The FIBA U19 World Cup begins June 28 in Switzerland, and Team USA is in their training camp to whittle the roster from 33 to 12 players. Dybantsa is a lock to make the roster, and he made the cut of 18 finalists released Monday after three days of training camp.
The players consist of rising high school seniors, incoming college freshmen from the 2025 class, and players that were college freshmen this past season. Dybantsa is the lone top 5 player in the 2025 class — other top 10 recruits such as Houston signee Chris Cenac and Arizona signee Koa Peat are participating. Arizona Head Coach Tommy Lloyd is the Head Coach for Team USA.
Dybantsa has clearly been the best player on the floor during training camp, showcasing his competitiveness and scoring ability. Dybantsa made the game-winning shot in the final scrimmage Sunday, scoring the teams final 13 points to lead them to the comeback win. The below excerpt is from On3’s Jamie Shaw, who was in attendance.
“AJ Dybantsa stole the show on the first day of media availability at the USA Basketball U19 Training Camp. The 6-foot-9 freshman at BYU simply made every play necessary to lead his team to a scrimmage win. One college coach watching said, “If I was able to create-a-player, and get all the best pieces and put it into one player, it would look a lot like him.”
Dybantsa is a lengthy 6-foot-9 with twitchy athleticism and fluidity. The rising BYU freshman is able to self-create for clean in the half court and he showed in this session he can knock down shots.
Down six, with about 90 seconds left on the clock, a switch flipped with Dybantsa. He scored the next 13 points for his team, bringing them to a one-point win in overtime. The intensity changed. Everyone in the gym could hear Dybantsa’s voice. Three of his shots were threes, including an and-1, and for the final bucket he got downhill and finished in traffic. He was the best player on the floor for this session, and that was not in question.
Outside of the show that Dybantsa put on, no one player was really great. But, in the same vain, no one was really bad. They all showed some stuff, with the majority of the 33 players on the floor, showing flashes. All the more reason why the alpha showing of Dybantsa was impressive, everyone in the gym knew what was happening.”
Jack Pilgrim, head of Kentucky’s On3 affiliate, offered his observations about AJ.
“It was a performance that led to a postgame debate wondering how many points per game he’d average in the NBA today. Down big in the final minutes of the afternoon session scrimmage, the BYU signee single-handily led his team back to victory with not one, not two, but three separate clutch buckets with defensive stops and forced turnovers to pull it off. The one kid in the gym with nothing to prove — No. 1 in his class, all of the NIL money in the world, likely No. 1 draft pick in 2026 — was screaming to his teammates to pick up 94 feet with defensive call-outs and counting down each second on the inbounds begging for a violation. He was obsessed with earning what amounts to a meaningless scrimmage win in a training camp he could have skipped entirely and still made the final 12-member 2025 FIBA World Cup roster without losing a second of sleep.”
Below are highlights from AJ’s scrimmage performance. AJ is an incredible player, but one question I have for him is how consistent can his three-point shot be — will he shoot in the low-to-mid thirties, or can he shoot 38%+? AJ can get to the basket at will, but his ability to manufacture three-point shots when his team needed it (albeit in a scrimmage setting) was incredibly impressive.
AJ Dybantsa (BYU) makes the game-winning play during scrimmages on Day 2 of the U19 trials. Fans are going to love seeing him with the ball in his hands at the end of the shot clock or when the game is on the line next season in Provo. pic.twitter.com/kfYzdzFwVv
— Krysten Peek (@krystenpeek) June 16, 2025
The FIBA U19 World Cup runs June 28-July 6 in Switzerland. Team USA is in Group D at the and will play Australia, France, and Cameroon in pool play. Their first game will be Saturday, June 28 at 9:15 am MT. All games will be live streamed on YouTube.