This weekend is a really big one for the BYU Cougars football program.
Ranked No. 14 in the latest AP Top 25 poll, the Cougars are 5-0 and will try to get bowl eligible in front of a huge “Big Noon Kickoff” audience on Fox Saturday against an Arizona Wildcats team that has been average this season but knocked off then-No. 10 Utah in Salt Lake City two weeks ago and has a dangerous offense.
All of that being said, it’ll be a more important weekend, at least from a long-term perspective, for the BYU basketball program.
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That’s because the Cougars are set to host AJ Dybantsa, the consensus top prospect in the entire nation in the Class of 2025, on an official visit.
In addition, head coach Kevin Young and company will be hosting JJ Mandaquit, who is ranked No. 63 in the country in the Class of 2025 by 247 Sports and is Dybantsa’s teammate at Utah Prep in Hurricane, on an official visit.
The two aren’t necessarily believed to be a package deal, although Dybantsa — who hails from Massachusetts — did recently say that he decided to go to Utah Prep for his senior year of high school to team up with Mandaquit after attending school in California last year.
Mandaquit is originally from Hawaii but moved to Utah to play for RSL Academy in Herriman, which is now Utah Prep.
Dybantsa, who is listed by 247 at 6-foot-9 and 210 pounds, has long been considered the top prospect in the 2025 class and is the frontrunner to be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA draft.
BYU got on his radar after Young was hired as head coach of the Cougars in the spring following eight years as an assistant coach in the NBA and nine years in the NBA D-League/G League before that.
In August, ESPN’s Paul Biancardi reported that Dybantsa had scheduled six official visits, with BYU being the last one. Dybantsa has visited Kansas State, Kansas, North Carolina, Alabama and Baylor.
While it is often a good sign for a school to get the last visit of a prospect, don’t expect Dybantsa to make a decision about where he’ll play a year of college ball anytime soon, as his father has previously said that a decision likely won’t be made until next February.
As for Mandaquit, who is listed at 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds, 247 has reported that he took a visit to Louisville in late August but doesn’t have any others scheduled besides this weekend.
