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BYU coach Kevin Young yells to his players from the sidelines during a Big 12 tournament semifinal game against Houston on Friday, March 14, 2025. | Brice Tucker, Deseret News
With the conclusion of the 2024-25 college basketball season Monday night, it’s already high time to look forward to next season.
Though the 2025-26 campaign won’t be starting for another 30 weeks, many outlets published “way-too-early” looks at how teams might stack up against each other next season following the conclusion of Monday’s national championship game.
As evidenced by many of these top-25 rankings, the hype for BYU next season is real, what with the program’s Sweet 16 run and the fact that AJ Dybantsa, the top high school player in the country, will don Cougar blue next season.
In fact, BYU’s composite ranking among 10 publications that have released early rankings is all the way up at No. 10, as compiled by the X account Heat Check CBB.
The account compiled data from the following publications in addition to its own. Rankings are in parenthesis:
- ESPN (16)
- Sports Illustrated (7)
- FOX Sports (21)
- 247 Sports (8)
- Sporting News (10)
- On3 (17)
- The Athletic (6)
- USA Today (5)
- Busting Brackets (5)
BYU’s individual rankings by publication were a bit scattered, as USA Today and Busting Brackets have the Cougars all the way up at No. 5, while Fox Sports has them all the way down at No. 21.
In all, six of the publications have BYU in the top 10. It should be noted that many of these were either written or actually published before Egor Demin announced Tuesday morning that he is declaring for June’s NBA draft, though several of them take that possibility into account in their rankings.
“After making the Sweet 16 for the second time since 1981, BYU is poised for a big year with the arrival of hyped freshman AJ Dybantsa,” wrote USA Today’s Paul Myerberg, Erick Smith and Eddie Timanus.
“He’ll join a rotation that should lose point guard Egor Demin to the NBA but is set to bring back guards Keba Keita and Dawson Baker and forwards Richie Saunders and Mihailo Boskovic. If Dybantsa is as good as expected, the Cougars could be a serious threat for the Final Four.”
On the low end, neither Fox Sports nor On3 wrote blurbs about teams later down in their rankings, but ESPN’s Jeff Borzello wrote, “All eyes will be on Provo next season, as No. 1 recruit A.J. Dybantsa arrives to suit up for the Cougars. How will Kevin Young build around him?
“Teaming him up on the wing with high-level scorer Richie Saunders is a great start, although BYU needs a point guard after the departures of Egor Demin and Dallin Hall. The key will be BYU improving defensively: The Cougars were elite on the offensive end, but hitting their ceiling will require more consistency on defense.”
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BYU point guard Egor Demin shakes hands with Nate Austin, BYU director of basketball operations, as he leaves a press conference about his plans to enter the NBA draft at the Marriott Center Annex in Provo on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
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BYU point guard Egor Demin talks during a press conference about his plans to enter the NBA draft at the Marriott Center Annex in Provo on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. Travis Hansen, a former BYU basketball player and mentor to Demin, is on the left. BYU head basketball coach Kevin Young is on the right. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
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BYU point guard Egor Demin talks during a press conference about his plans to enter the NBA draft at the Marriott Center Annex in Provo on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. Travis Hansen, a former BYU basketball player and mentor to Demin, is on the left. BYU head basketball coach Kevin Young is on the right. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
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BYU point guard Egor Demin talks during a press conference about his plans to enter the NBA draft at the Marriott Center Annex in Provo on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
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BYU head basketball coach Kevin Young speaks during a press conference about Egor Demin’s plans to enter the NBA draft at the Marriott Center Annex in Provo on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
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BYU point guard Egor Demin talks during a press conference about his plans to enter the NBA draft at the Marriott Center Annex in Provo on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
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