High School

AJ Dybantsa, nation's top basketball prospect, moves up to class of 2025

Projected NBA lottery pick remains No. 1 in 2025 class; eligible for 2026 draft

Andy Buhler, SBLive Sports

AJ Dybantsa, nation's top basketball prospect, moves up to class of 2025
AJ Dybantsa, nation's top basketball prospect, moves up to class of 2025 /

The nation's top-rated high school basketball sophomore has jumped a class.

AJ Dybantsa, a 5-star Prolific Prep (California) forward, is now a part of the class of 2025 and will start his junior season next month, he announced on Twitter/X Wednesday morning.

The 6-foot-9, 200-pound Dybantsa, who turns 17 in January, remains the top overall prospect in the nation in 2025 according to at least one major recruiting outlet, 247 Sports. He held the mantle in 2026.

He's coming off a mantle-solidifying summer that included leading both the vaunted Nike EYBL Peach Jam and the NBPA Top 100 Camp in scoring.

Dybantsa played his freshman season at St. Sebastian's Needham, Massachusetts before moving to the west coast to prep powerhouse Prolific Prep, which checked in as the nation's No. 2 ranked team in the most recent way-too-early SBLive/Sports Illustrated national basketball rankings.

He's not the first NBA-projected prospect to reclassify this offseason. Cooper Flagg of Montverde Academy classed up from 2025 to 2024 in August — and remained the nation's top-rated prospect.

The news comes days before Dybantsa and Prolific Prep are slated for a preseason national TV showcase.

They play Friday through Sunday in the ESPN-televised 'Top Flight Invite' that includes Flagg, Cameron Boozer and several nationally ranked teams. 

Prolific Prep opens Friday at 4:15 p.m. (Pacific time) against LA Basketball Club, which is made up of Harvard Westlake (California) players, including 4-star combo guard Trent Perry. The will be televised on ESPN+. Sunday's final will be on ESPN at 6 p.m. Pacific.

-- Andy Buhler | andy@scorebooklive.com | @sbliveca

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Lead photo by USA Basketball

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Andy Buhler, SBLive Sports
ANDY BUHLER, SBLIVE SPORTS

Andy Buhler is a Regional Editor of Texas and the national breaking news desk. He brings more than five years of experience covering high school sports across the state of Washington and beyond, where he covered the likes of Paolo Banchero and Tari Eason served on state tournament seeding committees. He works on the SBLive/Sports Illustrated Power 25 national boys basketball rankings. He has covered everything from the Final Four, MLS in Atlanta to local velodrome before diving into the world of preps. His bylines can be found in The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington), The Associated Press, The Columbian (Vancouver, Washington), The Oregonian and more. He holds a degree from Gonzaga and is based out of Portland, Oregon.

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