Wait, is Kentucky basketball really in the running for 5-star AJ Dybantsa?

The recruitment of AJ Dybantsa has been quite the rollercoaster. He is the number one player in the class and almost assuredly a one-and-done prospect. His recruitment has taken a few twists and turns, but what's wild is that lately, Kentucky seems to be back in the mix. This is surprising because in August, he cut his list to seven schools, and the Wildcats weren't one of them.

His final seven schools are the Alabama Crimson Tide, Auburn Tigers, Baylor Bears, Brigham Young Cougars, Kansas Jayhawks, Kansas State Wildcats, and North Carolina Tar Heels. When he announced this, it eliminated a whole bunch of schools, Kentucky being one of them. He then proceeded to visit five of those schools in fairly quick fashion: Kansas State, Kansas, North Carolina, Alabama, and BYU.

BYU has been one of the favorites for awhile for Dybantsa. It is closer to his home of Hurricane, Utah, and they have deep, deep pockets in the NIL; this will become more important as we unfold some of his recruitment stories and why Kentucky may have a shot.

Over the last couple of days, it seems like Kentucky hasn't given up on recruiting Dybantsa, with assistant coach Alvin Brooks seen at one of his games. It is fairly speculative, as recruiting often starts years down the road, so he could have been there for someone else.

This led to speculation that maybe the "chess match" with a recruit that head coach Mark Pope referred to was about Dybantsa. Honestly, if this was it, it's mostly a yawn. Dybantsa cut Kentucky. However, today, a recruiting insider for On3.com, Pete Nakos, posted an article updating the recruiting for Dybantsa there. And his father had a really interesting quote. He said, "To give you an example, let’s say he chose South Carolina, which they have offered. They have $5 million on the table and Kentucky comes, Kentucky has $3 million. AJ wants to go to Kentucky — he’s going to Kentucky."

Sure, this is just an example, but why would he use Kentucky as the example? It may be tongue-in-cheek that he is intentionally using a school that is not on the table because he wants to ensure he isn't saying X school is offering X money. But still, it's caused a bit of a fuss.

At the end of the day, it looks like Dybansta is going to BYU. They have "unlimited" money and are willing to offer him $4 million. They already had a decent leg up being in Utah and having other appeals to Dybansta, and that's a big offer.

At the end of the day, it doesn't seem like Kentucky is actually still in it, but it's fun to speculate. I'll leave you with this.