The top-rated basketball player in the class of 2025 will be playing his high school basketball in Utah.
AJ Dybantsa, a five-star composite forward, is transferring to Utah Prep in Hurricane. Dybantsa is rated the No. 1 prospect in the country by 247Sports’ composite rankings and has offers from Duke, Michigan, Kentucky and nearly every other major school. Utah just offered him this week.
Dybantsa previously played at Prolific Prep, a basketball academy in California. He will be a senior this year.
Dybantsa joins a roster with several other top recruits. That includes point guard JJ Mandaquit, who is a four-star player out of Hawaii. Mandaquit has offers from Louisville, Tennessee, USC, BYU, Utah and others. He played on Team USA’s Under-16 squad last summer and won a gold medal.
Utah Prep has gone through several iterations in recent years before putting together this team in southern Utah.
It used to be known as the RSL Basketball Academy, teaming up with the RSL soccer club. The idea was to follow the European model, where many soccer clubs support a basketball training academy for younger players too.
The RSL Basketball Academy played in Herriman, where the training facilities for RSL are located.
But after a few years, the basketball program was phased out and the basketball operations broke off to become known as Utah Prep.
Utah Prep didn’t have a school to pair with, so it partnered with Mount Vernon Academy in Murray, Utah.
Now Utah Prep will move to Hurricane in southern Utah. It will sponsor multiple sports including basketball and golf.