MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University basketball fans are going to get a rare treat on Saturday night when 19th-ranked BYU arrives in town to play the Mountaineers. BYU Freshman Forward AJ Dybantsa
That's because the Cougars will be bring their all-everything forward AJ Dybantsa, projected by many to be the top lottery pick in this year's NBA Draft.
If it's not Dybantsa, then it will be Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, who scored 23 in here during last month's 86-75 loss to the Mountaineers.
Having picks one and two in the NBA Draft play at Hope Coliseum in the same year will be a first if it happens, and it will be just the fourth time the Coliseum has ever hosted the NBA's top overall selection.
Notre Dame All-America guard Austin Carr was the first in 1971.
He established the Coliseum scoring standard for an opposing player with 47 points in the Irish's 107-98 victory that year.
Fifty-five years later, it is still the most points ever scored in a game against the Mountaineers in the Coliseum, although Rhode Island guard Tom Garrick owns the facility record for the most points when he dropped 50 on Rutgers in an Atlantic 10 Tournament quarterfinal game in 1988.
It took 25 years before the next overall No. 1 showcased his talents in the Coliseum when Georgetown's Allen Iverson tallied 22 points and handed out 10 assists in the Hoyas' 86-83 victory.
West Virginia, playing its first-ever Big East game before an overflow crowd, saw its 12-point lead evaporate over the final 2:24 of regulation before falling in overtime.
Up until this year, the only other top pick to perform in the Coliseum was Kansas guard Andrew Wiggins, whose 41points were not enough to overcome "Press Virginia" in the Mountaineers' 92-86 triumph.
Wiggins, who made 12 of 18 from the floor and added 15 free throws, appeared headed toward Garrick and Carr numbers for a good portion of that game.
Oklahoma State's Cade Cunningham, the NBA's No. 1 overall choice in 2021, skipped the contest in Morgantown before facing the Mountaineers five days later in the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City. The Cowboys didn't need him here, winning 85-80, but they needed him out in Kansas City, and he responded with 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists in a 72-69 triumph.
Dybantsa, a 6-foot-9, 210-pound, freshman from Brockton, Massachusetts, appears to be in the same class while putting together a remarkable solo season in Provo.
He's averaging 25.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists, while shooting 53.2% from the floor in 28 games so far this season.
He scored a season-high 43 in a win over rival Utah and has had at least 30 points in five other games. Since the beginning of Big 12 play, his two lowest scoring outputs were 13 in a seven-point loss at Texas Tech and 17 in a 12-point defeat at Kansas.
However, his road numbers are comparable to his home totals. Away from BYU's Marriott Center, he is averaging 24 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists while shooting 52.8%.
"He really is a special player and a generational talent," West Virginia coach Ross Hodge said earlier today. "His size, versatility and fluidity at that spot has really turned him into a de-facto point guard for them. They space the floor around him really well, and him and (guard) Rob Wright really have a good one-two punch going right now."
Hodge said the Cougars have been forced to do some tweaking when standout guard Richie Saunders was lost for the season with a knee injury earlier this month against Colorado.
Dybantsa has shouldered some additional scoring with 35, 29 and 29 points in his most recent games against Arizona, Iowa State and UCF.
"They had to reinvent themselves a little bit through the year with injuries, including the recent one to Saunders, which disappointed everybody. (Saunders is) one of the better players in the Big 12," Hodge observed.
The coach believes floor balance, particularly in transition, is a must if his team hopes to slow down Dybantsa.
"Typically, you are going to have your guards stopping the ball in transition, but because AJ has the ball so much, you may have some different alignments in your transition defense," he explained. "You never really have a man in transition - you're just sprinting back and you've got to get matched up - but you do kind of get in rhythms and ebbs and flows, where a Jasper (Floyd), Amir (Jenkins) or Honor (Huff) is going to be the person typically stopping the ball.
"Against them, it's probably going to be someone else," he added.
West Virginia, now 16-12 overall and 7-8 in Big 12 play, is just one game behind the Cougars in the league standings despite dropping three straight.
The Mountaineers were unable to hold on to a second-half lead at Oklahoma State earlier this week before falling in overtime.
BYU, 20-8 overall, will be making its third appearance in Morgantown since 2024, and fourth overall. The Cougars have won twice here and also defeated West Virginia 77-56 in Provo last season.
Saturday night's game will tip off at 5:30 p.m. and will be televised nationally on FOX (Kevin Kugler and LaPhonso Ellis).
Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage with Tony Caridi, Brad Howe and studio host David Kahn will get things started at 4:30 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com, and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.
Fans attending Saturday night's sell-out are encouraged to wear either gold or blue according to their seating section for Stripe the Coliseum.
