AJ Dybantsa’s move to the NBA didn’t end his BYU story. It just changed the setting.
The former Cougars standout, now a Washington Wizards rookie, is still chasing the degree he said he wanted before leaving Provo. Dybantsa recently laid out the plan in a conversation with Boston sports anchor Ari Alexander: he’s already back in class, working online to keep his academic timeline on track.
“I got on the phone with my academic advisor at BYU, and told her, ‘Let me start as soon as possible,’ so I can try to finish on time within three years, three-and-a-half years,” Dybantsa told Alexander.
“So I ordered the classes and kinda started two days ago. I did some (psychology) classes, some (communications) classes, I should be on pace to finish in three-and-a-half years.”
That schedule is part of a bigger commitment Dybantsa has spoken about before. His family has made education a priority, and Dybantsa has said he promised his mother, Chelsea, that he would get his degree.
As she told the Deseret News in November, “My grandmother taught me (education)’s the one thing no one can take away from you,” Dybantsa’s mother, Chelsea, told the Deseret News in November. “We instill that in our kids.
We ensure our kids take school very seriously.”
His father, Ace, put it even more bluntly: “Education is more important than basketball.”
The workload now looks a lot different than it did in college, but Dybantsa is fitting school around his NBA life with a tight routine. He told Alexander that his day is built around basketball first, then classwork when he can squeeze it in.
“I kind of have a day in the morning ... eight to two is basketball,” Dybantsa told Alexander. “Then I’ll come back, try to knock out two classes, two lessons, go back to (basketball) at night and then try to do one more (lesson) before I go to bed.”
Dybantsa currently carries about a 3.7 grade point average at BYU, according to previous reporting by the Deseret News. He earned a 4.0 during this past summer and fall, and has not received a grade lower than a B-minus since his ninth-grade year in Massachusetts.
The No. 1 overall pick in June is set to make his NBA regular-season debut on Oct. 21 against the Milwaukee Bucks. His first game back in Utah will come Feb. 27, when Washington visits the Jazz.
In Other News...
BYU Fans Just Got A Break For A Rare TCU Game Day
BYUs matchup with TCU on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, comes with an unusually fan-friendly twist for Cougar followers who also keep tabs on the church calendar. Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. MDT, with the game slated for ESPN or ESPN2 and radio coverage on KSL NewsRadio, giving fans plenty of ways to follow along.
The timing lands on the Saturday of the Semiannual General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and this year the schedule lines up in a way that avoids the usual conflict. With no Saturday evening session anymore, BYU supporters wont have to choose between conference and the game, a small but welcome break for a program whose fan base often has to juggle both. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Tech Suddenly Has Company In A Big 12 Rankings Fight
BYUs rise to No. 9 after beating Colorado State was part of a strong early-season showing for the Big 12, which now has four teams in the latest AP Top 25. Texas Tech, Utah and Houston stayed in the rankings as well, giving the league three teams in the Top 15 and another at No. 25 heading out of Week 3. For a conference trying to build depth at the top, that kind of spread matters as much as any one headline result.
West Virginia is the team adding a little more pressure to the mix after upsetting No. 25 Virginia and drawing significant votes of its own. The Mountaineers are still just short of the rankings, but they are close enough to make the conference picture even tighter. For BYU, its a reminder that the margin for staying among the Big 12s elite may be about to get a lot thinner. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Defense Heads Into Bye Week With Two Problems It Must Fix
BYUs defense is headed into the bye week with a clear list of priorities after defensive coordinator Kelly Poppinga pointed to the fourth quarter issues that have kept the unit from finishing games the way it wants. Penalties have been part of the problem, and so has the defenses work near the goal line, where the Cougars have not been as sharp as they need to be. Poppinga said the group has made some progress in limiting drives into scoring position compared with last season, but the results in the red zone have not matched that improvement.
Poppinga also accepted responsibility for the discipline lapses and said the bye week gives the Cougars a chance to clean up the details that have hurt them late. For a defense trying to turn solid stretches into complete performances, the break arrives with no shortage of emphasis on execution. The optimism remains that BYU will answer it, but the next step has to come from a cleaner, tighter finish when the games start getting away from them. [Read more 🡒]