BYU landed its first five-star basketball recruit of the modern era in a big boon to its future prospects Tuesday as highly-regarded Class of 2025 wing AJ Dybantsa, the No. 1 recruit in the class according to 247Sports, chose the Cougars over a final list of suitors that included Alabama, Kansas and North Carolina.
Dybantsa is a 6-foot-9 prospect from Massachusetts who headlines a loaded group of incoming college prospects next year in what is shaping up to be a potentially deep 2026 NBA Draft class. He is playing his senior year at Hurricane Prep in Utah, located a few hours south of Provo. He played at Prolific Prep in California prior to that, where during his time there he reclassified from the 2026 class to the 2025 class.
“I think their development can be second to none and I see what they are doing with Egor Demin and Kanon Catchings and I think that I could be in that position,” Dybantsa told 247Sports’ Eric Bossi. “Coach Young, the way he presented his program, he’s not going to sugarcoat anything and he’s going to hold me to standards, NBA standards, and he’s coached some of my favorite players in the league so that was all a plus.”
Dybantsa’s reclassification makes him draft-eligible for the 2026 draft and positions him as the way-too-early favorite to go No. 1 in a star-studded class that may include the Duke-bound Boozer twins and Kansas-bound Darryn Peterson. He was the No. 1 player in his 2026 class before reclassifying and has been the No. 1 player in the 2025 class at 247Sports since his move up.
Future potential for Dybantsa as an NBA player is only part of the reason he’s rocketed up the rankings and is widely viewed as one of the best basketball prospects in the world. He made his mark on the FIBA circuit with Team USA on the U16 team that won a gold medal and has elite measurables with the production, to boot.
Here’s 247Sports’ Adam Finkelstein on how he views Dybantsa:
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.
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.
BYU has long been considered the frontrunner to secure Dybantsa but Alabama and North Carolina made things interesting in the final weeks of his recruitment after hosting him for official visits in September. The Cougars landed the final official visit of his fall trips in October that may have helped seal the deal.
It’s a major coup for BYU and a huge win for first-year coach Kevin Young in particular as he fashions the program to his liking and makes a name for himself in the Big 12. Young has hit already in the recruiting trail with five-star freshman Egor Demin, who looks like a potential lottery pick, and now has a top-25 class in the works led by Dybantsa and signees Xavion Staton and Chamberlain Burgess.
