NEW YORK — Exactly 365 days ago, AJ Dybantsa and his father, Ace, went on ESPN’s “First Take” to announce his college commitment.
With the eyes of the basketball world upon him, the highly touted, blue-chip prospect unzipped his jacket to reveal a BYU shirt, indicating his pledge to Kevin Young’s Cougars.
Host Stephen A. Smith admitted he was “shocked” Dybantsa chose BYU, believing he would instead be drawn to traditional powerhouse North Carolina to play in the ACC and in rivalry contests against Duke.
But Dybantsa, with all of the confidence a teenager in his position could ever possess on national television, offered a simple, snappy retort to catch the popular pundit Smith off guard.
“Who said I can’t play Duke at BYU?”
Whether Dybantsa ends up facing the Blue Devils at BYU remains to be seen, but the exchange quickly etched itself in BYU lore and became Dybantsa’s first true highlight as a Cougar.
And in the 365 days since, the highlights have just kept on coming, with Dybantsa still refusing to back down on similar big stages.
In Tuesday night’s Jimmy V Classic against Clemson, the freshman phenom enjoyed his finest collegiate performance to date, posting career highs of 28 points, nine rebounds and six assists in a thrilling 67-64 comeback victory.
Such numbers — including the most points by a BYU freshman since TJ Haws in 2017 — would have been impressive in any setting.
But Dybantsa did his damage at Madison Square Garden — “the Mecca of basketball,” as Michael Jordan dubbed it — to loudly proclaim his arrival as the sport’s next potential superstar in the most famous arena in the world, where he’ll almost certainly make dozens of future visits in his forthcoming NBA career.
It was a disastrous start for the Cougars against Clemson, as Young’s group surrendered a 21-0 Tigers run into halftime to trail 43-22 at the break.
In the second half, however, BYU did what it seemingly does in every game, orchestrating a thunderous rally to dominate on both ends of the floor and ultimately stun Clemson on Rob Wright III’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer, clinching the largest second-half comeback win in program history.
The driving force for the comeback Cougars is always Dybantsa. He raises his game when the stakes are highest, putting on his most incredible show in BYU’s craziest second-half stunt to date against Clemson.
In the final 20 minutes at the Garden, Dybantsa scored or assisted on 34 of 45 BYU points. He scored more second-half points on his own (22) than Clemson did as a team (21), outshooting the Tigers (7 of 11 against 7 of 27) during that same span.
“He does a great job when he gets to the middle,” Young said of Dybantsa. “We have a little saying, him and I, just pick a spot. That was something I learned in the NBA with coaching really good players. Just pick a spot, and you’re either able to make it or miss it. He was able to pick his spots tonight and made them pay.”
After a slow start to the night, Dybantsa became automatic, repeatedly hitting fadeaway jumpers, getting downhill through contact and shaking defenders with hypnotic footwork. He couldn’t miss. His shots were those that children will soon begin imitating in their driveways after seeing his highlight reel.
He was excellent, unstoppable and every other adjective you can think of. It was the most electric scoring half for a BYU player since the days of Jimmer Fredette, and his defensive effort led a flipping of the script on that end of the floor for the Cougars to lock down Clemson.
“They weren’t doubling me,” Dybantsa said. “In the morning at 6:30, I’m working on a lot of dribble pull-ups on one person, so I trust my one-on-one ability. They decided not to double me in the second half, so I picked my spot smarter, not trying to fade as much, just trying to raise above the defense.”
But even in the midst of taking over the game with his scoring, the always-unselfish Dybantsa recognized his offensive gravity and leveraged it to create buckets for his teammates.
After having scored 20 points in the second half, he subsequently dished out assists on four straight possessions — three lobs to Keba Keita and a kick out to Kennard Davis Jr. for a triple — to showcase the point-forward capabilities that have NBA scouts drooling.
“You’ve got to have trust in your teammates,” Dybantsa said. “It don’t matter what the play is, don’t matter if I had 50 that game. Whoever is open gets the ball. That’s the kind of trust we have in our team.”
The 28 points, nine rebounds, six assists and no personal fouls for Dybantsa against Clemson was the first such stat line for a college freshman since a guy named Steph Curry in 2006. Perhaps you’ve heard of him, and by now he’s definitely heard of Dybantsa.
Additionally, Dybantsa passed another living legend and his personal idol in Kevin Durant for the second-longest streak of 15-plus-point games (nine) to open a career in Big 12 history.
In the days leading up to BYU’s matchup with Clemson, Nike had put up an electronic billboard of Dybantsa above Madison Square Garden. After his performance at MSG, Nike probably wishes it had sprung for more than just the one billboard.
The overall season numbers for Dybantsa — 20.3 points, 6.6 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 52.4% field goal shooting — are already All-American worthy, but it’s the early returns on his late game, crunch-time heroics that have put him on his own higher level.
Opening the season against Villanova in Las Vegas on Nov. 3, Dybantsa scored 21 points, with 13 coming after halftime to fend off a Wildcats rally.
Twelve days later, after haplessly trailing by as many as 20 points late against UConn in his hometown of Boston, Dybantsa exploded for 21 points in the final 14 minutes to drag BYU back into the ballgame before ultimately losing by a single bucket.
In BYU’s ESPN Events Invitational championship run over Thanksgiving in Florida, Dybantsa averaged 17 points, six rebounds and 2.5 assists in wins against Miami and Dayton, with an average of 12.5 second-half points in the tournament helping the Cougars come back from halftime deficits in each outing.
Long story short: When BYU needs a hero, Dybantsa finds another gear and excels. The Cougars’ slow starts have become something of a Bat Signal to alert Dybantsa to seize the moment.
Dybantsa sent a message of his own to the college basketball world Tuesday night — that he deserves the same kind of must-see TV treatment that Carmelo Anthony, Zion Williamson, Cooper Flagg and other past freshman supernovas have commanded before. You shouldn’t wait until March to experience the Dybantsa show.
