BYU basketball blasted for underutilizing AJ Dybantsa down the stretch vs. Arizona

Two of the best teams in the Big 12 faced off Monday night. Arizona narrowly escaped its first loss of the year, taking an 86-83 victory over BYU. While BYU made a valiant comeback effort, it is the usage of star player AJ Dybantsa down the stretch that has fans talking.

Game on the line and AJ Dybantsa doesn’t even touch the ball???

— Zlatni Topki (@ZlatniTopki) January 27, 2026

With 1:22 left in the game, BYU was down 82-71, but with 16 seconds left, Keba Keita made it an 84-83 game. Dybantsa has led the way for BYU all night, but with three seconds left, the ball was in Robert Wright III’s hands. His shot was blocked by Brayden Burries. Burries was then fouled, made both free throws, and the BYU miracle heave fell short, leading to the loss.

This has led to massive criticism of the coaching staff.

if you think AJ Dybantsa attended BYU for the coaching staff and not his massive payday, you are outside of your mind

— snuff pursuit (@snuffpursuit) January 27, 2026

While the coaching staff was criticized, others noticed it may have been the right call to keep the ball out of Dybantsa’s hands. He shot six of 24 from the field, including just one of eight from three. He was aggressive, though, getting to the line 16 times. Regardless, he was just 11 of 16 from the line, including missing two free throws in the final minute, which would have resulted in a tie game for BYU. Fans called out Dybantsa for settling for bad shots.

These are the AJ Dybantsa shots that absolutely drive me crazy and it happens multiple times per game. Truly can't do fadeaway, midrange jumpers w/ 22 seconds left on shot clock in semi-transition.

If these are later shot clock bailouts, great. But we can't settle for these. pic.twitter.com/8fdBHheUmq

— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) January 27, 2026

In a day in which NIL is running college sports, and players are being paid a ton of money, fans expect near perfection from these developing players. As one fan noted, BYU is heading in a positive financial direction, but clearly it was tounge in cheek comment.

After your UConn game, you were paying AJ Dybantsa $7M per loss.

After Texas Tech, it was down to $3.5M per loss. What a bargain!

Now ~$2.3M/loss

Only 4 more losses until it only costs $1 million per loss this year! You're moving in the right direction, fiscally speaking.

— Doug in Tucson (@DOUGINTUCSON) January 27, 2026

Fans will always have their opinions about a game. This one had some blaming the coaches, while some blamed the highly paid players. BYU could have avoided the situation altogether if they did not needed to come back from a 13-point halftime deficit. Regardless of where fans want to place the blame, BYU lost, and Arizona remains the best team in the nation.

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