BYU laid the hammer down on Kansas State last night, beating the Wildcats to advance in the Big 12 championship bracket.
Big 12 championship bracket play started this week, and BYU found itself in the 10 seed, meaning they had a first-round matchup against Kansas State. This game, in theory, should have been an automatic win for the Cougs, but the trajectory of the regular season made this a must-watch matchup.
Some had speculated how BYU’s AJ Dybansta would perform under the pressure of post-season tournament play, but he absolutely exploded, notching 40 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists on 15-21 shooting in the 105–91 win over Kansas State.
Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark gave high praise to Dybansta, saying he deserves to be the National Player of the Year. And Dybansta agrees, but his mind is focused on winning.
“I feel like this is the best league in the world for college basketball and for him to recognize my talents,” Dybansta said, “I think I should be up there as one of the best players in the country. This means a lot, but I mean today I was just trying to win. Whatever it took, I just wanted the win.”
Dybansta also broke another Big 12 freshman scoring record. Kevin Durant previously held the freshman scoring record in the Big 12 tournament with 37 points. Dybansta was only three points away from breaking the overall scoring record, but that wasn’t running through his head during the game.
“You also ended with 40 points,” said Steve Walls with KONN FM. “I don’t know if you knew the record of this tournament is 43. Was there any time, if you did know that any time of this tournament where you felt like you could go for the record?”
“No, I’m just trying to win games,” Dybansta said. “That’s just the main goal, trying to get it to the championship. If I need to score 43 for that, then yeah. But I’m not going for the record.”
Head coach Kevin Young hasn’t hesitated to show his praise to Dybansta, and it wasn’t any different after the big win.
“What he was doing was super impressive because I thought he was scoring every way possible. He was scoring in the post, he was scoring in transition, he was scoring in the pick-and-roll, he was scoring in isolations, coming off some pin downs, making good passes out of the post, making good passes out of the pick and roll. But I thought it was just a full display of his skill set. I think he’s the most skilled offensive player in college basketball.”
The Cougars now advance to the second round to take on No. 7 West Virginia. The Cougars played the Mountaineers in West Virginia a couple of weeks ago and lost 79–71. They have a 68% chance of winning according to ESPN analytics, but it will be a game you won’t want to miss.
Tip-off is set for 5 p.m. tonight on ESPN.