Asked by ESPN in a recent interview if his overall skill-set reminded him of any NBA players, BYU men’s basketball phenom AJ Dybantsa quickly came up with the name “Tracy McGrady.”
“When I first heard it,” Dybantsa, a 6-foot-9, 210-pound BYU freshman from Brockton, Massachusetts, told reporter Sean Farnham, “I (had) never watched T-Mac (on) film.
“I went back and watched (film) and said, ‘Yeah that kind of looks like me.’”
McGrady, a former NBA star who played for Orlando, Toronto, Houston, San Antonio, Detroit, Atlanta and the New York Knicks during a 15-year Hall of Fame career, stood 6-8 and weighed 225 pounds.
Dybantsa is ranked No. 1 in the country in scoring, tied with Tarlton State’s Dior Johnson at 23.6 points per game. He is also the Cougars’ second-leading rebounder (6.7/game) entering Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. Big 12 battle against Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse.
Dybantsa has also drawn comparisons to his favorite NBA player, Kevin Durant. Various analysts have mentioned Anthony Edwards, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard and Jayson Tatum as well when trying to come up with an accurate comparison for Dybantsa.
“I don’t think that he reminds me off the top of my head of anybody we have played in the past,” KU coach Bill Self said Thursday at a news conference held in advance of the game between his No. 14-ranked Jayhawks (15-5, 5-2 Big 12) and No. 13 Cougars (17-3, 5-2).
The Saturday afternoon clash is being billed nationally as a matchup between Dybantsa and KU’s Darryn Peterson, two players expected to be taken in the top three picks of the 2026 NBA Draft.
“He’s ridiculously talented. He’s long and he can take two strides to everybody else’s three,” Self said of Dybantsa. “He has a tendency to be able to step around you to create separation to get a shot. He can score from beyond the arc (21-of-66 from 3-point range, 31.8%), but he’s certainly so good in the mid-range lane type area. He’s a terrific talent.
“We’ve played other terrific talents here in the past,” Self added, mentioning Buddy Hield, Marcus Smart, Michael Beasley, Trae Young, Blake Griffin and Nick Fazekas.
“I don’t know if we played many, if any, that you would look at from an athleticism standpoint and say that he doesn’t fit a mold that you would look at as some of the greatest NBA athletes out there. Because he’s 6-9 and I don’t know what his wingspan is, but it’s got to be well over 7-feet. And to be that explosive and everything … he’s a he’s a terrific talent.”
The versatile Dybantsa has averaged 32.1 minutes a game while starting all of BYU’s 20 contests thus far in 2025-26. Peterson, a 6-6, 205-pound freshman from Canton, Ohio, has played in 10 of KU’s 20 games, averaging 27.2 minutes.
Peterson has averaged 21.6 points per game on 49.3% shooting. He has also hit 42.3% of his 3-point attempts and grabbed 4.6 rebounds per game. Peterson has 19 assists to 16 turnovers this season; Dybantsa has 72 assists to 56 turnovers.
Asked if he would stress that this is a matchup between teams, not merely a showcase for individual players, Self answered in the affirmative.
“Sure we will. We made that point many times in the past, but I’m sure we will do that,” Self said. “I mean, I’m sure they (Cougars) would say the same thing about us, too. The objective of the day is to try to win the game. That’s the only thing I’m thinking about, and that’s all the players should be thinking about as well.”
KU sophomore forward Flory Bidunga agreed that Saturday’s showdown is more than a Dybantsa-Peterson storyline.
“We play for the one (name) in front of the chest, not on the back (of the jersey), as we’ve always been saying now,” Bidunga said. “We know it is Kansas against BYU, and it takes a team effort we all need to participate in.”
Self, who said he believed Peterson (ankle sprain) would be healthy enough to play in the game barring any setbacks this week, said it would be impossible to focus on just one Cougar. Richie Saunders averages 18.8 points per game and Robert Wright 17.5. Saunders has hit 49.6% of his shots (53 of 135 three-pointers, for 39.3%). Wright has converted 46.3% of his shots and made 36 of 83 threes (43.4%).
“You don’t put all your attention on one guy with those other guys more than capable of getting 25 or 30 any night,” Self said. “Let’s call it like it is. We’ve got to guard their team, but our emphasis will be on trying to slow down those three, knowing that there’s another guy in the starting lineup that made five 3s in a half recently (Kennard Davis, in a 86-83 loss to No. 1 Arizona).
“They’ve got an athletic big guy that has given us fits in the past, mainly last year.”
Indeed, Keba Keitha (6-8, 230) had 10 points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots in BYU’s 91-57 rout of KU last season in Provo, Utah.
“We’re going to do what we need to do to win the game, but the emphasis cannot be stopping one guy,” Self said. “We have to figure a way to to slow down and keep BYU out of rhythm as a group, not just one person.”