In 30 years, a group of basketball historians will come together to discuss the career of AJ Dybantsa.
Maybe they will talk about his MVP, maybe they’ll bring up his Olympic gold medal, maybe the conversation
will center around his NBA championship ring.
But when the topic shifts to his career as a BYU Cougar, they will talk about his miraculous second half performance against Clemson at Madison Square Garden.
If you’re on the fence about Dybantsa, watch his play in the Cougars’ 22-point comeback against Clemson and think again.
The comeback
In the early moments of the second half on Tuesday night, BYU trailed by 22 points. That’s when Dybantsa had his own MSG moment at only 18 years old.
In BYU’s comeback win, Dybantsa scored or assisted on 34 of the Cougars’ 45 second half points. He ran the offense for the majority of the half, got to the lane, ran beautiful pick and rolls, had a beautiful midrange game and played with a physicality and intensity that would make every NBA front office executive salivate.
He scored 22 of his 28 points in the second half — more than the entire Clemson roster.
The freshman can pick up such a head of steam for his 6-foot-9 build, that defenders’ only hope to stop him is to foul. In the second half comeback, Dybantsa had two acrobatic finishes after being fouled by a Tiger defender in the crowded lane for and-ones.
Dybantsa made all eight of his free throw attempts in the second half as well. There were concerns of his free throw shooting after going 2 for 7 in his collegiate debut, but in the games following he’s shot 90.0% from the line.
The most highlight-worthy play of his night came when he jumped from well beyond the restricted area to throw down a nasty right-handed dunk in the crowded paint. This type of dunk coming from a half court offensive set rather than a fast break is rare on any level.
The passing
While Dybantsa’s dunk is the play that will be on his end of season highlight reel, there were four consecutive possessions that fans of lottery teams should be giddy about.
With four minutes left, still down by three, the ball was placed into Dybantsa’s hands to make plays. This is how those four possessions went:
- Left handed dribble drive from the right corner to the paint. Defense collapsed on him, leaving Keba Keita wide open. Dybantsa made a one-handed pass to the big man for the easy dunk.
- Dybantsa-Keita high pick and roll at the top of the 3-point line. Dybantsa throws a lob from beyond the arc for the Keita alley-top jam (BYU takes the lead).
- Dybantsa drives inside the 3-point line and the defense collapses. He does bobble the ball a little bit, but still finds an open Kennard Davis for the 3-pointer.
- Dybantsa-Keita high pick and roll again. This time, Keita’s alley-oop puts the Tiger defender on a vicious poster.
Two plays later is when he had the “SportsCenter” Top 10 dunk.
Dybantsa finished with six assists. He averages about three a game.
After a win against Holy Cross earlier in the season, BYU coach Kevin Young shared his confidence in Dybantsa’s playmaking ability.
“I’ve had a lot of success in my career in not worrying about who’s the ‘point guard,’ and just giving the most dynamic guy the ball in space to just do their thing,” Young said.
It’s telling that Young, who has coached non-point guards like Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid and Devin Booker, has faith in Dybantsa to run an offense in clutch time.
Dybantsa’s weaknesses
Dybantsa only shot one 3-pointer in BYU’s historic second half comeback. He missed. He did take and make one in the third, but overall, Dybantsa doesn’t shoot nearly as much as Cam Boozer and Darren Peterson, the two other players vying for the No. 1 pick.
On the season, Dybantsa is 8 for 22 from deep, which is good for 36.3%. That’s a respectable amount, but I would like to see what he can do from a higher volume from deep. In the NBA, he won’t be able to just bully people into a midrange shot every single play. He will need to expand his range, which will also open up more opportunities for his beautiful midrange to flourish.
He also has a surprisingly low amount of stocks on the season (steals and blocks). I don’t think he is a bad defender by any means, and when he is locked in like he was on Tuesday night, he is pretty scary to go up against. His insane length is definitely a tool that can be turned into great defense, but I wish I could see more of an output on the defensive end.
Against Clemson, he finished the game with no stocks at all. Against real competition this season (Villanova, UConn, Wisconsin, Miami, Dayton, Clemson) he is only averaging 0.67 stocks per game. I’m not to the point where I am hitting the panic button at this point, but still, that number is concerningly low. It’s lower than every other member of BYU’s starting five.
