LAS VEGAS – Shortly after BYU’s practice ended in Provo on Saturday afternoon, Cougars coach Kevin Young pulled his highly-touted freshman forward, A.J. Dynbantsa, out of the training room and had a brief but profound heart-to-heart conversation. “We need you to be more of an alpha,” Young said. “There’s going to be times when you need to take the game over.”
Young repeated that message at halftime of No. 8 BYU’s game on Monday night against unranked Villanova at T-Mobile Arena. The Cougars led 42-32, and though Dybantsa had played well in contributing 8 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists, Young was concerned that Dybantsa was being a little too cute on his drives to the rim. “I told him I wanted him to be a little bit more calculated when he was driving, not be so predictable,” Young recalled later. “Use his athleticism more.”
Those were useful messages, but the time when they needed to be delivered most was late in the second half, when Villanova, which trailed by 14 points early in the second half, took its first lead of the night with 6:28 to play on a three-pointer by sophomore guard Bryce Lindsay. Young, however, never repeated the message to Dybantsa. He didn’t have to.
With the game in the balance, Dybantsa went instinctively into alpha mode. After 6-foot-8 senior forward Keba Keita tied the game on an offensive putback, Dybantsa scored three straight buckets on hard drives to the rim. That staked the Cougars to a 67-59 lead with 1:50 to play. Later, when Lindsay went 1 for 2 from the foul line with 14 seconds to play and BYU up by seven, Dybantsa sealed the win with a grown-ass-man defensive rebound. The 71-66 decision wasn’t pretty, but it was a win in the first game of the season — and of Dybantsa’s college career.
Dybantsa finished the game with a team-high 21 points on 9 of 18 shooting to go along with 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 0 turnovers. In most seasons, on most opening nights, those numbers from a freshman would command vast attention. On this night, however, it wasn’t even the best performance by a freshman in the building. That belonged to Arizona forward Koa Peat, who put up 30 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals in No. 13 Arizona’s 93-87 win over reigning champs and No. 3 Florida. Those were just two eye-popping performances turned in by a slew of freshmen around the country on college basketball’s opening day.
Nor was Dybantsa the only standout performer for BYU. Sharpshooting guard Richie Saunders, a 6-foot-5 senior, added 15 points and 7 rebounds while sophomore point guard Robert Wright, the transfer from Baylor, had 14 points. Keita had 8 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks and countless jaw-rattling screens. BYU’s work on the defensive glass left much to be desired (Villanova had 17 offensive rebounds and 13 second-chance points), but the game followed the basic blueprint which Young hopes his team will utilize all season. This is a mature, well-balanced team, but when it’s winning time, it’s A.J. time.
It seems everyone in the BYU program understands that fully except for Dybantsa himself. It’s not because he lacks confidence, but rather because he maintains a team-first ethos and an innate desire to please. He knows he’s special, but he just wants to be one of the guys. That’s a great problem to have, but it is a problem, which is why Young was so intentional the last few days about delivering those sentiments.
“Part of being a good team guy is doing what the team needs,” Young told Hoops HQ after the game. “Being a team guy isn’t always just blending in. Every guy is an ingredient to the team’s success. For him, he has to shoulder a lot of the load, to score the ball. In this game, the team needed him to go get a bucket when we needed one. He answered the call.”
It would help if Dybantsa could develop a three-point shot. Villanova’s defenders repeatedly gave him space, daring him to launch it from deep, yet Dybantsa repeatedly turned down the invitations. It’s notable that the one three-point shot Dybantsa did make came right after Villanova senior forward Tafara Gapare swatted his dunk attempt on a fast break. On the ensuing possession, Dybanta caught the ball on the left wing in transition, swished it from behind the arc, and then good-naturedly talked smack to Gapare as the two trotted downcourt.
Even when he’s talking trash, Dybantsa is demure. This is of a piece with his cheerful yet understated demeanor. For all his celebrity, Dybantsa doesn’t exactly fill a room. He answers questions from reporters politely and with scant few words. You can’t tell whether he’s shy or very well media trained. (Probably both.) Cell phone cameras are trained on him all the time and he’s active on social media, but he doesn’t do much to draw attention to himself. He’s a player, not a personality. He prefers to let his actions do the talking.
The place where Dybantsa loomed largest Monday night was on the Jumbotron at T-Mobile Arena, where his commercial with Shaquille O’Neal for Nutricost whey protein played over and over throughout the night. (The ad ended with Dybantsa telling Shaq, “I hope I look like you at fifty.”) As a comedic pitchman, Dybantsa is no Peyton Manning (or Shaq for that matter), but his awkwardness reflected an endearing authenticity. Acting ain’t his thing just yet.
One person who was not surprised by Dybantsa’s understated but efficient performance was his father, Ace. Sitting courtside in a dapper navy double-breasted suit, Ace predicted before the game that Dybantsa would try to fit in more than stand out. “I don’t think he will do too much,” Ace told Hoops HQ. “He’s got a good supporting cast. He’s unselfish. He doesn’t care about numbers. He only cares about winning.”
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd, who coached Dybantsa for the gold-medal winning U.S. team at the FIBA U19 World Cup in Switzerland over the summer, echoed that sentiment. Before Arizona’s practice at T-Mobile Arena on Sunday afternoon, Lloyd said his main takeaway from the experience was not just how talented Dybantsa is, but how seamlessly he fit in with the rest of the group. “He really knows how to play with other good players and give them the space they need,” Lloyd said. “He wanted to be coached. You never got the sense that he was just trying to get numbers. He knew when to assert himself, but he picked his spots very well for a kid his age.”
The one person inside BYU’s program who can most relate to the unique challenges Dybantsa is facing is assistant coach Chris Burgess. He, too, was a consensus top-three prospect when he was a high school senior in Irvine, California, in 1997. Burgess went to Duke, but he came off the bench for his first two seasons. He transferred to Utah to finish out his career and went undrafted by the NBA, although he had a successful 11-year pro career overseas.
Burgess can hardly imagine coming of age in the intensely digitized world Dybantsa has lived in since he was barely a teenager. On the one hand, all that hype comes with enormous pressure. On the other hand, Dybantsa and the rest of today’s young superstars enter college vastly more prepared to compete on the court and process distractions off of it. “Once I got to Duke, my world was rocked,” Burgess said. “I wasn’t prepared for the ACC in terms of how big it was, what it meant to everybody. It was a really difficult transition. It’s just a different time now to be growing up and playing this sport. For a guy like A.J., he’s been able to travel the world and play against the best all year long. So when he gets to college and he’s playing on national TV, the transition is easier.”
As Burgess tracked Dybantsa in high school, first at Prolific Prep in Napa, Calif., and then at Utah Prep, he marveled at Dybantsa’s equipoise in the face of all that scrutiny. That continued after his arrival in Provo. Burgess recalled how the morning after the team’s Blue-White scrimmage, Dybantsa stopped by Burgess’ office, noticed he was breaking down video from the game, sat down and peppered him with questions. “He’s always in learning mode,” Burgess said. “With some kids, you don’t want to overload them, but he loves looking at film. He’s not someone who’s worried about mistakes or embarrassed by mistakes. He doesn’t live in that world. He just wants to get better.”
That’s a scary thought, given how good Dybantsa already is. He’s a preternatural talent who understands what it takes to be excellent. He is a great teammate who understands there will be times when he needs to set himself apart. And he is a young celebrity who seems to understand the difference between the fella in the jersey and the character on the Jumbotron. As long as he keeps all those things in balance, there’s every reason to believe he is headed for a great freshman season, and BYU is headed for a lot more wins.
All in all, it was quite the impressive debut. When it was over, the Cougars shook hands with their counterparts and headed for the locker room, but once again, Dybantsa was being asked to stand apart. He stood patiently on the court, wearing a headset for a live interview with the TNT studio team while being surrounded by media photographers and fans holding up cell phones. When the interview was done, Dybantsa went to center court to pose for a picture with his parents. Then he ran towards the tunnel leading to BYU’s locker room. The Cougar faithful who turned T-Mobile Arena into another blue-clad version of the Marriott Center, cheered loudly as he ran past. Dybantsa broke out into a wide smile, the widest of the night, raised both his arms, and disappeared from view. His night was done, but his work was just beginning.
