Jon Rothstein Highlights Final Four as Realistic Expectation for BYU Basketball

“I think if you’re a BYU fan now, and you went to the Sweet 16 without a talent like this [AJ Dybantsa], the goal and the realistic expectations for BYU are to go to a Final Four,” Rothstein said. “I don’t even think that’s something anybody should blink at.”

“You’ve got Baylor transfer Rob Wright, who is going to be one of the best sophomore point guards in all of college basketball, and maybe one of the best point guards in college basketball this year,” Rothstein continued. “Richie Saunders is a proven All-Big 12-level player, and then you have a player in Dybantsa, who is going to be right there as the likely candidate to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.”

Back on April 8th, CBS Sports listed the most likely candidates to win it all in 2026, paired with sports betting odds to boot. BYU checked in at No. 6 in the country, prior to landing Rob Wright and several other key contributors.

Rothstein finished his thoughts by saying, “This goes back to something I talked about last week. Things have leveled out with NIL. Now you have a program like BYU, St. John’s, Texas Tech, regularly getting Top 5-10 teams in the country. Because now, players don’t have to go to certain places to get the type of spotlight and platform that they used to get.”