NEW YORK — No matter which franchise selects him first, second or third next year NBA draftAJ Dybantsa will inevitably play who-knows-how-many games at Madison Square Garden over the next 10, 12, maybe even 15 years of his life.
And yet, for whatever N.B.A There’s no guarantee that his future games in this hallowed building will be as impactful or special as what the 18-year-old did in his debut Tuesday night at the Jimmy V Classic in No. 10 BYU’s record-breaking, come-from-behind, buzzer-beating 67-64 victory over Clemson.
This was the night AJ Dybantsa arrived as an elite college player.
Ironically, however, the decisive shot did not come from Dybantsa’s hands and arms. Sophomore guard Rob Wright III was the last-second hero, nailing a triple that sent the Cougar fans at MSG into hysterics.
“Go ahead and kick it to me,” Wright told senior Mihailo Boskovic, who was looking for Saunders on the curl. Double covered. Dybantsa was joking, but was not free. On fire was Wright, who split the space between freshman Zac Foster and senior Butta Johnson.
The BYU coaching staff told me afterward that the play — which has multiple names, all of which they’re keeping secret — had Richie Saunders as the first option, Dybantsa as the second and Wright III as, what else, the third.
Wright said it was his first game-winning three-pointer in his life.
But the only reason BYU was even able to win the game on a Wright shot was because Dybantsa broke through and showed brilliant No. 1 overall pick. When we look back at the beginning of his journey, this is the game we will remember. Likewise, we remember Carmelo Anthony’s Syracuse debut at MSG in 2002 and Zion Williamson’s arrival in Duke’s debut against Kentucky at the 2018 Champions Classic.
And if there’s one play that stands above the others, it’s probably this dunk, a tomahawk that turned the momentum in BYU’s favor for good as Clemson was mauled and bullied in the second half.
Here in Midtown Manhattan, Dybantsa gave college basketball a gift and gave BYU fans the materialization of hope as he was everything he was promised: a career-high of 28 points, a career-high of nine rebounds; a career-high six assists. Almost all of that statistical workload comes in the second half.
This is the AJ Dybantsa we were promised.
And he was let go after Cougars coach Kevin Young was so pissed off that he barely had anything to say to Dybantsa and his teammates in the locker room at halftime. Clemson outscored the Cougars in the first half and closed the final 6:43 on a 21-0 run to lead 43-22 going into the break. MSG was low on energy and BYU was bizarrely lethargic.
“I’m a real shooter with our guys,” Young said. “To a man, I thought they played harder. I really challenged them. There’s no secret to winning. You’ve got to play hard. You’ve got to execute. I know that sounds super ‘coachy,’ but they played harder than us. And I thought in the second half the trench war was won by us.”
When Young left the coaches’ room and entered the spacious visitors’ locker room, he was a man of few words. Annoyed and fed up with the last weak first half effort he saw from his team, he told them it was purely up to the players to find a way to win.
“He didn’t really take up much time,” Dybantsa told CBS Sports. “He said, ‘You all have to go fix it.’”
BYU would hold Clemson to four points through the first 11 minutes and 50 seconds of the second half. Dybantsa turned all that potential into something tangible, something so good we can all believe it’s enough to vault BYU into Final Four Contender status: 22 points, seven rebounds and five assists after halftime. He defeated Clemson itself 22-21. He accounted for 34 of BYU’s 45 points after halftime.
No BYU freshman had achieved these marks in a full match in at least two decades. No BYU freshman has done that in a full game in 20 years. Dybantsa’s 28 points are the most by a freshman since TJ Haws had that many in 2017. Soon he’ll reach 30, probably 35, maybe even 40.
There was a dazzling, Jordan-esque fadeaway from the right side, about 15 feet out, that coolly cashed in to make it 47-42, Clemson, with 9:55 to go. There was the alley-oop to Keba Keita, one of Keita’s five standout moments of physicality that also helped shatter Clemson’s mind.
In putting together the best game of his young career, Dybantsa also gave BYU the biggest second-half comeback in school history. The Cougars had never won a game after trailing by as many as 22 points at halftime.
“His processing ability, I think, is probably the most impressive thing about him,” Young told CBS Sports.
It’s also about a simple process that Young, who coached as an NBA assistant for more than a decade, imparts to Dybantsa. Choose a spot. Go where you want to go, do what you know you can do. Against Clemson, Dybantsa felt too comfortable living along the baseline. That changed in the second half.
“Like Kevin Durant, something Monty Williams and I would talk about,” Young said. “I think they used it with Tim Duncan: Just pick a spot. That’s something he and I talked about. Tonight I thought he was at his best there, just getting into his spot, getting up, and what I love about him is he’s so versatile. You know, he’s in pick-and-roll. He throws lobs to Keita. Two huge plays. So he’s not just a one-trick pony. He can do a lot of different things. And to put it on this stage and further down the line, for a young guy in this building?
We’re just over five weeks into the season and we’ve been treated not only to a higher than normal supply of really good matches, but also to a bevy of incredible talent. This may include the deepest freshman class ever. Dybantsa has always been at the top of the list, and that’s because of what we saw happen here on Tuesday night.
This is just the beginning. BYU is good, but it could be great. The same goes for Dybantsa, whose moment of arrival also serves as a beacon of legitimate hope for possibly the best season in program history.
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