The most important recruiting weekend in recent BYU basketball history has begun.
The No. 1 player in the country, AJ Dybantsa, started his official visit on Friday and will be in attendance for the BYU football game on Saturday.
Dybantsa is still targeting a February commitment, he told The Salt Lake Tribune. But there has been a slight hiccup in his recruiting process.
BYU was supposed to be his final visit of the recruiting tour — three weeks before his high school basketball season begins. But he had to reschedule a trip to Baylor, which was set to take place on Oct. 4.
Dybansa still has Baylor in the mix, he said, along with BYU, Alabama, Kansas, North Carolina, Kansas State and Auburn.
“Still seven,” Dybantsa said of the schools he is considering.
BYU sent Dybantsa his trip itinerary on Thursday — which includes the BYU-Arizona football game.
Dybantsa is visiting alongside his Utah Prep teammate JJ Mandaquit, an ESPN top 50 player in the country. Dybantsa was happy to visit with Mandaquit — who played with him on Team USA this summer — but said he didn’t ask BYU to schedule their trips together.
“That just happened to be the same weekend,” he said. “We wanted to schedule every visit based off of the timing the school had. And this was one of the only few available weekends. And JJ happened to be on it. So somebody we know sounds good.”
Dybantsa was last on BYU’s campus in June for an unofficial visit.
BYU head coach Kevin Young laid the groundwork for that visit while he was still an assistant coach on the Phoenix Suns.
Young flew to Provo in the middle of an NBA playoff series to meet with Ace and Chelsea Dybantsa, AJ’s parents, to try to get the top recruit on campus. Young pitched his NBA background and how he worked with stars like Kevin Durant and Devin Booker.
Ace Dybantsa agreed to bring AJ to Provo after the meeting.
Since that June visit, Young has put together the best roster in program history and assembled an NBA staff. Egor Demin and Kanon Catchings — two potential NBA lottery picks — signed on to the 2024 team.
Dybantsa said he’s talked to Young a little bit since June, but not more than any other head coach. While he was impressed with Young’s NBA background and recent recruiting, it hasn’t distinguished BYU from the other schools.
“I mean yeah,” Young’s NBA connections help, Dybantsa said. “That’s why [BYU] made the list. I feel like all seven schools have some similarities, some differences. But all of them made the list for a reason.
“All the schools have NBA guys. So I know they are capable of surpassing [college] and go to the NBA from there.”
Dybantsa indicated all his visits have been relatively even so far.
“I never had a bad visit. All visits have shown me their best,” he said.
Alabama head coach Nate Oats took him to the Georgia-Alabama football game two weeks ago.
“Crazy atmosphere,” he said.
But for now, he is keeping his options open. And he thinks every school has a chance.
“It is definitely going to be a hard decision,” he said.
Now it’s BYU’s turn to impress.
