Key Highlights
- So far, it’s lived up to the hype. And AJ Dybantsa is right in the middle of it all. BYU’s superstar is averaging 20.3 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game thus far, most recently going nuclear in the second half against Clemson earlier this week to lead a wild, record-setting comeback victory at Madison Square Garden. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAs excellent as Dybantsa has been, he isn’t alone in setting the basketball world on fire as a first-year — Cameron Boozer, Darryn Peterson and Caleb Wilson have also hit the ground running, with the quartet tempting every uncompetitive NBA team to tank for the opportunity to draft one of them. In a recent piece for The Ringer, analyst Danny Chau wrote about the aforementioned four freshman phenoms, including plenty of praise for BYU’s Dybantsa."Dybantsa has every possible physical tool a team could ever want out of a primary wing: height, length, speed, power, fluidity, ground coverage," wrote Chau.
- “Despite all that — and notably unlike his contemporary in Peterson — he doesn’t really play like how you might expect.
- He’s often taken the road less traveled, finding new movement patterns and configurations that express his immense athletic gifts.“On the break, most players built like Dybantsa might just make a beeline to the rim at cruise-control speeds.
- AJ, though, might start skipping, elongating his strides to throw off the backpedaling defender’s sense of rhythm.
- Dybantsa is constantly adjusting the time signature of his dribbles on the fly.