The weight of expectations can crush even the most talented freshmen. AJ Dybantsa knows this better than most as he prepares for his debut season at BYU. The consensus five-star recruit has all the tools to dominate college basketball, but one misstep could derail everything he\u2019s worked toward.<\/p>\n
Can AJ Dybantsa Avoid the Ace Bailey Trap at BYU?<\/p>\n
Consensus five-star freshman basketball players walk into the locker room and onto the court, ordained to become game-changers who truly want to elevate their team\u2019s performance and potentially raise their NBA draft profile. In an era of \u201cone and done\u201d freshmen, players can jump to the NBA after just a year in college. Yet, avoiding on-court miscues could ultimately benefit them at the next level.<\/p>\n
Brigham Young University landed the Brockton, Massachusetts, small forward. Dybantsa was reclassified so that he will take the court in Provo this winter. While scouts and analysts marvel at his game, displaying apparent precocity on the floor, the six-foot-nine prep standout must avoid the pitfalls that struck others in his position.<\/p>\n
College basketball analyst John Fanta, host of \u201cThe Field Of 68: After Dark\u201d YouTube channel, discussed the Cougars\u2019 potential standout<\/a> and what could go wrong.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cBut what you don\u2019t want to have happen, in my opinion, is for him to be better than him. Yeah. But from the offensive side, you don\u2019t want an Ace Bailey type of thing where they\u2019re going to take, he\u2019s got to take his shots. He\u2019s got to go; he\u2019s going to go out and have 38 against Delaware, right? But, I don\u2019t care about 38. I care about how you impact winning on both ends of the floor so that this team will consistently be strong.\u201d<\/p>\n Why Did Ace Bailey\u2019s Approach Fail at Rutgers?<\/p>\n Fanta refers to Airious \u201cAce\u201d Bailey, formerly of Rutgers, now playing with the Utah Jazz. During the 2024-25 season as a five-star freshman recruit at Rutgers, Bailey averaged 17.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game. However, his offensive prowess did not help Rutgers win. Their 15-17 record with Bailey matched their exact mark from the year before.<\/p>\n The numbers tell an even more troubling story. According to Basketball Reference<\/a>, Bailey sported a plus\/minus of 4.5. The Scarlet Knights only scored four more points with him on the floor than off. In contrast, Cooper Flagg, formerly of Duke, picked four spots ahead of Bailey, sported a plus\/minus of 16.3, and led all of Division 1.<\/p>\n Fanta sees Dybantsa as a player who gets his points and makes his teammates better. Dybantsa could and probably will lead his team to an NCAA Tournament appearance, which Bailey could not do. Granted, coaches want superstar players to score first and worry about everything else later. However, getting his teammates involved early and often while posting good numbers will foster the team\u2019s unselfishness<\/a>.<\/p>\n What will BYU look like during the 2024-25 season with Dybantsa presumably acting as its star? The answer may determine whether he follows Bailey\u2019s path or carves out something much better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The weight of expectations can crush even the most talented freshmen. AJ Dybantsa knows this better than most…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":168136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-168135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115075905174848009","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}