2025 No. 1 prospect AJ Dybantsa talks reclassification, recruiting process

Utah Prep Five-Star Plus+ small forward AJ Dybantsa, the consensus top-ranked basketball prospect in the 2025 cycle, remains on the board heading into November.

The 6-foot-9, 200-pounder has whittled 35 offers down to a top seven — Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, BYU, Kansas, Kansas State and North Carolina — though some contenders look to be ahead of the pack.

Dybantsa’s father said back in the summer that the plan remains to announce a decision in February. He’s taken official visits to each finalist aside from Baylor, which is likely out of the race moving forward.

The No. 1 prospect, who hails from Brockton, Mass., joined ‘Podcast P with Paul George’ this week to talk all things hoops, including his recruitment and the decision to reclassify back to the 2025 cycle.

Dybantsa breaks down reclassification

The blue-chip forward was actually supposed to enter high school as a member of the 2025 cycle, but classed down and stayed in the eighth grade for a second year. He obviously then arose as an elite recruit and made the decision to go back to his former class last October.

“This is my original class, I just wasn’t ready to play with these guys yet, and then once I grew into my body and once I got a strength coach, I was like ‘I’m ready to go back up,'” Dybantsa said.

He was the No. 1 player in the class of 2026 and stayed at No. 1 upon reclassifying to 2025. He’s remained the top dog in the On300 and is also the top-ranked player in each of the other recruiting services.

“AJ Dybantsa is a smooth, offensively gifted player. His natural skill and ability. Even from my first viewing of him in middle school, Dybantsa had a unique offensive feel. At a young age, his ability to dissect and make a read within the flow of the play was impressive,” On3’s Jamie Shaw wrote upon his reclassification.

Family pillars helped Dybantsa reach top schools

Dybantsa’s list of top programs doesn’t include all of the usual suspects one might think it would when it comes to a No. 1 recruit. When speaking about his process, Dybantsa seemed unbothered about the status each school possesses and is much more focused on what each school is offering from multiple angles.

“Everybody’s gonna think you should have the four or five blue-bloods in there, but I mean me and my family have pillars,” he said. “We need a family-oriented school, I need a coach that’s not gonna sugarcoat, I need the best and fastest development plan — I’m trying to be a one-and-done, I need a winning organization and I just picked the best seven schools that I think fit that … I’m just trying to choose the school that’s best for me.”

While Dybantsa is more than grateful for the immense number of offers he’s received throughout his process, he wasn’t about to sift through a wave of texts and calls on a daily basis. That job was left for his father, who handled the initial process as they worked to narrow down his list of top schools.

Now, Dybantsa is building relationships with staffs on his list as he continues to inch towards a decision.

“Before I narrowed my list down, my dad talked to all the coaches. I had, what, 35 offers and I did not talk to one of them. I let him handle that, I’m trying to go hoop, I’m not trying to answer 35 calls, respectfully, I’m not going to 35 visits,” he said. “Then when it was time to narrow it down, I talked to some coaches over his phone and we picked the best seven and now I have their numbers so I can try and build a relationship with the coach that I’m going to most likely play for.”