BYU’s AJ Dybantsa was named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, according to a March 9 announcement from the league office.
Dybantsa’s recognition marks him as the seventh player in BYU program history to earn Freshman of the Year honors and the first since Jonathan Tavernari in the 2006-07 season. He also received First Team All-Big 12 and All-Freshman Team accolades. The announcement highlights a strong season for BYU, with Richie Saunders earning Second Team honors and Robert Wright III being named to the Third Team All-Big 12. This is the first time since 2020-21 that at least three BYU players have received postseason conference honors.
Dybantsa led the nation in scoring with an average of 24.7 points per game and scored in double figures in all 31 games this season. He recorded twenty-four games with at least twenty points, tying for fifth-most such performances in a single season for BYU. His total of 766 points set a new freshman record for the program and ranks as the seventh-highest single-season point total overall. Dybantsa is now just thirty-four points away from becoming only the seventh freshman since 2000 in NCAA Division I men’s basketball to score eight hundred or more points in one season.
In conference play, Dybantsa averaged nearly twenty-six points per game along with over six rebounds and almost four assists, shooting forty-seven percent from the field. He scored at least twenty points sixteen times during league play, including a freshman record forty-three-point performance against Utah on January 24 at Marriott Center. In non-conference action against Eastern Washington, he posted a triple-double with thirty-three points, ten rebounds, and ten assists—the second such achievement in Big 12 history involving those statistics.
Richie Saunders earned all-league recognition for a second consecutive year despite missing six games due to an ACL injury sustained against Colorado. Before his injury, Saunders averaged nearly nineteen points per game while maintaining high shooting percentages across all categories. He finished his career ranked seventeenth on BYU’s all-time scoring list with over fifteen hundred points and holds top-twenty rankings in several other statistical categories.
Robert Wright III was recognized on the Third Team after transferring from Baylor last season where he had previously earned honorable mention status as a freshman. Wright III ended regular season play averaging over eighteen points per game—seventh highest in conference—and achieved thirteen games with at least twenty points this year. His career-high thirty-nine-point effort came during an overtime win against Colorado.
BYU will begin its participation in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Tournament on Tuesday, March 10, facing Kansas State.
