'Why wait?' Top prospect AJ Dybantsa reclassifies from 2026 to 2025
AJ Dybantsa, who had previously been considered the top prospect in the class of 2026, announced on Wednesday that he has reclassified to the class of 2025.
Dybantsa tweeted a graphic announcing his decision and appeared on 247Sports’ show on CBS to speak about the news.
“To speed up my recruitment — it was in my head already that I wanted to reclassify, so why wait when I could explore different colleges, different routes right now instead of waiting until June 15?” he said to the outlet.
The Prolific Prep (Napa, Calif.) small forward added that he had previously reclassified down in a previous year, so this jump puts him back in his proper age group.
The moment that AJ Dybantsa (@ADybantsa) announced he would reclassify from Class of 2026 to Class of 2025
The 5 SF explains the decision and his recruitment pic.twitter.com/ag46ymRqzC
— 247Sports (@247Sports) October 11, 2023
Dybantsa told 247Sports he is leaning toward attending college but “all of the options are open right now.”
In reclassifying, Dybantsa remains not just one of the top prospects in the class of 2025 but in the nation regardless of class. 247Sports ranked him at No. 1 in his new class, ahead of star power forward Cameron Boozer, who over summer was ranked ahead of even Cooper Flagg before Flagg had an elite summer and reclassified to 2024.
Dybantsa, listed at 6-foot-9 and 200 pounds, worked out with a variety of NBA players over summer, including LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Chris Paul. He also attended Jayson Tatum’s camp.
With this experience, he’s accelerating his recruitment timeline and will begin the process in earnest. Already holding 14 collegiate offers, more should flow soon.