Top class of 2025 recruit AJ Dybantsa makes college basketball commitment. Where is he going?

The top-ranked men’s college basketball prospect in the 2025 recruiting class is now off the board.

On Tuesday morning, AJ Dybantsa — a 6-foot-9, 210-pound small forward — committed to BYU for his expected one season of college basketball. Dybantsa made his college commitment live on ESPN during the network’s “First Take” program.

Dybantsa picked BYU as his college choice from a final shortlist that also included Alabama, Kansas and North Carolina.

When asked why he picked the Cougars, Dybantsa praised new BYU head coach Kevin Young, who was previously an NBA assistant coach with the Philadelphia 76ers and the Phoenix Suns.

Young replaced Mark Pope — the current Kentucky coach — at BYU last offseason.

According to all the major recruiting services — 247Sports, ESPN, On3 and Rivals — the 17-year-old Dybantsa is the No. 1 recruit in the 2025 class. Originally from Massachusetts, Dybantsa played his freshman high school season at Saint Sebastian’s School, a prep school in Needham, Massachusetts.

After winning 2022-23 Gatorade Player of the Year in Massachusetts as a freshman, Dybantsa spent the 2023-24 high school season at the California-based Prolific Prep program.

In October 2023, Dybantsa announced that he would be reclassifying from the 2026 recruiting class to the 2025 recruiting class. Dybantsa is now spending his final high school season at Utah Prep in Hurricane, Utah.

In committing to BYU, Dybantsa joins two other class of 2025 recruits: Four-star center Xavion Staton and four-star power forward Chamberlain Burgess.

All three players have signed paperwork tying them to the BYU program. Dybantsa signed his paperwork during last month’s early signing period, without publicizing his college decision.

This season — which is Young’s first as the BYU head coach — the Cougars boast a potential NBA draft lottery pick in guard Egor Demin, a Russian who previously played for Spanish club Real Madrid, as well as a potential first-round pick in Kanon Catchings, a forward.

“Definitely national championship,” Dybantsa said on ESPN when asked what his goals are for next season at BYU.

Unsurprisingly, Dybantsa — who took his final official visit to BYU in October — is the highest-ranked recruit to ever commit to the Cougars.

Kentucky basketball previously recruited AJ Dybantsa

Kentucky, like practically every other high-major school, was interested in landing Dybantsa, who is viewed as a generational recruit and the early favorite to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NBA draft.

Interest from UK in Dybantsa began when John Calipari was the head coach in Lexington: Calipari and Kentucky extended a scholarship offer to Dybantsa in November 2023.

After UK’s coaching change last offseason from Calipari to Pope, the new Kentucky coach reoffered Dybantsa a scholarship in May.

During the early months of his time as Kentucky’s coach, Pope and his coaching staff got several live viewings of Dybantsa during recruiting periods. This included watching Dybantsa on the Nike EYBL circuit in Indiana and South Carolina and at the FIBA Under-17 Men’s World Cup in Turkey.

Pope and assistant coach Jason Hart (a nine-year NBA veteran who was previously the head coach of the NBA’s G League Ignite team) were leading UK’s recruitment of Dybantsa.

In August, Dybantsa released a shortlist of seven schools that he was still considering for college. Kentucky didn’t make that list cut.

Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, BYU, Kansas, Kansas State and North Carolina were the schools that Dybantsa still considered from August onward. Auburn, Baylor and Kansas State were then cut from Dybantsa’s consideration prior to Tuesday’s commitment.

Dybantsa — who has a greater than 7-foot wingspan and oozes basketball craft and intelligence — has won gold medals with USA Basketball at the 2023 FIBA Americas Under-16 Championship and this summer’s FIBA Under-17 Men’s World Cup.

On the Nike EYBL circuit this spring and summer with the Oakland Soldiers, Dybantsa averaged nearly 23 points per game and tallied a runner-up finish at Peach Jam, the prestigious end of season Nike event.

While it’s been known for a while now that Kentucky wouldn’t be landing Dybantsa, the Wildcats continue to pursue a former teammate of his at both the high school and grassroots basketball levels.

Dybantsa was teammates at both Prolific Prep and with the Oakland Soldiers on the Nike grassroots circuit with Tyran Stokes, a Louisville native who is the top-ranked recruit in the 2026 group.

Stokes, a 6-foot-7, 245-pound power forward, lived in Louisville until age 9.

Kentucky basketball has three players signed in the 2025 recruiting class, which will be Pope’s first true recruiting class as the UK head coach.

Guards Jasper Johnson and Acaden Lewis, as well as center Malachi Moreno, will be Wildcats next season. Johnson is a five-star prospect, while Lewis and Moreno are both high four-star recruits.

UK is also considered to be in a good spot with class of 2025 standout Caleb Wilson, a five-star power forward from Atlanta who is considered a one-and-done college prospect.

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