KANSAS CITY, Mo.– BYU Ahead AJ DiBantsa, ruler stand out cameron boozer and fellow freshman darrin peterson Of kansas He has made it clear this college basketball season that he intends to be the first three players selected in the NBA Draft this summer.
Dyabantsa looks to prove during the postseason that he deserves to be the No. 1 pick.
He got off to a great start Tuesday night, scoring 40 points with nine rebounds and six assists and leading his No. 10-seeded Cougars to a 1-0 lead. win 105-91 Over No. 15 seed Kansas State in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament.
“Today I was just trying to focus on winning,” Dyabantsa said. “Anything you have to do to win.”
Dyabantsa set the Big 12 Tournament scoring record for a freshman, surpassing the mark Kevin Durant (37) established when Texas played Kansas in 2007.
But the main points did not stop here. Among them:
• He scored the second-most points in a Big 12 Tournament game (Mike Singletary of Texas Tech scored 43 points in 2009).
• He made 15 field goals, a Major 12 tournament record.
• He became the fourth Division I freshman in the last 30 seasons with 40 points in a conference tournament game.
• It was his sixth 35-point game this season, tying him with Oklahoma’s Trae Young and Kansas State’s Michael Beasley for Big 12 history.
• He scored or assisted 54 points, the most “points” scored in a game in Big 12 Tournament history.
• And he became the first player with 35 points and five assists in a Big 12 Tournament game.
“What he was doing was impressive because I thought he was scoring in every way possible,” BYU coach Kevin Young said. “I think it was probably one of his most complete games – he made a short throw outside the lob servant [Mboup] At the end. But I thought it was just a perfect display of his skills. I think he’s the most skilled player in college basketball.”
DiBantsa nearly equaled his career-high of 43 points set in a win over Utah in January.
“The main goal is to get a championship,” Dyabantsa said. “If I have to score 43, I’ll try to do that, but I’m not trying for the record.”
He may need to set some records to win the championship.
The floor leader suffered some struggles late in the season due to a knee injury. richie saunders The Cougars (22-10) lost the tiebreaker for seeding and dropped to 10th in the tournament. That meant a first-round game against Kansas State on Wednesday night, when all of the league’s veterans were resting in hotels or at home.
DiBantsa had 21 points at halftime, but the Cougars only led 50–49. And they only had that lead because of the turnover that led to his buzzer-beating dunk; Robert Wright III He had an open dunk of his own but waited to give Dyabantsa easy points instead.
“It’s something we’ve really been about with our guys all year,” Young said. “Obviously, we have talent, and we just try to make simple plays and play together, and sometimes it’s easier said than done. I thought AJ made a lot of unselfish plays as well.”
However, when BYU needed a basket, DiBantsa had no problem being a little selfish.
After the Wildcats closed to within 64–57, he scored on back-to-back trips from the floor. When? taj manning The freshman threw down a dunk for BYU, hitting a 3-pointer to bring Kansas State within 68–63. And when Manning scored moments later, and BYU held on to a 73-67 lead, DiBantsa converted an acrobatic three-point play to take some breathing room.
The only problem on the night was that BYU didn’t pull away from Kansas State until late, and DiBantsa ended up playing all but three and a half minutes. With a second-round matchup against No. 7 West Virginia coming up on Wednesday, and three more games after that, the Cougars could use the rest if they have to cut down the net by Saturday night.
Then again, it’s hard to prove that you deserve the No. 1 pick in the draft by sitting on the bench.
Information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press was used in this report.
