{"id":480709,"date":"2026-01-25T15:42:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T14:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=480709"},"modified":"2026-01-25T15:42:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T14:42:27","slug":"saturday-showcase-top-2026-nba-draft-prospects-light-up-college-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/saturday-showcase-top-2026-nba-draft-prospects-light-up-college-basketball\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday showcase: top 2026 NBA Draft prospects light up college basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday delivered a string of eye-catching performances from some of the most highly anticipated NBA prospects ahead of the 2026 Draft.<\/p>\n<p>The spotlight starts with <strong>AJ Dybantsa<\/strong>, who led BYU to a win over Utah with a dominant 43-point outing on 15-of-24 shooting, adding 6 rebounds and 3 assists. It marked a new freshman scoring record for the Cougars, surpassing the previous mark held by none other than Danny Ainge. Utah head coach Alex Jensen labeled Dybantsa a <a href=\"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/nba-prospect-aj-dybantsa-drops-30-points-in-impressive-byu-debut\/\">\u201cgenerational talent\u201d<\/a> after the game, saying, \u201cHe showed us what he\u2019s capable of \u2014 &#8220;There&#8217;s no telling how good he can get.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"AJ Dybantsa DROPS 43 POINTS vs. Utah \ud83c\udf7f\ud83c\udf7f\ud83c\udf7f | 2025-26 Big 12 Men&#039;s Basketball\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2ltAY0cTTQg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Two other freshmen also cracked the 40-point barrier and are widely expected to reach the NBA as early as next season. <strong>Kingston Flemings<\/strong> poured in 42 points and handed out 6 assists in 38 minutes for Houston, though his effort wasn\u2019t enough to prevent a loss to Texas Tech. &#8220;Kingston put us on his back and put us in position to win the game,&#8221;\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mens-college-basketball\/story\/_\/id\/47718991\/texas-tech-dominates-glass-halt-no-6-houston-win-streak\">said coach Kelvin Sampson<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Kingston Flemings EXPLODED today vs Texas Tech..<\/p>\n<p>42 PTS (15\/26 FG, 4\/9 3PT, 8\/10 FT)<br \/>\n2 REB<br \/>\n6 AST<br \/>\n2 STL<\/p>\n<p>Hold up..this PG1 conversation just got real<\/p>\n<p>Where is he on your draft boards?? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1VgvaUFPhI\">pic.twitter.com\/1VgvaUFPhI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Frankie Vision (@Frankie_Vision) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Frankie_Vision\/status\/2015180317422649543?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 24, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Illinois guard <strong>Keaton Wagler<\/strong> stole the show with a stunning offensive clinic in a statement win over No. 4 Purdue. Wagler erupted for 46 points in 39 minutes, shooting an incredible 13-of-17 from the field, 9-of-11 from three-point range and 11-of-13 at the free-throw line.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Illinois&#039; Keaton Wagler ERRUPTS for 46 Points with NINE 3&#039;s In Upset Win Over Purdue! \ud83e\udd2f EVERY POINT\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IOXQgB2hEFE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dybantsa, Flemings and Wagler all erupt for 40+ points in statement performances<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":480708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[399,401],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[187],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-480709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-ncaa","typology-video"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/01\/nj.png","digistream_id":0,"digistream":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480709"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=480709"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=480709"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=480709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}