AJ Dybantsa Breaks Kevin Durant’s Scoring Record During BYU’s Big 12 Tournament Win vs. KSU

AJ Dybantsa started his first college basketball postseason off with a bang.

The BYU star freshman dropped 40 points in the first round of the Big 12 tournament on Tuesday as the Cougars downed Kansas State 105-91. His 40 points are a new Big 12 tournament record by a freshman.

The previous record was held by former Texas star and future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant, so it’s fair to say Dybantsa is in good company.

In addition to breaking Durant’s record, Dybantsa became just the 10th freshman in Division I history to score 800 points in a single season.

Dybantsa came into his freshman season as the No. 1 overall prospect, according to 247Sports’ composite rankings, and he’s lived up to the hype. He led the nation in scoring with 24.7 points per game, adding 6.7 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game.

His scoring has been on display all year, like when he posted a season-high 43 points in a win over Utah in January.

Assuming Dybantsa declares for the draft after the season, he’ll almost certainly be one of the first players off the board. Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman projects the Big 12 Freshman of the Year to go first overall to the Sacramento Kings in his latest mock draft.

Whether Dybantsa will go to the NBA is still in question, though. He teased his possible return to BYU earlier this week.

“Well, I might not leave. I might not leave college,” he said. “…My mom wants me to graduate.”

NIL deals and passionate Cougar fans might lure Dybantsa back to college, but it seems more than likely that he’ll declare for the draft soon.

For now, he’ll look to lead BYU to a strong postseason. The Cougars started the year off strong, sitting at 16-1 halfway through January, but a 6-9 finish to the year has led some to question how deep they can go.

If Dybantsa can play as well as he did on Tuesday, BYU could be more than capable of making it past the first weekend.