How big will basketball be around here this season?
I’m not talking about the Utah Jazz. I’m talking about the team with a player on it that has greater talent and upside and a grander future than anyone currently on the Jazz, or at least what anyone on the Jazz was once thought to have.
That’s what more than a few talent scouts believe.
How big will BYU basketball be with AJ Dybantsa growing his game, refining his skills, working his wonders in Provo?
You can answer that question this way: Try getting a decent ticket to a Cougars home game. Compare that to the demand for a Jazz game. BYU’s Marriott Madness/Blue-White/Lose-Your-Ever-Lovin’-Mind Extravaganza happened on Thursday night in the Marriott Center, and the place was absolutely … what’s the word? … enthusiastic? … energetic? … gobsmacked bonkers?
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Let’s back up here for a second and think all of this through for a minute.
When was the last time a college player came through any of the Utah schools who was thought by certain folks in the know to have more ability, latent or already emerging and evident, than anyone on the Jazz at that particular time? When was the last time a college player around here stirred more interest, more fire than any of the Jazz players? Did Jimmer do that? When was a college player here mentioned as or projected to possibly one day be the best player on the planet?
Well? … We’ll wait …
Still waiting …
Dybantsa is judged by some pro evaluators to be the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. There are a couple of players who could potentially edge him out, depending on how the coming season goes.
But Paul George called Dybantsa “a future star in the NBA,” saying further that he’s “extremely talented … going to be a special talent. He’s got all the tools. He’s explosive, he’s bouncy, he’s quick first step, ball’s on a string … sky’s the limit for AJ, he knows that.”
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) A young BYU fan holds up a sign supporting Utah Prep’s AJ Dybantsa (3) during the Grind Session Semifinals at Highland High School in Salt Lake City on Saturday, March 15, 2025.
He does know that. Or he thinks he knows that. When the kid was once asked what his aims are in the NBA, he said, without hesitation, “Hall of Fame.”
Consider that delusional or cocky, if you will, or dangerously driven.
Either way, are there any current Jazz players who were considered by themselves or others to be in that lofty a category?
Ace Bailey, an exciting prospect, was the Jazz’s first selection in June, the No. 5 pick overall. Not bad. Lauri Markkanen, a stellar pro, was taken seventh overall by Minnesota, then traded to Chicago, in 2017. He’s blossomed, when allowed to actually go out and play, for the Jazz. In the run-up, neither of those two were thought to be potential No. 1s.
Maybe Andrew Bogut for the Utes 20 years ago, when he was, in fact, taken first in the NBA Draft by Milwaukee. The Jazz’s best players at that time were Carlos Boozer, Andrei Kirilenko and Mehmet Okur. (They drafted Deron Williams that same year.) By comparison, Boozer was a second-round pick by Cleveland in 2002, Kirilenko was taken 24th overall by the Jazz in 1999, Okur was a second-round pick in 2001 by Detroit.
Maybe Damian Lillard at Weber State, who was taken sixth overall in 2012 by Portland, but, then, sixth isn’t first. At that time, the Jazz had Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors, and Enes Kanter [Freedom]. Hayward was taken ninth overall by the Jazz in 2010, Favors was picked third by the Nets in 2010, Enes Kanter was selected third by the Jazz via New Jersey. None of them had anywhere near the buzz that Dybantsa has.
Maybe Keith Van Horn of Utah, who was picked second overall by Philly in the 1997 draft. This one would be pretty close were it not for the fact that at that time the Jazz had a couple of players named John Stockton and Karl Malone. Still, Stockton was picked 16th overall in 1984 and Malone 13th in 1985.
Maybe BYU’s Shawn Bradley, who was selected with the second pick by the 76ers in 1993. There was a lot of hype and some mystery around Bradley, given the fact that he stood 7-foot-6 and had skills, and was coming off a two-year church mission. But the Jazz at that time had You-Know-Who and You-Know-Who.
Maybe Stockton getting picked 16th and Malone 13th undercuts any definition or meaning or significance anyone wants to assign to the draft or draft projections.
But when accomplished seasoned guys like George and Kevin Durant and Chris Paul work with and/or sing the praises of a kid just entering college, you figure something special might be afoot.
Inside the state’s boundaries, then, as we speak, for the time being, Dybantsa is The Man.
And the team surrounding him is soaring also. Yeah, no games have yet been played and nobody knows with exactness how it’s all going to work out or come together. The Cougars’ schedule is tough, one not just with blue-blood programs on it, teams such as Villanova and UConn and Wisconsin, in addition to the regular rigorous Big 12 slate, but also a run through befitting a top 10 team, a team aiming to go higher than just that.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Prep’s AJ Dybantsa (3) brings the ball down the court during the Grind Session Semifinals at Highland High School in Salt Lake City on Saturday, March 15, 2025.
The room includes more than Dybantsa. There’s also Richie Saunders, an all-Big 12 performer from last season, Rob Wright, a gifted point guard transfer from Baylor, Keba Keita, a returning freak athlete, transfer shutdown wing Kennard Davis, and a list of other guys who will throw in with the group.
Dybantsa, for a dude who has been featured as a franchise-type player for a number of years now, is remarkably unselfish on the court, looking to boost his teammates’ games, not just his own. He has a strong overall game, is working on his defense, but will have to improve his shooting, which he can do.
There’s the cautionary advisory against allowing too much hullabaloo and hype to swell up around a team that hasn’t competed together in a real game.
Too late.
Word out of early practices is that this bunch has been ridiculous, off-the-charts good. It’ll have to be to weather that aforementioned schedule and hold fast and favorably leaned up against so many expectations from the outside in and from its own highfalutin suppositions.
Even in the middle of football season, what with the Cougars undefeated and the Utes carrying just one loss, with the schools’ rivalry game coming up in just over a week, basketball is burning a hole through sports in Utah.
It’s not the Jazz who are lighting and fueling that hot flame. It’s a college basketball team — yes, an expensive one — that is tuning up to battle at the highest level other expensive college basketball teams, a team here in Utah that, like a straw, is piercing a drink, designing to stir madly from October until March and maybe even April.