{"id":646121,"date":"2026-03-07T23:45:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T23:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/646121\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T23:45:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T23:45:20","slug":"jalen-rose-reacts-to-aj-dybantsa-comments-about-nba-draft-potential-byu-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/646121\/","title":{"rendered":"Jalen Rose reacts to AJ Dybantsa comments about NBA Draft, potential BYU return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Considered one of the top prospects in this year\u2019s NBA Draft<\/a>, AJ Dybantsa<\/a> raised eyebrows when he indicated he could stay<\/a> at BYU<\/a> because his mom wants him to graduate. TNT Sports\u2019 Jalen Rose reacted to those remarks Saturday and shed some light on the situation.<\/p>\n

Rose told the panel he thinks Dybantsa should declare for the draft instead of run it back at BYU for another year. The former Five Star Plus+<\/a> recruit is considered the No. 1-ranked player on the board, according to On3\u2019s Jamie Shaw III\u2019s<\/a> latest Big Board<\/a>, and ESPN projected him to go No. 2 overall in its most recent mock draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Rose said he got to know Dybantsa\u2019s family and he\u2019d be one of the only projected top picks to instead return to school. Still, he called for the BYU star to go to the NBA instead of returning for Year 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s the thing. Once you get to know him and see his family dynamic, if there is a freshman that can go No. 1 and still come back, it actually would be him,\u201d Rose said<\/a>. \u201cBut I just don\u2019t think that\u2019s the best thing for him to do and for his career. But if somebody, based on his situation, was going to come back, I think it would be him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dybansta has lived up to the billing after arriving at BYU as the top recruit in the country. He\u2019s averaging 24.8 points this year to lead the Cougars while adding 6.7 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.1 steals on average. He\u2019s also shooting 53% from the field and 36.3% from three-point territory heading into Saturday\u2019s regular-season finale against Texas Tech<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But while speaking with Deseret News<\/a> earlier this week, AJ Dybantsa said he has \u201cjust got to get to the end of the season\u201d and still might wind up leaving for the draft. Of course, he expects the \u201cone more year\u201d chants to ring down as BYU goes through its final regular-season games. But he added he\u2019ll have to talk with his mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, because my mom wants me to graduate,\u201d Dybantsa said when asked whether he made up his mind about declaring for the draft. \u201cSo I might not leave. But I might leave. I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fans might get into my head and talk about one more year, maybe three more years. I don\u2019t know. But I\u2019m going to have to talk to my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Considered one of the top prospects in this year\u2019s NBA Draft, AJ Dybantsa raised eyebrows when he indicated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5387,7,6,12],"class_list":{"0":"post-646121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-aj-dybantsa-25-utah-prep","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-nba-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116190559064977510","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}