NEW YORK — Whatever the franchise that selects him first, second or third in subsequent yr’s NBA Draft, AJ Dybantsa will inevitably play who-knows-how-many video games at Madison Sq. Backyard over the subsequent 10, 12, perhaps even 15 years of his life.
And but, for no matter NBA glories would possibly await within the decade-plus to return, there is no assure any of his future video games on this hallowed constructing will likely be as impactful or particular as what the 18-year-old did in his debut look on Tuesday evening on the Jimmy V Traditional in No. 10 BYU’s record-setting, come-from-behind, buzzer-beating 67-64 win over Clemson.
This was the evening AJ Dybantsa arrived as an elite faculty participant.
The sport-deciding shot, sarcastically, wasn’t from the arms and arms of Dybantsa, although. Sophomore guard Rob Wright III was the last-second hero, draining a triple that despatched the Cougar followers at MSG into hysterics.
“Simply go forward and kick it to me,” Wright advised senior Mihailo Boskovic, who regarded for Saunders on the curl. Double coated. Dybantsa juked, however wasn’t free. In blazed Wright, who break up the house between freshman Zac Foster and senior Butta Johnson.
The BYU teaching workers advised me afterward that the play — which has a number of names, all of which they’re holding as a secret — had Richie Saunders as the primary possibility, Dybantsa because the second and Wright III as, what else, the third.
Wright stated it was his first 3-pointer to win a sport in his life.
However the one cause BYU was even in a spot to win the sport on Wright’s shot was as a result of Dybantsa broke by means of and confirmed No. 1-overall-pick brilliance. After we look again at first of his journey, that is the sport we’ll keep in mind. The identical approach we keep in mind Carmelo Anthony’s debut at Syracuse coming at MSG in 2002 and Zion Williamson’s second of arrival in Duke‘s debut vs. Kentucky on the 2018 Champions Traditional.
And if there’s one play that may stand out over the others, it is most likely this dunk, a tomahawk down the lane that flipped the momentum for good in BYU’s favor because it mauled and bullied Clemson within the second half.
Right here in Midtown Manhattan, Dybantsa gave faculty basketball a present and BYU followers materialization of hope, as he was every part he’d been promised to be: a career-high 28 factors, a career-high 9 rebounds; a career-high six assists. Nearly all of that statistical workload coming within the second half.
That is the AJ Dybantsa we had been promised.
And he was unleashed after Cougars coach Kevin Younger was so pissed off he barely had something to say to Dybantsa and his teammates within the locker room at halftime. Clemson clubbed the Cougars within the first half, closing the ultimate 6:43 on a 21-0 run to steer 43-22 going into the break. MSG was low on vitality and BYU was bizarrely torpid.
“I am a straight shooter with our guys,” Younger stated. “To a person, I believed they had been taking part in tougher. I actually challenged them. There isn’t any secret to profitable. You have to play arduous. You have to execute. I do know that sounds tremendous ‘coachy’, however they had been taking part in tougher than we had been. And I believed within the second half that the ditch warfare was received by us.”
As Younger left the coaches’ room and entered the spacious customer’s locker room, he was a person of few phrases. Irritated and fed up with the newest weak first-half effort he noticed from his workforce, he advised them it was purely on the gamers to discover a solution to win.
“He did not actually take an excessive amount of time,” Dybantsa advised CBS Sports activities. “He was like, ‘Y’all gotta go repair it.'”
BYU would maintain Clemson to 4 factors for the primary 11 minutes and 50 seconds of the second half. Dybantsa unspooled all of that potential into one thing tangible, one thing that was so good, all of us are allowed to imagine it is sufficient to place BYU in Ultimate 4 Contender standing: 22 factors, seven rebounds and 5 assists after the break. He outscored Clemson by himself 22-21. He accounted for 34 of BYU’s 45 factors after halftime.
No BYU freshman had hit these numbers in a full sport in not less than 20 years. No BYU Freshman has finished that in a full sport within the final 20 years. Dybantsa’s 28 factors is essentially the most by a freshman since TJ Haws had that many in 2017. Quickly sufficient, he’ll hit 30, most likely 35, perhaps even 40.
There was a stunning, Jordan-esque fadeaway from the suitable aspect, about 15 ft out, that coolly cashed to make it 47-42, Clemson, with 9:55 to go. There was the alley-oop to Keba Keita that was one among 5 head-turning physicality moments from Keita that additionally helped disintegrate Clemson’s spirit.
In placing on the most effective sport of his younger profession, Dybantsa additionally supplied BYU with its biggest second-half comeback in class historical past. The Cougars had by no means received a sport after being down by as many as 22 factors at halftime.
“His processing potential is, I feel, most likely essentially the most spectacular factor about him,” Younger advised CBS Sports activities.
It is also a couple of easy course of that Younger, who spent greater than a decade teaching as an NBA assistant, is imparting to Dybantsa. Choose a spot. Go the place you wish to go, do what you realize you are able to do. Towards Clemson, Dybantsa was getting too snug residing alongside the baseline. Within the second half, that modified.
“Like Kevin Durant, one thing me and Monty Williams would discuss,” Younger stated. “I feel they used to make use of it with Tim Duncan: simply decide a spot. That is one thing he and I’ve talked about. Tonight, I believed that is the place he was at his finest, simply attending to his spot, elevating up, after which the factor I like about him is he is so versatile. You realize, he is in decide and roll. He is throwing lobs to Keita. Two enormous performs. So he is not identical to a one-trick pony. He can do a whole lot of various things. And to do it on this stage and do it down the stretch, for a younger man on this constructing? It is fairly cool.”
We’re a bit of greater than 5 weeks into the season and we have been handled not simply to a higher-than-usual stock of actually good video games, however a bevy of unimaginable expertise. Included in that’s perhaps the deepest freshman class ever. Dybantsa has at all times been talked about on the prime of that record, and it is due to what we noticed occur right here on Tuesday evening.
That is solely the start. BYU is sweet, however it may be nice. The identical goes for Dybantsa, whose second of arrival doubles as a beacon of respectable hope for probably the most effective season in program historical past.
