BOSTON, MA – NOVEMBER 15: AJ Dybantsa #3 of the BYU Cougars reacts after a made basket throughout the 2025 school Basketball Corridor of Fame Collection sport between UConn Huskies and BYU Cougars on November 15, 2025, at TD Backyard in Boston, MA. (Picture by M. Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Pictures)
Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Pictures
A.J. Dybantsa knew what he was in for on Saturday. The promotion for the Corridor of Fame Collection Boston centered on the Brockton, Massachusetts, native getting the prospect to play on the TD Backyard parquet. The truth of the state of affairs is that UConn Huskies followers have been going to fill the stands in full drive and make their presence felt all through the night.
“I sort of anticipated it. I’ve seen throughout social media that they have been gonna have a whiteout right here,” stated Dybantsa after practically main the BYU Cougars to a come-from-behind victory after trailing by 20 factors within the second half. “I do know that they are recognized for touring. UConn’s not that distant, however I knew they have been gonna come journey. I knew it was gonna be loud.”
There was additionally loads of hometown assist for Dybantsa. That included household, buddies, and Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown, who cheered him on from courtside. And from Utah to Kansas and Washington D.C., BYU followers traveled from throughout the nation to see their crew play at TD Backyard.
Nonetheless, there have been “overrated” chants, booing when his identify bought known as on the finish of participant introductions, and raucuous eruptions practically each time the Huskies scored. Whereas this was a homecoming for Dybantsa, and it was an electrical ambiance, there was no mistaking which facet had a louder and bigger contingency.
Sustaining his composure all through the matchup, he relished all of it.
“It was thrilling. Positively some acquainted faces within the crowd,” Dybantsa advised Forbes of his expertise on the TD Backyard parquet. “It was good. It was a superb ambiance.”
Within the first 25 minutes of Saturday evening’s matchup, the UConn crowd was having a celebration. The Huskies shot 57 p.c from the sphere within the opening half, produced 22 factors within the paint, and put 43 factors on the board.
Conversely, Dybantsa struggled in the beginning of his homecoming. He entered intermission 1/6 with 4 factors; his crew trailing by double-digits.
It seems these struggles set the stage for a blinding show that solely a star is able to within the second half.
A.J. Dybantsa showcases what makes him particular
Even when he wasn’t performing properly within the first half, it was evident that the Cougars’ star wing was the most effective athlete and most gifted participant on the ground. After the intermission, it grew to become inconceivable for anybody to overlook.
Dybantsa placed on a present for his house crowd, pulling down contested fadeaways, step-back jumpers, and muscling his strategy to the rim. There was additionally an illustration of elite footwork as he attacked fellow Massachusetts native Alex Karaban off the dribble.
The previous drove into the center of the paint, pump-faked, then pivoted again the opposite method and laid the ball in off the glass along with his left hand. It was maybe essentially the most spectacular demonstration of his ability, smoothness, and athleticism in a singular play on Saturday.
Dybantsa registered 21 of his 25 factors within the second half, changing on seven of the eight pictures he hoisted. That included burying a 3 off the bounce to carry BYU inside three with 30 seconds left.
Finally, the Huskies held on for an 86-84 win. However the star of the evening was the hometown child on the coronary heart of why a sport on the verge of turning into a blowout victory for UConn become a tilt the No. 3 crew needed to struggle to complete.
“That’s as excessive a degree of shot-making as you’re gonna see in school basketball,” Huskies head coach Dan Durley stated after the win. “He had the entire bag going tonight.”
Persevering with to sing Dybantsa’s praises, Hurley conveyed, “You’re guarding possibly the most effective offensive participant in school basketball, the potential No. 1 choose,” and “as soon as he bought it going, that is what gamers which are as particular as him begin doing.”
When requested about what fueled him as he put his first-half struggles behind him and took over within the last 14 minutes, Dybantsa told Forbes the important thing was “Simply being calm. I had coach KY [Kevin Young], coach JL [John Linehan], telling me, ‘It’s going to come to you. Do not attempt to drive it,’ and that is what I did.”
Dan Hurley and Kevin Younger’s reward for A.J. Dybantsa
When the matchup ended, Hurley shared an embrace with the 18-year-old star who had practically handed his crew its first lack of the season. Whereas sharing what he advised him, UConn’s bench boss defined the maturation he has seen from finding out Dybantsa.
“Simply the expansion, I imply, and his strategy,” Hurley told Forbes. “Typically you watch these youngsters, they arrive into school, these excessive draft picks. It has been over the course of years and years and years. You possibly can see on movie the entitlement, the spoiled entitlement, the not guarding. The not being about crew, and so that you’re on a lead-up, watching the movie, like, I feel possibly within the Nebraska scrimmage, or the Nebraska exhibition, was a pair [of] possessions the place he was sort of leaking somewhat bit. Like leaking out, not getting on the glass, however then, I am watching the evolution, from game-to-game to tonight, and this man’s on the market guarding. He is on the backboard, he is speaking along with his teammates, and he is enjoying with a degree of desperation to win the sport.
“For a man that is going to be possibly the No. 1 choose, it is just a bit refreshing to see the man and the psychological toughness. I imply, his first half was a large number, and for him to have the ability to put that behind him, again house, and put that second-half efficiency on was nearly as good as you will see from a freshman. And I advised him that.”
Dybantsa’s athleticism, size, and ability are what generate the hype that earns a participant prime billing of their class. Nonetheless, as Hurley articulated, his maturity and the composure that have been on show in Saturday’s Corridor of Fame Collection occasion are what can propel him to maximise his expertise.
“He is a mature younger man. Has are available and never made all of it about himself, however on the similar time, has been capable of ship in large moments for us,” BYU’s head coach Kevin Younger voiced about Dybantsa’s psychological make-up from the post-game podium.
“The best way he goes about his enterprise, I actually respect it. I feel he is a really mature younger man. And clearly, the expertise is on full show, however what’s extra spectacular is how he goes about his enterprise,” continued Younger, who labored with NBA stars starting from Kevin Durant and Chris Paul to Devin Booker, Joel Embiid, and Jimmy Butler whereas working as an assistant within the Affiliation.
“I have been round a number of the best gamers that this sport’s ever had, and so they all have the identical factor in frequent when it comes to how they go about their strategy and the way a lot they’re a pupil of the sport, and the way exhausting they wish to be coached, and I see loads of similarities in his mentality.”
