Kevin Young and BYU basketball continue to play the hits, as 4-star point guard JJ Mandaquit has set a date with Brigham Young University.
With the announcement of his Utah Prep and Team USA teammate AJ Dybantsa's official visit to Provo, Utah, Mandaquit will be joining the top prospect of the 2025 class on his visit in October.
Mandaquit's stock has been rising steadily as he continues to grow his game at a rapid level. He's emerged as a natural leader with his Utah Prep squad and now has international competitive experience under his belt. He will almost certainly draw more NBA buzz as he continues to grow.
This news may feel minor when compared to the goliath recruit he'll be sharing his visit with, but don't overlook Mandaquit's value as a recruit for a BYU program that will take any 4-star recruit they can get. JJ shows tremendous promise and may even arrive at BYU as a package deal if Dybantsa answer's Cougar Nation's collective prayers.
Mandaquit and Dybantsa are obviously close, and to land one player's commitment would strongly impact the decision of the other. "AJ and JJ" already has an incredible ring to it. Please stop me if I'm getting ahead of myself, but as Dybantsa's camp has already expressed, BYU's recruiting efforts were apparently impressive in AJ's unofficial visit to campus earlier this year--let's hope for more of the same as these two get to campus.
When the Cougars offered a scholarship to Mandaquit, no one suspected what strings would tie the guard to the rest of BYU's recruiting efforts. Seeing how far BYU has come from a few months ago is enough to make a grown man cry, so please excuse the tearstains on my keyboard.
Look forward to more official visit announcements in the coming weeks as top players continue to schedule.