Kind of crazy the Northeast produced him and Flagg back to back classes
AJ Dybantsa is the NEXT one
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Blackrogue
Superstar
Not even shade. I tried watching his games and his whole vibes is just an arrogance of someone physically beating on less athletic high school kids. It's arrogant
about something that he shouldn't really be that proud of. But I haven't watched himmuch. Im a stan so I enjoy watching Alijah arenas play more and his games basis seems more skillful.
But again Ive honestly stayed away from watching him and Flagg but will do so later. I just didn't see that he's definitely the one type vibe that I was expecting on first watch.
Someone Link the AJ games I need to watch
Saysumthinfunnymike
VOTE!!!
I get why he took the money, what I don't get is why BYU offered it.. Are they trying to become a top level program?
triplehate
Superstar
From what I learned in my 2 days since I found out about him. The Jazz owner is a BYU alum, he hired a former NBA assistant at head coach who said he is running a pro style offense to get players ready for the NBA and got the backing to get the players. Perfect combo
Saysumthinfunnymike
VOTE!!!
Interesting.. It's like Oregon becoming a powerhouse in football cause of Knight
You're not entirely wrong.
I wouldn't call it arrogance though.
Where I differ with him is that, he tends to fade in out of the contest (albeit I've only seen 4-5 games of his) and doesn't keep his foot on the gas. As skilled and dominant he is, I haven't really see him be a killer. He seems content on just getting by with naturally being better, rather than actually doing better. But it's too early to tell whether or not that has to do with the lack of competition he comes up against, and it could be entirely different once he plays teams/players who're more on his level where he needs to overcome adversity.
He definitely has the best physical profile and skillset for a wing we've seen for a while though. Nobody can deny that.
shyt is dark for them..never thought I’d see the day they would have to use Duke and one of their guys as an example to land a star recruit.
Heelmatic
The Carolina Blueprint
If any of that’s true they can be fired on the spot. Hubert has this season and next to fix it or he’s gotta go.
Besides, we’re a football school now, keep up
Matt Norlander of CBS is saying it was $5M, he did a deep dive on the pitches and how the money was coming together
www.cbssports.com
This news was surprising to many around Alabama and North Carolina, in part because the price was beyond what plenty thought their schools could offer a 17-year-old basketball player. But Dybantsa is unlike any other prospect. Because he carries increasingly realizable name, image and likeness value, Alabama and UNC were able to take a different approach than BYU to meet that number.
Four sources intimately involved with Dybantsa's recruitment reiterated to CBS Sports in recent days that all three schools met the asking price, albeit through different means. I initially withheld some nitty-gritty details, but after sources relayed some fallout and tumult at Bama and UNC in the wake of Dybantsa's pledge (i.e. where did we get this $5 million in NIL for a basketball player?), let's peel back a couple more layers.
BYU, perhaps crucially, separated from the other two because it has one of the larger self-sustained collectives in college basketball. Its pitch to Dybantsa didn't need to fall back on an outside entity to close the deal. Many in hoops circles believe that BYU being able to pull straight from its collective was the clincher. Whether that's true or not, only the Dybantsa family can actually say.
Regardless, Alabama and North Carolina both really wanted Dybantsa and both backed up their years-long courtships by providing paperwork to prove they could match the ~$5 million asking price, sources said. The difference is North Carolina and Alabama had to pull from three pools of money: 1) school NIL collectives, 2) projected revenue sharing from the athletic department for the 2024-25 fiscal year, and 3) significant additional future NIL money that would be paid up front by a marketing firm.
When a five-star prospect or a highly touted transfer gets recruited, schools usually don't have the cash on hand they're promising. It's an oft-overlooked reality of college sports, especially as universities are grappling with a marketplace run amok. Dybantsa's BYU pledge opened some eyes to this reality at Alabama, North Carolina and beyond.
Let's circle back to UNC and what I wrote above.
"The Belichick [hiring] has since changed things," one source told me, re: UNC's financials. So, had UNC landed Dybantsa, with all of the money promised there, in theory it would not have had the funds to afford $5 million for one player, plus the cost of the rest of UNC's basketball roster and the $20 million in NIL/revenue sharing Belichick is asking for for the football team. If it's surprising to learn that UNC doesn't have $5 million in its collective to pay a basketball player, realize that the list of schools that do can be counted on one hand.
Regardless, the upside for Dybantsa was massive. Who knows what Carolina (now 6-5, eek) will wind up being this season, but had Dybantsa gone there, perhaps he could've been the guy to bring glory back to Chapel Hill. UNC pushed hard showing how previous No. 1 picks from blue bloods got filthy rich in marketing and ad deals. Ultimately, that didn't appeal to him.
As for Alabama, it had to come from behind the most to rally the money. Nate Oats went so far as to fly on a private jet to Boston to sit down with the Dybantsas and lay out how they would get to the number: some through Alabama's NIL collective, but more than half of it from Dybantsa's true endorsement potential and money Alabama doesn't currently have. Alabama struck a deal with a marketing firm that was going to afford the payments up front and make up Dybantsa's earnings on the back end, sources said. This would have effectively split up Dybantsa's individual marketing rights and put him on a pathway to huge earning potential in the SEC, in addition to what Alabama stands to earn and distribute in revenue sharing.
"UNC could have had $8, 9 million for him, because the ACC is letting schools decide," said one industry source on revenue sharing. "The SEC could be just as high. Bama knew he was marketable and the marketing agency knew that he had long-term money-making potential."
Also a factor: Given Alabama's post-Saban challenges, keeping the Tide football atop the college football food chain only becomes all the more urgent. (Tide AD Greg Byrne alluded to this situation in a lengthy tweet Wednesday.) Keep in mind, Dybantsa could theoretically get all of his BYU NIL money before he plays for the school and before the rules are set to change on money distribution on July 1, 2025. That would not have been the case at Alabama or North Carolina.
Yet another key piece of context in all of this: Dybantsa might wind up being one-of-a-kind type of recruitment. Because when revenue sharing comes, the idea is that schools will mostly be paying athletes directly through their athletic departments. NIL deals via collectives will continue, but the bar they will have to clear is allegedly going to be much more stringent, requiring all collective agreements to be vetted and cleared. The viability of this concept has a long line of skeptics (is cheating about to come back in a big way to college sports? Stay tuned!), but if implemented, Dybantsa's situation wouldn't repeat for the next projected NBA superstar doing a one-year tour through college.
This is how the power balance has shifted -- and never been more in flux -- in college basketball. The likes of Kansas State, BYU and Louisville are operating with some of the biggest NIL budgets in the sport, while other traditional top 10-type programs are considered well outside the top tier, or even second tier, in NIL. Brave new world, and it's set to change all over again in 2025.
The Court Report: How Bill Belichick's hiring at North Carolina could potentially impact Tar Heels basketball
Matt Norlander's insider notebook has more on AJ Dybantsa, plus some revealing nuggets on under-the-radar teams and players
www.cbssports.com
Dybantsa's commitment shows changes in CBB power dynamic
Speaking of North Carolina, last week's Court Report story on AJ Dybantsa wound up creating quite a stir. With the news still providing buzz, here's even more context. BYU beat out Alabama and UNC, with Dybantsa's business adviser telling me the money offered by those three "was the same." Dybantsa's father also said as much on Stephen A. Smith's podcast. That NIL money, according to sources, was approximately $5 million, which would be record-setting in college basketball.This news was surprising to many around Alabama and North Carolina, in part because the price was beyond what plenty thought their schools could offer a 17-year-old basketball player. But Dybantsa is unlike any other prospect. Because he carries increasingly realizable name, image and likeness value, Alabama and UNC were able to take a different approach than BYU to meet that number.
Four sources intimately involved with Dybantsa's recruitment reiterated to CBS Sports in recent days that all three schools met the asking price, albeit through different means. I initially withheld some nitty-gritty details, but after sources relayed some fallout and tumult at Bama and UNC in the wake of Dybantsa's pledge (i.e. where did we get this $5 million in NIL for a basketball player?), let's peel back a couple more layers.
BYU, perhaps crucially, separated from the other two because it has one of the larger self-sustained collectives in college basketball. Its pitch to Dybantsa didn't need to fall back on an outside entity to close the deal. Many in hoops circles believe that BYU being able to pull straight from its collective was the clincher. Whether that's true or not, only the Dybantsa family can actually say.
Regardless, Alabama and North Carolina both really wanted Dybantsa and both backed up their years-long courtships by providing paperwork to prove they could match the ~$5 million asking price, sources said. The difference is North Carolina and Alabama had to pull from three pools of money: 1) school NIL collectives, 2) projected revenue sharing from the athletic department for the 2024-25 fiscal year, and 3) significant additional future NIL money that would be paid up front by a marketing firm.
When a five-star prospect or a highly touted transfer gets recruited, schools usually don't have the cash on hand they're promising. It's an oft-overlooked reality of college sports, especially as universities are grappling with a marketplace run amok. Dybantsa's BYU pledge opened some eyes to this reality at Alabama, North Carolina and beyond.
Let's circle back to UNC and what I wrote above.
"The Belichick [hiring] has since changed things," one source told me, re: UNC's financials. So, had UNC landed Dybantsa, with all of the money promised there, in theory it would not have had the funds to afford $5 million for one player, plus the cost of the rest of UNC's basketball roster and the $20 million in NIL/revenue sharing Belichick is asking for for the football team. If it's surprising to learn that UNC doesn't have $5 million in its collective to pay a basketball player, realize that the list of schools that do can be counted on one hand.
Regardless, the upside for Dybantsa was massive. Who knows what Carolina (now 6-5, eek) will wind up being this season, but had Dybantsa gone there, perhaps he could've been the guy to bring glory back to Chapel Hill. UNC pushed hard showing how previous No. 1 picks from blue bloods got filthy rich in marketing and ad deals. Ultimately, that didn't appeal to him.
As for Alabama, it had to come from behind the most to rally the money. Nate Oats went so far as to fly on a private jet to Boston to sit down with the Dybantsas and lay out how they would get to the number: some through Alabama's NIL collective, but more than half of it from Dybantsa's true endorsement potential and money Alabama doesn't currently have. Alabama struck a deal with a marketing firm that was going to afford the payments up front and make up Dybantsa's earnings on the back end, sources said. This would have effectively split up Dybantsa's individual marketing rights and put him on a pathway to huge earning potential in the SEC, in addition to what Alabama stands to earn and distribute in revenue sharing.
"UNC could have had $8, 9 million for him, because the ACC is letting schools decide," said one industry source on revenue sharing. "The SEC could be just as high. Bama knew he was marketable and the marketing agency knew that he had long-term money-making potential."
Also a factor: Given Alabama's post-Saban challenges, keeping the Tide football atop the college football food chain only becomes all the more urgent. (Tide AD Greg Byrne alluded to this situation in a lengthy tweet Wednesday.) Keep in mind, Dybantsa could theoretically get all of his BYU NIL money before he plays for the school and before the rules are set to change on money distribution on July 1, 2025. That would not have been the case at Alabama or North Carolina.
Yet another key piece of context in all of this: Dybantsa might wind up being one-of-a-kind type of recruitment. Because when revenue sharing comes, the idea is that schools will mostly be paying athletes directly through their athletic departments. NIL deals via collectives will continue, but the bar they will have to clear is allegedly going to be much more stringent, requiring all collective agreements to be vetted and cleared. The viability of this concept has a long line of skeptics (is cheating about to come back in a big way to college sports? Stay tuned!), but if implemented, Dybantsa's situation wouldn't repeat for the next projected NBA superstar doing a one-year tour through college.
This is how the power balance has shifted -- and never been more in flux -- in college basketball. The likes of Kansas State, BYU and Louisville are operating with some of the biggest NIL budgets in the sport, while other traditional top 10-type programs are considered well outside the top tier, or even second tier, in NIL. Brave new world, and it's set to change all over again in 2025.
If they had $2M for Coleman Hawkins bumass it makes sense
Jesus Christ man