BYU's AJ Dybantsa's first — and only? — trip to the NCAA tournament ends in a first-round upset loss to Texas
Is AJ Dybantsa’s college career over? The star BYU freshman did what he’s done all season long, but the No. 6 Cougars’ lack of depth was exposed in a 79-71 first-round upset loss to No.
11 Texas in the West region. Dybantsa looked every bit like a player who could be taken No. 1 in the 2026 NBA Draft, but the Cougars simply didn’t have the players to keep up with a Texas team that needed to beat NC State in the First Four to get the chance to play the Cougars.
Dybantsa scored 35 points in the loss. And that was 35 more points than anyone from BYU’s bench scored. The Cougars failed to get a single point from anyone who didn’t start the game as Texas big man Matas Vokietaitis controlled the paint.
Vokietaitis had 23 points and 16 rebounds as he took advantage of BYU’s lack of size even though he struggled at the free-throw line. Despite its lack of scoring outside of Dybantsa and Robert Wright III, BYU was still able to cut the lead to four inside of the final two minutes. But Jordan Pope’s 3-pointer with 1:29 to go significantly dampened BYU’s chances of a comeback.
BIG JORDAN POPE THREE 3️⃣ #MarchMadness @TexasMBB pic. twitter. com/1r330alzCu — NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 20, 2026 BYU cut it to four again after a 3-pointer by Aleksej Kostic, but Dybantsa turned the ball over as BYU had a chance to cut the lead even further.