Latest 2023-24 Men's College Basketball National Player of the Year Rankings
Purdue's Zach Edey remains the overwhelming favorite to repeat as National Player of the Year in men's college basketball, but there sure is a lot of star power around the country, should the big Boilermaker falter at any point.
On January 10, the Los Angeles Athletic Club announced its Midseason Top 25 Watch List for the Wooden Award. And two weeks before that, our previous NPOY rankings published, featuring 22 players (a top 10 with 12 honorable mentions).
Between those two lists, there were 19 names in common. The three on my list that weren't on the Wooden Watch were Terrence Shannon Jr., Jamal Shead and Braden Smith. My rankings published a few hours before the news of Shannon's suspension broke, so that difference explains itself. For Shead, the Wooden Watch went with LJ Cryer as its obligatory candidate from then-undefeated Houston. And I have no clue how or why Smith was left off their list.
For the most part, though, we were in agreement on the best of the best at a national level.
So, how about some updated rankings?
Players are ranked on a combination of overall individual production/efficiency and team success—the latter playing a key role, as the NPOY has almost always come from a team that earns a No. 4 seed or better in the NCAA tournament.
Statistics current through the start of play on Wednesday.
Honorable Mentions (1 of 2)
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As promised in previous editions of these rankings, we're trimming another four honorable mentions from the list, bringing us down to a top 18. That will continue in each of the next two updates until we're down to just a top 10 in mid-February.
Armando Bacot, North Carolina
14.6 PPG, 10.8 RPG, 1.8 BPG, 1.3 APG
Teammate R.J. Davis is the much better NPOY candidate, but Bacot is still having a solid year, averaging a double-double for a team that has made a serious push for a projected No. 1 seed. If he goes off for a 30-15 type of line in one of the games against Duke, there's still a chance Bacot gets back into the mix.
David Jones, Memphis
20.9 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 1.8 SPG, 1.5 APG, 36.3% 3PT
Jones was held to 15 points or fewer in four of Memphis' first six games, but he has reeled off 11 consecutive contests with at least 17 points since then. And given Memphis' obsession with playing close games no matter the competition, it has needed all of those buckets in order to become an AP Top 10 team. Climb just a bit higher to No. 7 and it will be the Tigers' highest ranking since John Calipari was the coach. Maybe that would put Jones more prominently on the national map.
Caleb Love, Arizona
18.3 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 3.1 APG, 1.2 SPG, 33.0% 3PT
Love has scored at least 22 points in five of his last six games, and he's playing so much more efficiently than he did over the previous three seasons at North Carolina. He's definitely still a volume scorer who will force up a lot of shots in close games, averaging 22.0 field-goal attempts in Arizona's four losses. But he's committing fewer turnovers and grabbing more rebounds than he ever did in Chapel Hill.
Mark Sears, Alabama
19.6 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 3.7 APG, 1.5 SPG, 47.8% 3PT
The driving force of the most efficient offense in the nation, Sears has found another gear this year for an Alabama team that had to replace seven of its nine leading scorers from last season. He has made almost the exact same junior year-to-senior year leap that Frank Mason made for Kansas once upon a time, and will emerge as a serious NPOY threat if Alabama can knock off both Tennessee and Auburn within the next week.
Honorable Mentions (2 of 2)
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Reed Sheppard, Kentucky
12.0 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 4.1 APG, 2.5 SPG, 54.1% 3PT
Sheppard is an elite shooter and defender, but he's simply too unselfish for NPOY, dropping out of our top 10 because he last scored 15 points in a contest during the Dec. 2 loss to UNC-Wilmington. If he ever decides to start taking more than seven shots per game, though, he could storm back into the top five in a hurry. If he doesn't, look for teammate Antonio Reeves to take Sheppard's spot among the NPOY candidates in our next ranking.
Braden Smith, Purdue
12.0 PPG, 7.1 APG, 5.3 RPG, 1.7 SPG, 43.5% 3PT
It still blows my mind that the Wooden Award committee did not have Smith in its midseason Top 25, as the sophomore point guard is at least 80 percent as indispensable for the Boilermakers as Zach Edey has been. Smith has tallied at least six assists in 15 of Purdue's 18 games, and he's scoring in double figures more often than not.
Isaiah Stevens, Colorado State
17.1 PPG, 7.2 APG, 3.0 RPG, 1.5 SPG, 46.7% 3PT
Stevens' chances of being named a Wooden Award finalist at the end of the year took a sizable hit in the recent losses to Boise State and Utah State. But even after those games, he's still 1-of-1 in the nation averaging at least 15 points and seven assists per game. If the Rams can bounce back to win the Mountain West and secure a top-four seed, their do-it-all leader should get some serious love for first-team All-American.
Wade Taylor IV, Texas A&M
19.5 PPG, 3.9 APG, 3.4 RPG, 2.4 SPG
It was a toss-up between Taylor and Iowa State's Tamin Lipsey for our final honorable mention...until Taylor went out and scored 41 against Arkansas on Tuesday night. It did come in a losing effort, as did his 35-point game against Florida Atlantic and his 34-point game against Houston. But he played absurdly well in those games, as well as in last Saturday's win over Kentucky (31 points, six rebounds, five assists, one turnover). But if you prefer Lipsey here because Iowa State hasn't suffered seven losses and might actually play its way into a top-four seed, point taken.
10. Dalton Knecht, Tennessee
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Season Stats: 18.5 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 1.6 APG, 41.7% 3PT
Previous Rank: Honorable Mention
It was a tough call on whether to include Dalton Knecht in the top 10, because he completely vanished for about six weeks.
Sure, it was related to an injury. He busted an ankle late in the Nov. 29 loss to North Carolina. And though he didn't miss any time because of it, Knecht clearly was not himself for a while. After averaging 20.3 points through his first seven games, he averaged 9.9 for the next seven.
Moreover, Tennessee won all seven of those games and only had even the slightest bit of difficulty scoring in one of them, making one question just how important Knecht actually is to the Volunteers' cause.
But the transfer from Northern Colorado has put on one heck of a show lately, scoring 28 against Mississippi State, 36 against Georgia and a career-high 39 in Tuesday's win over Florida. In those three games, he shot 57.4 percent from the field, 56.5 percent from distance and averaged 8.0 free-throw attempts, attacking the basket with the type of aggression that was his norm prior to the injury.
It sure seems like he's all the way back to his old self, and that Tennessee is better suited for a deep run in March because of his return to dominance.
Big game coming up Saturday against Mark Sears and Alabama. The SEC has a bunch of viable NPOY candidates, but that game may well determine who moves into the driver's seat for SEC POY.
9. DaRon Holmes II, Dayton
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Season Stats: 19.4 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 2.6 APG, 2.2 BPG, 43.6% 3PT
Previous Rank: Not Ranked
The only reason DaRon Holmes II didn't crack our top 22 in late December is because it didn't seem like Dayton was ever going to get enough national attention for him to truly enter the NPOY conversation.
At the time, there were only two AP voters showing any love to the Flyers, and it's not like A-10 play was likely to put them on the proverbial map.
But now they're 14-2, they're somehow up to No. 21 in the AP poll, their tournament resume is outstanding—a projected No. 3 seed in my book—and Holmes has been even more unstoppable than usual in recent weeks.
In last Friday's game against Duquesne, Holmes was the only Flyer in double digits, going for 33 points (one shy of a career high) and 12 rebounds in that road victory.
His next game? More of the same. He was again the only Flyer in double digits, leading the way with 29 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks in a five-point win over Saint Louis. He scored 16 of Dayton's final 19 points in that one.
Holmes is nowhere near the NBA draft prospect that Obi Toppin was four years ago, but is it irrational to think he could become Dayton's second Wooden Award winner?
If the Flyers run the table in the A-10 like they did in 2020, they're going to be in the mix for a No. 1 seed and will continue to surge up the AP poll. With that type of national momentum, the do-it-all big man just might be the top challenger to Zach Edey.
8. Jaedon LeDee, San Diego State
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Season Stats: 21.6 PPG, 8.6 RPG, 1.5 APG, 1.1 SPG, 40% 3PT
Previous Rank: Honorable Mention
Jaedon LeDee's fifth-year breakout remains one of the most fascinating stories in college basketball.
Prior to this season, LeDee was 0-of-16 from three-point range and had scored at least 17 points in a game just three times in his career. But he has already put up at least 20 points on 10 occasions this season, including a pair of 30-point double-doubles. And while he's no Stephen Curry from distance, he has emerged as a legitimate perimeter threat.
Four of those 20-point performances have come since our last NPOY update, including scoring 20 with seven rebounds and three assists in the road win over Gonzaga. LeDee also had 31 points (on 14 field-goal attempts) and 10 rebounds in the way-closer-than-it-should-have-been road win over San Jose State.
Can he do enough to generate NPOY buzz in the Mountain West, though?
It's a very good league with the potential to put six teams into the NCAA tournament. However, it's also a league airing most of its games either on CBS Sports Network or streaming on the Mountain West Network, with a lot of games that don't end until well after midnight on the East Coast, so it's not getting the attention it deserves.
It has been 13 years since the last time the MWC produced a consensus first-team All-American, and with all due respect to LeDee, he ain't Jimmer Fredette.
But if the 2023 national runners-up happen to run away with first place in the Mountain West en route to a No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the dance, that drought likely comes to an end in the form of LeDee.
7. Tyler Kolek, Marquette
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Season Stats: 14.2 PPG, 6.6 APG, 5.1 RPG, 1.8 SPG, 34.9% 3PT
Previous Rank: No. 4
When Tyler Kolek gets into one of his rhythms, mercy.
Villanova got a healthy dose of that Monday afternoon with Marquette's point guard finishing with 21 points, 11 assists, five rebounds and a pair of steals in an 87-74 victory. Kolek was similarly dominant in the Golden Eagles' key wins over Creighton, Illinois and Texas, often looking like the most valuable guard in the nation.
But Kolek was a tertiary character in their marquee win over Kansas in Maui, going for six points, five steals, four assists, four rebounds and four turnovers in that one. And in the recent losses to Seton Hall and Butler, he was downright disappointing with just seven points on a combined 19 field-goal attempts.
Had it not been for that sensational performance against Villanova, that pair of duds to open January might have knocked Kolek out of the top 10 altogether.
However, it does still feel like he's in a two-horse race with Connecticut's Tristen Newton for the point guard spot on the first-team All-American team, if you're the type to insist upon an All-American team that resembles an actual starting five. And until we get at least one of those head-to-head matchups out of the way (the first coming on Feb. 17), they ought to both remain strong NPOY candidates.
6. Kevin McCullar Jr., Kansas
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Season Stats: 19.8 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 4.7 APG, 1.5 SPG, 36.1% 3PT
Previous Rank: No. 2
We've gone back and forth and back again on whether Kevin McCullar Jr. or Hunter Dickinson is actually the best NPOY candidate on Kansas' roster.
After the Dec. 22 Yale game in which McCullar (34) scored more than four times as many points as Dickinson (eight), it sure looked like he had taken the reins in that battle of friendly fire.
But while McCullar hasn't exactly ceded much ground in the five games since then—averaging 18.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists—Dickinson has surged back in front with some herculean performances early in Big 12 play.
Could McCullar leap right back to No. 2 by the time we run this back again in a couple of weeks? Absolutely. If either one clearly outplays the other in a road win over Iowa State on Jan. 27, that would be massive in creating some separation between the stars of the Jayhawks.
For now, though, the Jayhawk with two November triple-doubles and at least a dozen points scored in every game this season lands just outside our top five.
Mad respect for the leap this fifth-year senior has made, though. McCullar averaged 10.4 points and 2.5 assists over the past three seasons, putting up similar numbers in each year. But he has nearly doubled both of those rates in the process of blossoming from a glue guy into one of the most valuable players in the country.
5. Tristen Newton, Connecticut
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Season Stats: 14.8 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 6.1 APG, 1.3 SPG, 29.5% 3PT
Previous Rank: No. 7
Connecticut is No. 1 in the AP poll for the first time since 2009 and is a clear choice for a No. 1 seed.
It's all but mandatory that we have a Husky somewhere in the top five.
Donovan Clingan was supposed to be that guy before the season began, but he wasn't particularly dominant—no double-doubles in 12 games; scored in single digits in four of UConn's five nonconference games worth mentioning—prior to missing the past six games with an injury.
One could make the case for either Cam Spencer or Alex Karaban in this spot instead of Tristen Newton, given how absurdly efficient they have been.
But we've got to stick with the point guard averaging roughly 15-6-6, even though he did have a bizarre scoreless performance against DePaul earlier this month and even though he has shot 5-of-29 (17 percent) from three-point range over his last five games (prior to Wednesday night's game against Creighton).
Here's a stat that's not a coincidence: Connecticut is a perfect 15-0 when Newton records at least three assists and a winless 0-2 when he falls short of that mark. Yes, he can take over a game with his scoring, and he's probably the best defender on the team aside from the two rim-protectors (Clingan and Samson Johnson). But the Huskies are at their best when Newton is facilitating offense for players who are hitting shots around him.
His numbers aren't quite as remarkable as what Jalen Pickett managed to do last year with Penn State, but Newton is more of a NPOY threat than the Nittany Lion ever was because this team is way more nationally relevant.
It felt like most people didn't even realize how good Pickett was until February last year, whereas Newton entered the season as a household name after his run through the NCAA tournament. That sort of stuff matters in this glorified popularity contest.
4. Kyle Filipowski, Duke
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Season Stats: 18.2 PPG, 8.9 RPG, 3.0 APG, 1.9 BPG, 1.3 SPG, 41.2% 3PT
Previous Rank: No. 5
After opening January with a pair of duds against Syracuse and Notre Dame—a combined 19 points on 19 field-goal attempts with nary an offensive rebound—it looked like Kyle Filipowski's case for the Wooden Award might be finished.
But the big Blue Devil bounced back in a big way in the subsequent wins over Pitt and Georgia Tech for a combined 56 points and 23 rebounds. "Flip" also racked up four assists, two blocks and two steals in the win over the Yellow Jackets that was much closer than it should have been.
When Filipowski is doing his thing—hitting perimeter shots, crashing the offensive glass and just generally filling up the stat sheet—Duke looks like the Final Four candidate we thought it would be before the season began.
It's when he's picking up frustration fouls on the offensive end of the floor and struggling to get shots to drop that both the Blue Devils seem vulnerable and this ranking feels a bit too high.
Fortunately for him and Duke, it has been way more of the former than the latter.
It all hinges on the North Carolina games, though. If Filipowski brings his A-game to Chapel Hill on Feb. 3, he just might give Zach Edey a run for his money.
3. R.J. Davis, North Carolina
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Season Stats: 20.4 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 3.3 APG, 1.5 SPG, 41% 3PT
Previous Rank: No. 8
Since our last ranking, R.J. Davis has taken a step backward in the scoring department. He was on a seven-game streak of scoring at least 23 points, but he hasn't hit that mark in nearly a month, averaging 17.4 over his last five games (prior to Wednesday night's game against Louisville.)
And yet, he has vaulted from No. 8 to No. 3.
Why?
For starters, because of North Carolina's emergence as one of the top national championship threats.
The Tar Heels have won six consecutive games by double digits and simply haven't needed Davis to put the team on his back. He's still shooting at a high level, but he's averaging 3.5 fewer field-goal attempts per game, as well as more than five fewer free-throw attempts per game. (The free throw portion effectively translates to five fewer points per game, too, since he's a 95.4 percent free-throw shooter this season.)
Basically, they're saving him for later rather than running him ragged during a stretch when they are dominating with defense.
Davis has also been a significant contributor on that end of the floor with a pair of five-steal games within the past month. His previous career high in that department was four, doing so twice in 2021-22 in games when he scored fewer than 10 points. Going for 20 and five twice in the span of five games was a little ridiculous.
There are no needle-moving games on the docket until UNC hosts Duke on Feb. 3, but look for Davis to keep scoring at least 15 per night while the Tar Heels further enhance their case for a No. 1 seed.
2. Hunter Dickinson, Kansas
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Season Stats: 19.3 PPG, 11.7 RPG, 1.8 APG, 1.4 BPG, 1.2 SPG, 44.4% 3PT
Previous Rank: No. 6
As previously discussed, it's a tough call between Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar Jr. for Most Valuable Jayhawk.
But one big thing working in Dickinson's favor is how good he has been in Kansas' biggest games.
Between the three marquee nonconference wins over Kentucky, Tennessee and Connecticut, the 7'2" former Michigan Wolverine averaged 19.7 points and 16.7 rebounds.
In the Big 12 opener against TCU, Dickinson went for 30 points and 13 rebounds, including the game-winning bucket with three seconds remaining.
And in Kansas' lone league game thus far against a team that seems like a sure thing for the NCAA tournament, Dickinson had 24 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks in a statement win over Oklahoma.
He did struggle in both of Kansas' losses, but doesn't that just further prove how valuable he is? That the Jayhawks can't even top 60 points when Dickinson has an off night?
It remains a crying shame that we didn't get a Dickinson/Edey showdown in the Maui Invitational championship, thanks to Kansas losing to Marquette in the semis. Had the Jayhawk been able to at least hold his own against the Boilermaker—or perhaps even caused major problems for Edey with his three-point range—it would have made the debate for the top spot an actual debate as opposed to the seemingly foregone conclusion that it is right now.
Alas, Dickinson will just have to keep racking up double-doubles in Big 12 play to make this race more interesting.
1. Zach Edey, Purdue
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Season Stats: 22.9 PPG, 11.1 RPG, 2.2 BPG, 1.7 APG
Previous Rank: No. 1
Zach Edey continues to obliterate the competition.
Ho hum.
With a starting five in which every player is at least 6'6" and 200 pounds., Illinois was uniquely positioned to fluster the reigning National Player of the Year, limiting Edey to five field-goal attempts and 10 total points in that Jan. 5 clash. But in spite of four fouls and minimal touches in the paint, Edey still got a double-double (10 points, 15 rebounds) and played a key role in a marquee win.
Even if that game did anything to make you question whether Edey should repeat as NPOY, he was back with a vengeance this past week, going for 30 points (on just 12 field-goal attempts) and 20 rebounds in a win over Penn State, followed by 33 points and 14 rebounds in Tuesday's blowout win at Indiana.
His rebounding is down a bit from last year's mark of 12.9 RPG, but Edey has been slightly better than last year in every other department.
And however much of a factor team success plays into the NPOY discussion? That's just another reason to assume Edey will win all of the hardware once again, as Purdue is presently the irrefutable front-runner for the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament. (Connecticut has pushed ahead of Purdue for No. 1 in the AP poll, but the Boilermakers have the vastly superior tournament resume.)
Barring injury, an inexplicable fall from grace or just an outrageous two-month run of dominance by someone else already in our top 18, Edey is going to be the first repeat NPOY since Ralph Sampson in the early 1980s.
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