AJ Dybantsa is the next generational basketball prospect. He’s a top UK recruiting target.

The basketball recruiting world is in the midst of a run of generational prospects.

And Kentucky has prioritized the latest young basketball star to burst onto the scene.

Seemingly every recruiting ranking in existence (ESPN, On3, Rivals, 247Sports and others) has small forward AJ Dybantsa as the top player in the 2025 class.

Originally from Massachusetts, Dybantsa is a 6-foot-9, 200-pound versatile prospect who now plays his prep ball at California-based Prolific Prep.

The consensus five-star recruit was in the commonwealth last weekend with his Prolific Prep squad for two games at Saint Xavier High School in Louisville as part of the Derek Smith Invitational. It offered Kentucky a chance to continue its recruiting pursuit of Dybantsa.

On Saturday night, Dybantsa played a starring role (28 points, eight rebounds, five assists) in Prolific’s showcase win over Link Academy, a Missouri-based prep powerhouse that won the 2023 GEICO Nationals championship.

“Just an all-around player. I do what it takes to win, obviously,” Dybantsa said when asked by the Herald-Leader about his overall game. “I’m just showcasing my all-around skill and getting better.”

Dybantsa’s winning performance came in front of a pair of UK assistant coaches — Orlando Antigua and Chin Coleman — who traveled to Louisville to watch Dybantsa play just hours after Kentucky’s shocking home loss to UNC Wilmington.

Alabama and Louisville also had assistant coaches in the gym for that game.

Dybantsa — who announced a scholarship offer from the Wildcats on Nov. 21 — won again Sunday afternoon, albeit with a more subdued individual performance, as Prolific took down host school St. X.

That win again came in front of Antigua and Coleman, but also Kentucky head coach John Calipari.

There were several reasons for Kentucky’s front-and-center recruiting presence at the Derek Smith Invitational: Jayden Quaintance (a class of 2024 UK signee), Jasper Johnson (a class of 2025 UK recruit and a former Kentucky high school star) and Tyran Stokes (the only class of 2026 recruit with a UK scholarship offer) were all at the event.

But Dybantsa is the crown jewel of college basketball recruiting, a player with offers that include Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, UConn, North Carolina and Texas, and with only one official visit completed (to Southern California in October).

Kentucky is taking aim at the best player in the 2025 recruiting class, and the Wildcats have plenty of reasons to be real contenders.

“Obviously, it’s a good program, multiple championships. (John) Calipari,” Dybantsa said of UK.

Dybantsa was formerly a class of 2026 recruit

A domino effect occurred among elite college basketball recruits this summer.

First came the news in July that the aforementioned Quaintance (who committed to and signed with UK in November) would be moving from the 2025 to the 2024 recruiting class.

In August, Cooper Flagg — another generational talent who is now a Duke signee — also moved from the 2025 to the 2024 recruiting class. Flagg was the top-ranked recruit in the 2025 class prior to his move to the 2024 group, where he also took over the top spot.

Last came Dybantsa, who in October went from the top-ranked recruit in the 2026 class to the top-ranked recruit in the 2025 class.

Playing up an age level isn’t new for Dybantsa, who was the leading scorer at the Nike EYBL season-ending Peach Jam event this summer with nearly 26 points per game.

“That definitely helped. Just playing against older competition helped me get stronger, taking the bump more and strengthening my game,” Dybantsa said. “... I was ready to reclass back up and speed up the recruitment.”

Smartly, Dybantsa has taken a diplomatic approach when discussing the still early stages of his college recruitment.

He said his father, Ace, handles “all of the recruitment” and speaks with interested coaches. Dybantsa added that he’s blessed to receive every scholarship offer that he does, and that he doesn’t have a timetable to release a top-three list “or anything like that right now.”

For now, the focus remains on adjusting to life at Prolific Prep, the school he transferred to this offseason. Dybantsa spent his first high school season playing at Saint Sebastian’s School in his home state of Massachusetts.

At Prolific, Dybantsa is teammates with Stokes, a Louisville native who is now the top prospect in the 2026 recruiting class.

“It’s lit. That’s why I came (to Prolific). (Stokes) came to recruit me,” Dybantsa said. “I said we can put on a show and still win.”

How does Stokes — who also impressed in front of the UK coaches — describe his friend and superstar teammate?

“He’s aggressive. No matter what, he’s going to try to get a bucket, try to do what he can to help (teammates),” Stokes said.

And his thoughts on the superstar pairing now in place at Prolific?

“It’s a great duo. Probably the best duo in the country,” Stokes said. “(Dybantsa’s) game’s great, we match up great on the court. We’re both leaders. We both want to win. Both know what it takes to win.”

What are Kentucky’s chances to land AJ Dybantsa?

When handicapping Kentucky’s chances to successfully recruit Dybantsa to Lexington, let’s start by looking at history.

It’s safe to assume, at this juncture, that Dybantsa will maintain his lofty position as the top-ranked prospect in the 2025 recruiting class, although the likes of power forward Cameron Boozer and guard Darryn Peterson have their own cases for the top spot.

Dating back to 2009 (the year Calipari was hired at Kentucky), the Wildcats have signed the top-ranked player in three different recruiting classes, per the 247Sports Composite: Anthony Davis (2011), Nerlens Noel (2012) and Skal Labissiere (2015).

There’s also an existing personal connection Dybantsa has to Kentucky. He formed a close connection with former UK basketball player Terrence Clarke, who died in a car accident in April 2021 following his lone college season at UK.

Dybantsa and Clarke formed that bond through the Boston-based Expressions Elite travel basketball program. Dybantsa said that Clarke told him about the Kentucky basketball experience prior to his death.

From an on-court perspective, Kentucky also already has more clarity with regard to its 2025-26 roster than would normally be the case.

That’s because Quaintance, who moved up to the 2024 recruiting class this summer, is only 16 years old and isn’t NBA draft eligible until 2026. This would call for two seasons of post-high school basketball for Quaintance before he can begin his professional career.

Those connected to the UK program are talking as if that means two seasons of college basketball at Kentucky.

This means Quaintance’s sophomore season would line up with Dybantsa’s freshman season. And the two players have shared the court together before.

Both players won gold medals playing for the United States this summer at the 2023 FIBA Americas Under-16 Championship in Mexico. The duo also both appeared together at the recent USA Basketball Junior National Team minicamp in October in Colorado.

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UK recruit Tyran Stokes, only a sophomore, enjoys his basketball homecoming in Louisville