PROVO, Utah – BYU Basketball held its first practice of the 2025-26 season on Monday inside the Marriott Center Annex.
The NCAA permits Division I college basketball programs to have eight weeks of summer practices during the offseason. Practices don’t have to be consecutive, and there can’t be more than eight hours of practice and training.
Last year, BYU ended its summer practices in mid-August.
Still, it’s practice and an opportunity for the highly anticipated 2025-26 BYU basketball squad, which some media outlets rank as a Top Five team, to begin working towards another NCAA Tournament run under Kevin Young.
“Obviously, a totally different team,” Kevin Young said in BYU’s social media hype video from day one. “… Individually, get better. The team stuff is gonna come over time. Now we want to get our identity with this group of talent we assembled.”
we are so back pic.twitter.com/zZMfrESTbO
— BYU Men’s Basketball (@BYUMBB) May 5, 2025
AJ Dybantsa begins practicing as a BYU Cougar
The first practice of the 2026 season meant the first official practice as a BYU Cougar for No. 1 recruit AJ Dybantsa.
Dybantsa, who announced his own YouTube channel earlier on Monday, was featured in BYU’s brief highlight reel, which they released on social media from a closed practice.
Go subscribe to my new YouTube channel. ⁰🔗 in bio. pic.twitter.com/RGIBQLNcxx
— AJ Dybantsa (@AJ_Dybantsa) May 5, 2025
The 6-foot-9 Dybantsa was wearing No. 23 in his BYU practice uniform. BYU has yet to release an official roster for the upcoming season. The Brockton, Massachusetts native primarily wore No. 3 during his high school career.
Richie Saunders returns for one final season with BYU basketball
Dybantsa pairs up with BYU star Richie Saunders, who announced last week that he would return for his fourth and final season with the program. The First Team All-Big 12 selection didn’t enter the NBA draft process and instead opted to return for one more year in Provo.
Last month, before the McDonald’s All-American Game, Dybantsa said teaming up with Saunders “will be something special.”
Another notable new addition who arrived in Provo last week was four-star center Xavion Staton.
The Las Vegas native, who transferred to Utah Prep to team up with Dybantsa last winter, was one of the top rim protectors in the country for the class of 2025. He was wearing No. 8 in the video.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSLsports.com and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X: @Mitch_Harper.
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