AJ Dybantsa Goes No. 1 — and Gives BYU the First Top Pick in Program History

AJ Dybantsa heard his name first. The Washington Wizards selected the BYU freshman forward with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2026 NBA Draft on June 23, 2026, and one sentence in the record book changed with it: Dybantsa is the first player in BYU history ever taken first overall. One pick later, the Utah Jazz took Kansas guard Darryn Peterson at No. 2 — meaning the top two names off the board both run through this state.

For a basketball state that has produced All-Americans, lottery picks, and a folk hero in Jimmer Fredette, this is the line that had never been written. Until Tuesday night, the highest a Cougar had ever been drafted was No. 2, by Mel Hutchins in 1951 and Shawn Bradley in 1993. Dybantsa cleared both.

The pick that rewrote BYU's draft ledger

BYU's NBA résumé was already real before this, with two No. 2 picks in Hutchins and Bradley. Neither went first. Dybantsa did, after a single season in a BYU uniform, and he did it as the headliner of a program in only its third year in the Big 12.

The selection landed exactly where the market had pointed for weeks. Per ESPN, the Wizards' decision came down to Dybantsa or Peterson, and Washington took the 6-foot-9 wing, and the Jazz, holding No. 2, took Peterson.

What Dybantsa put on BYU's record in one year

The pick was not a projection on potential. Dybantsa led all of Division I in scoring at 25.5 points per game, adding 6.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists while shooting 51% from the floor. He scored in double figures in all 35 games, went for 20 or more 28 times, cleared 30 eight times, and topped 40 twice.

Those numbers stacked into program history. His 894 points are the second-most by a Cougar in a single season and the third-most by a freshman in Division I history, according to BYU. On January 24, 2026, he dropped 43 on rival Utah, the most points ever scored by a BYU freshman in a single game, breaking a Danny Ainge record that had stood since 1977.

He also became just the third Cougar ever named a consensus First Team All-American, joining Ainge and Jimmer Fredette. Add the Big 12 Freshman of the Year award, First Team All-Big 12 honors, and the Julius Erving Award as the nation's top small forward, and one freshman season produced a trophy case most careers never match.

Utah owned the top of the entire board

The Jazz taking Peterson at No. 2 is the part that makes this a statewide night rather than a BYU night. Peterson averaged 20.2 points as a Kansas freshman — the most ever by a Jayhawk freshman — and now joins Keyonte George in a young Utah backcourt. The Jazz get a dynamic lead guard; the state gets the No. 2 pick to go with the No. 1.

And the connection runs deeper than the draft order. Dybantsa's final prep season was at Utah Prep in Hurricane, the program then owned by Jazz principal owner and Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith — a passionate BYU backer who has said he "owe[s] everything to BYU." Before he was a Cougar, before he was a Wizard, Dybantsa's last year of high school basketball was played inside Utah's borders.

The Utah State of Sport Award already saw it coming

Utah honored Dybantsa before the NBA did. On April 8, 2026, the Governor's State of Sport Awards, held at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City with 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps as special guest, named him Collegiate Male Athlete of the Year. The award is the state telling its own story about who mattered, and it put Dybantsa's name alongside Utah's best across every sport, two months before Washington made it official.

That is the throughline. The recognition started local and grew national. The state saw the generational run up close and said so first.

The in-state path that produced a No. 1 pick

What Dybantsa leaves behind is a blueprint, not just a banner. He arrived as the No. 1 recruit in the 2025 class and chose to play his one college season in Provo over Alabama, North Carolina and Kansas. He stayed in the West, won here, and walked off the stage as the first pick in the draft. Every elite Utah prep player who watches that now has proof the path home does not cap the ceiling.

For BYU and Kevin Young, the recruiting pitch changes permanently — the program can point to a No. 1 overall pick it developed in a single year. For Utah Prep, a No. 1 pick now counts among its former players. And for the Jazz, the franchise adds a top-two talent to a core it is rebuilding around. College basketball in this state spent years being treated as a stop along the way. On June 23, it produced the player every other program in the country wanted, and the Jazz, up I-15 in Salt Lake City, took the next player off the board.

Key facts:

• Player: AJ Dybantsa, freshman forward, BYU (2025-26), from Brockton, Mass. by way of Utah Prep
• Draft: No. 1 overall, Washington Wizards, 2026 NBA Draft (June 23, 2026)
• History: First No. 1 overall pick in BYU history, surpassing the No. 2 picks Mel Hutchins (1951) and Shawn Bradley (1993)
• Stat line: 25.5 PPG (led Division I), 6.8 RPG, 3.7 APG, 51% FG over 35 games
• Records: 894 points (2nd-most in a BYU single season); 43 points vs. Utah on Jan. 24, 2026 (most by a BYU freshman in a game, passing Danny Ainge)
• Honors: Consensus First Team All-American (3rd in BYU history, with Ainge and Fredette), Big 12 Freshman of the Year, Julius Erving Award, 2026 Utah State of Sport Collegiate Male Athlete of the Year
• Utah angle: Jazz took Kansas' Darryn Peterson at No. 2 — Utah-tied players went 1-2 overall

*Correction, Oct. 16, 2026: An earlier version named only Shawn Bradley as BYU's previous highest pick (Mel Hutchins was also taken No. 2, in 1951), described Michael Phelps as the awards' host rather than special guest and gave scoring-record details we could not source. For his first NBA preseason, see Dybantsa's Wizards profile.*