NCAA average of around ~55.5%.

The Cougars end their season with a 23-12 record.

tmorgan · Post #494 » by **tmorgan** » Fri Mar 20, 2026 2:49 am

Couldn’t do it himself. Not dinging him for it, but sad I won’t get to see him try to carry again.

Tyrone Messby · Post #495 » by **Tyrone Messby** » Fri Mar 20, 2026 2:49 am

Best college player since Durant. He’s the real deal.

Marvin Martian · Post #496 » by **Marvin Martian** » Fri Mar 20, 2026 2:58 am

AJ is #1 easily. Watching how he dealt with pressure and how Boozer dealt with pressure was night and day

Caneman786 · Post #497 » by **Caneman786** » Fri Mar 20, 2026 3:05 am

Marvin Martian wrote:AJ is #1 easily. Watching how he dealt with pressure and how Boozer dealt with pressure was night and day

Could you go into more detail on how AJ dealt with pressure?

I'm not seeing it, since AJ didn't perform exceptionally well (and really hasn't in his last few games).

The scoring is cool, but his usage is easily over 40%, the efficiency is way down, he's turned into a turnover machine, and doesn't even seem to be trying to play defense (compared to a normal college player). It's not like he's getting into foul trouble. He didn't do anything special here, a bunch of guys do this, and AJ went all-in.

With Richie Saunders maybe this stuff looks better, but you can only play with who you have on the team (and let's be honest, it wouldn't be that much better, this just seems to be what AJ does in big games).

In contrast, Boozer in his "bad games" has been better than Dybantsa in these "good games". He even got a clutch block this last game to seal the victory (more defensive importance than AJ's entire last few games?). And even it's against the 16 seed, but they were way down. And it's two clutch games in a row now that he's kept his composure, sinking free throws, making the right play etc. Boozer even came away with both of these last two games with better Bart-Torvik BPM's than AJ Dybantsa did in his last two (Tonight Boozer in his comeback win had +9.9 while Dybantsa had +6.5 in a loss where he never even came back, and against Virginia in the CLUTCH WIN to seal the ACC title Boozer was +5.5, a season low!, and Dybantsa still was lower having +5.3 in his loss to Houston).

You can think AJ's the better prospect, but the difference in how they dealt with pressure isn't that crazy. Boozer's was probably better, honestly. The pressure is way higher to win on Duke due to how much they're expected to win (and with the two starters out, one being the second-best player on the team and the defensive anchor, it doesn't even matter since nobody would care about that).

On the complete opposite side, nobody's gonna blame AJ for losing. You already see it in this thread, all the replies flooding in. He can go out there and chuck without being worried that his draft stock is at stake. He doesn't have to worry about teammates, or the coach, criticism, the possibility of his draft stock falling, or anything like that.

Boozer's under way more pressure to play proper team basketball on both ends, has faced real adversity twice now in the last two games (which would seriously hurt his image if he lost either), and came through strong, not giving up, and pulling off the wins, twice!

Caneman786 · Post #498 » by **Caneman786** » Fri Mar 20, 2026 3:07 am

Tyrone Messby wrote:Best college player since Durant. He’s the real deal.

You think AJ's better than Yaxel this year? Or either of them were better than Zion?

Tyrone Messby · Post #499 » by **Tyrone Messby** » Fri Mar 20, 2026 3:14 am

Caneman786 wrote:
Tyrone Messby wrote:Best college player since Durant. He’s the real deal.

You think AJ's better than Yaxel this year? Or either of them were better than Zion?

Uh yeah, better stats across the board against much better completion than Zion faced. Zion just bullied people. AJ can score in a multitude of ways and and is an insane athlete. His game is better suited for the NBA spacing as well. His BYU team sucked once their second best player went down in Feb. he’s fearless.

Caneman786 · Post #500 » by **Caneman786** » Fri Mar 20, 2026 3:22 am

Tyrone Messby wrote:
Caneman786 wrote:
Tyrone Messby wrote:Best college player since Durant. He’s the real deal.

You think AJ's better than Yaxel this year? Or either of them were better than Zion?

Uh yeah, better stats across the board against much better completion than Zion faced. Zion just bullied people. AJ can score in a multitude of ways and and is an insane athlete. His game is better suited for the NBA spacing as well. His BYU team sucked once their second best player went down in Feb. he’s fearless.

None of the statements except maybe the last one (that he's fearless*) are both true and relevant.

*Plus as I said earlier AJ doesn't have anything to fear unlike Boozer and Duke where the pressure and expectations are real!

What stats is AJ supposed to be better at? The only thing he could possibly have over Zion is his scoring, and Zion scored more (after you adjust for how many more minutes AJ played). Zion also did it at more than 70% true shooting vs. AJ's 60% true shooting. And everything else Zion was way above AJ at. Especially defense.

What's so bad about Zion bullying people?

Zion was a more insane athlete than AJ.

The competition difference doesn't even come close to making up for how much more dominant and how much better at basketball Zion was as a college freshman.

If we're being honest, AJ wasn't even in the top five college players this season, with Boozer and Lendeborg both being way above the point of argument. Either one of them is going to win the National Player of the Year, and AJ isn't.

AJ might (maybe) be a better NBA player than any of these guys, but this season wasn't any type of super special display of dominance we'd never saw before. I think you're probably just too caught up in the aesthetics to be objective.

azcatz11 wrote:He’d be talked about differently if he was on a good team. Not sure what happened to BYU but they went from a team full of shooters to none. Saunders wasn’t even good this season. Keita has stagnated and they have a white euro shooter shooting 30% from 3.

It's not even a knock since it's not just you. A lot of people are clearly caught up in the aesthetics, and would say anything to push AJ up. And this is especially clear when you see such a statement like "Saunders wasn't even good this season" (?!?) when Saunders actually carried the team on multiple occasions in the biggest stages, and was building a clear case to be drafted in the second round before he went down. Come on man.

Even for someone who barely understands basketball, if they watched BYU games, they'd know how wrong that statement is.