Did the BYU basketball program regress in Kevin Young’s sophomore season?
Injuries, lack of individual improvement and some shaky talent evaluations before the season started doomed BYU to a disappointing 2025–26 campaign.
BYU players Richie Saunders, AJ Dybantsa and Robert Wright III huddle around coach Kevin Young as he draws up a play. | BYU Photo Any review of the 2025–26 BYU basketball season, which ended last Thursday with a discouraging loss to Texas in an NCAA Tournament first-round game, has to begin and end with AJ Dybantsa, the generational talent who led the country in scoring while leading the Cougars further into the national spotlight. It will be remembered as the Season of AJ, assuming the 6-foot-9 freshman does what he really should do and enters June’s NBA draft.
If BYU officials aren’t already planning to retire Dybantsa’s jersey, and hang the No. 3 in the rafters of the Marriott Center, they should start considering it. The 19-year-old was that impactful in just one season in Provo, as was spelled out in this article last week in the Deseret News before No.
6 seed BYU fell 79-71 to No. 11 seed Texas and was a one-and-done in the Big Dance, just like Dybantsa probably will be in the college ranks. So that story has been told .
But what about the Cougars’ season as a whole? How will the second season of the Kevin Young era go down in history? The initial word that comes to mind, from this viewpoint, is disappointing.
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