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By Megan Armstrong
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BYU Cougars star forward AJ Dybantsa won Big 12 Freshman of the Year, and the 6-foot-9 phenom put up 40 points in BYU's Big 12 Tournament win over Kansas State on Tuesday night. His 40-point outing broke Kevin Durant's nearly 20-year record for most points scored by a freshman in the tournament.
So, Dybantsa justified his Big 12 Freshman of the Year award. But as a projected top-three pick in the upcoming 2026 NBA Draft, many people believed Dybantsa should have won Big 12 Player of the Year instead of Arizona guard Jaden Bradley.
Dybantsa had a more measured response than his fans.
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"Initial reaction, I was like, 'Oh, damn.' I thought I should have won it," Dybantsa told Chancellor Johnson. "I seen I got Freshman of the Year. but when I look back at [team] record and everything, [Bradley] was the head of the snake — the No. 1 team in the conference. [Bradley is] the heart and soul of the team, a senior, so well deserved."
When Johnson suggested to Dybantsa that leading NCAA Division I men's basketball in scoring (25.2 points per game) should have netted him the honor, Dybantsa shrugged. "It's not all about scoring," he said. "They were the No. 3 team in the country. It's kind of like the NBA's standards. You can't really be the 'MVP,' which is kind of what this award is, if you're on a losing team. We finished .500, so I should have gotten more wins."
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To clarify, Dybantsa was referring to BYU's .500 record in regular-season conference play (9-9). The Cougars finished with a 22-10 record overall. Meanwhile, Bradley's No. 2 Arizona went 16-2 in the Big 12 and 29-2 overall. Dybantsa's regular-season stat line reads 25.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.1 steals, and 34.3 minutes across 32 starts.
BYU's next Big 12 Tournament game is against West Virginia at 7 p.m. EST on Wednesday. Whether this will be Dybantsa's first and last Big 12 Tournament is surprisingly still up in the air. Earlier this month, Dybantsa told Deseret News' McKay Coppins that he "might not leave" school for the 2026 NBA Draft.
"My mom wants me to graduate, so I might not leave," he said. "But I might leave. I don't know. The fans might get into my head, talking about one more year [or] maybe three more years. I don't know. But, like, I'm going to have to talk to my mom."
If Dybantsa goes pro, ESPN's Jeremy Woo projects that the Washington Wizards will select Dybantsa with the No. 2 overall pick in his latest mock draft. Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman, meanwhile, believes Dybantsa will be the No. 1 overall pick to the Sacramento Kings, and CBS Sports' Gary Parrish has Dybantsa at No. 2 to the Indiana Pacers.
The 2026 NBA Draft lottery will take place on May 10. The AWS NBA Draft Combine is scheduled for May 10 to May 17 in Chicago. But first, Dybantsa has March Madness to attend to, with ESPN's Joe Lunardi slating BYU as a No. 6 seed in the men's NCAA Tournament, which begins next week.
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