2023-24 Men's College Basketball Freshman of the Year Rankings
The men's college basketball National Player of the Year race has been a Zach Edey-sized foregone conclusion for about two months, but National Freshman of the Year remains more wide open than a race has been this late in a season in a long time.
We're not talking about a, "Man, it's tough to decide between these two or three really great candidates" situation.
It's much more of an, "Even the 16th-best freshman still has a realistic shot at this thing" free-for-all.
These freshmen are ranked based on a combination of individual production and team success. However, the team-success portion of the equation isn't quite as important as it is when you're talking about National Player of the Year, where you almost have to play for a top-six seed in the NCAA tournament to even be one of the five finalists at the end of the year.
(However, the NFOY does typically come from a top-three seed in the dance.)
One thing that doesn't factor into the rankings is NBA draft stock. It might be mentioned where applicable, but by no means should this be viewed as some kind of draft big board of top freshmen.
Honorable Mentions
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Owen Freeman, Iowa
10.9 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 1.8 BPG, 1.1 APG, 1.0 SPG
Back in mid-January, we had Freeman as an honorable mention in a "'Freshman-year Donovan Clingan/Zach Edey' All-Stars" bucket for his incredible efficiency while averaging fewer than 20 minutes per game. But he has averaged better than 27 minutes per game since the beginning of January while blossoming into a very real candidate to win this thing.
He went off in the recent OT win over Wisconsin, finishing with 20 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, four blocks and two steals.
Unfortunately, in Tuesday's marquee win at Michigan State, Freeman was limited to just eight minutes because of foul trouble. (He still had eight points, two rebounds, two assists and a block in those eight minutes.) So we're keeping him just outside our top 10 for now with two games remaining against Illinois in which he could make a serious charge at No. 1.
Milan Momcilovic, Iowa State
11.9 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 1.2 APG, 37.5% 3PT
Momcilovic was No. 7 in our previous ranking, but it has been tough sledding for him as of late in the Big 12 grind, shooting just 31.4 percent from the field and 1-for-11 from three-point range over his last four games. He scored in double figures in 19 of his first 22 games, but just one of the past four.
Josh Hubbard, Mississippi State
14.6 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 1.8 APG, 34.7% 3PT
Hubbard has a permanent green light for Mississippi State. In a January loss to Florida, he took 25 shots, 17 of which were three-point attempts. But even with more than a dozen field-goal attempts per game, he's a far cry from Malik Mack and PJ Haggerty atop the freshman scoring leaderboard. A rough night in Wednesday's win over Ole Miss kept him from more seriously vying for a spot in the top 10.
Johnny Furphy, Kansas
8.9 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 38.7% 3PT
Over his last 10 games since becoming a full-time member of the primary rotation, Furphy has averaged 13.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.2 steals. Had he been doing that for the entire season, he'd maybe be in our top five. But with so many other solid options for the top 10 who have been playing well all season, it's the first 10 weeks of the season and the year-to-date averages holding Furphy back.
Cody Williams, Colorado
14.2 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 1.8 APG, 47.1% 3PT
Williams may well be the first college player drafted in a few months, but he has missed nine games this season and has committed 16 turnovers in his last three games while Colorado has fallen out of the at-large picture. Granted, we have players from non-tournament teams in our top 10, so Colorado's tournament status shouldn't really matter. But it kind of hurts Williams' case that he has been either unavailable or ineffective in the Buffaloes' bad losses.
Isaiah Collier, USC
16.2 PPG, 4.4 APG, 2.8 RPG, 1.5 SPG, 31.7% 3PT
Sort of a Williams/Furphy hybrid situation here, Collier might be the first college player drafted this year and has been playing at a high level over the past couple of weeks. However, he missed nearly a month of action and his brutal turnover numbers from the first half of the season are still damaging his overall case. But if he shines in these next two road games against UCLA and Washington State and puts on a show in the season finale against Arizona, let's just say no one has a firm grip on the No. 1 spot on this list.
Nos. 10-6: Malik Mack, JT Toppin, Dedan Thomas Jr., Yves Missi and Ja'Kobe Walter
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10. Malik Mack, Harvard (Previous Rank: Honorable Mention)
18.5 PPG, 4.7 APG, 3.7 RPG, 1.3 SPG, 37.9% 3PT
Harvard is wholly irrelevant in the bracketology conversation, but Mack is still putting up points in bunches outside the national spotlight. Among freshmen, only Tulsa's PJ Haggerty is scoring more points per game. And in the Ivy League, only Brown's Kino Lilly Jr. (19.1 PPG) has a higher scoring average. Throw in the Ivy League-leading nearly five assists per game, and Mack at least deserves a little love at No. 10.
9. JT Toppin, New Mexico (Previous Rank: 10)
12.4 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 1.9 BPG, 1.1 SPG
As the fourth-leading scorer for a Mountain West team, Toppin doesn't get a whole lot of national attention. But this 18-year-old big man has been the backbone of this Lobos team, averaging a double-double (12.4 points, 10.0 rebounds) and 2.2 blocks in his first 14 league games. The three-headed backcourt will be the main attraction when it comes to deciding UNM's NCAA tournament potential, but Toppin might be most critical to this team's cause.
8. Dedan Thomas Jr., UNLV (Previous Rank: Honorable Mention)
12.4 PPG, 5.8 APG, 2.8 RPG, 38.1% 3PT
Thomas just continues to shine as UNLV continues to battle at a high level against the top six teams in the MWC. He went for 25 points and four assists in the Rebels' second win over New Mexico, and it was his 19-point, eight-assist effort that almost led them to a win over Nevada. And let's never forget his incredible 16-point, nine-assist, zero-turnover night in the December upset of Creighton.
7. Yves Missi, Baylor (Previous Rank: 8)
11.2 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 1.6 BPG
6. Ja'Kobe Walter, Baylor (Previous Rank: 4)
14.4 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 1.6 APG, 1.2 SPG, 32.3% 3PT
Baylor's National Freshman of the Year situation isn't much different from Kansas's National Player of the Year situation, in that it's hard to argue for either of its two great candidates for a spot in the top five when it's not even clear which is most valuable on his own team.
To Walter's credit, he's starting to turn things back around. After three straight games in single digits, we dropped him from No. 1 to No. 4 two weeks ago. He has since scored in double figures in four straight, averaging 15.8 points, despite shooting 7-of-30 (23.3 percent) from distance.
But while Walter has been good, Missi has closed the gap with five consecutive games scoring at least a dozen points, most notably the performance against Kansas (21 points, eight rebounds, two blocks) in which he clearly outplayed Hunter Dickinson and almost carried the Bears to what would have been a colossal road win.
Baylor has home games against Houston this Saturday and Kansas next Saturday. Perhaps those marquee matchups will provide some separation between the two young Bears so one of them can make a run at No. 1.
5. Reed Sheppard, Kentucky
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Season Stats: 11.9 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 4.0 APG, 2.7 SPG, 50.9% 3PT
Previous Rank: No. 2
If you want to talk about Defensive Freshman of the Year, sure, we'll take Reed Sheppard at No. 1. Over his last five games, Sheppard has racked up 22 steals. And speaking of 22, that's how many times this season he has recorded multiple steals in a game. Not many with better hands at the point of attack.
Or if you'd like to talk about Most Efficient Freshman Shooter of the Year, Sheppard again makes an almost irrefutable case for No. 1. He's draining 51 percent of his three-point attempts and ranks 12th in the nation with a 67.7 true-shooting percentage. As of Thursday morning, he was the only freshman in the top 65 in that department.
But Sheppard remains too passive to be named the outright Freshman of the Year, held to single digits six times in his last 13 games, under-utilizing one of the silkiest shots in the nation.
As Kentucky blew a 15-point second-half lead in the loss to LSU, Sheppard just kind of sat back and watched it happen. He played the entire final 16 minutes and 44 seconds, attempting just three two-point shots for one bucket.
It was a similar story in the prior win over Auburn, as he was held scoreless in the second half, missing both of the shots he took.
Sheppard is simply too content to let Rob Dillingham and Antonio Reeves be the stars, only stepping up in a big way on nights when one of Dillingham, DJ Wagner or Justin Edwards is out and he's all but forced to call his own number.
It's fitting that his initials are R.S., because Reed Sheppard has been a Reluctant Star.
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4. Myles Rice, Washington State
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Season Stats: 15.9 PPG, 3.7 APG, 3.0 RPG, 1.7 SPG, 33.0% 3PT
Previous Rank: No. 5
Say this much for Myles Rice: He might be the only freshman literally carrying his team to a spot in the NCAA tournament.
Would Duke be as good without Jared McCain or would Kentucky be as good sans Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham? Of course not. But remove them from those rosters and those are probably still tournament teams.
Take Rice away from Washington State, however, and the Cougars likely aren't sniffing .500, let alone a single-digit seed in the dance.
Rice was never supposed to be this singularly indispensable to Wazzu's cause. We rather assumed before the season began that he'd be coming off the bench as the first backcourt reserve behind incoming Drake/Kansas transfer Joseph Yesufu and Jabe Mullins—the latter of whom shot 43 percent from distance last season and was Washington State's top returning scorer.
Instead, Yesufu suffered a likely season-ending hip injury in late November and Mullins has been a complete non-factor while Rice has stolen the show in a primary seven-man rotation where he is the only player shorter than 6'7".
Since the calendar flipped to 2024, Rice has averaged 17.5 points, 4.7 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals. And since our last ranking, he has led the Cougars to four consecutive wins, including a key road victory over Oregon in which he had 21 points and nine rebounds.
Do please note that Thursday's game at Arizona did not factor into this ranking, as this was finalized during the day Thursday. If he plays well in a road win over a projected No. 1 seed, there is going to be a strong case for Rice landing at No. 1. Even if he struggles in a loss at the McKale Center, though, he wouldn't drop out of the top five.
3. PJ Haggerty, Tulsa
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Season Stats: 20.3 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 3.5 APG, 2.0 SPG
Previous Rank: No. 3
PJ Haggerty is having an unbelievable season.
If he can maintain his current averages for a couple more weeks, he will become just the fourth freshman to average 20 points, five rebounds and three assists per game, joining 2017 No. 1 overall pick Markelle Fultz, 2019 No. 3 overall pick R.J. Barrett and 2021 No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham in that exclusive club.
And he is showing no signs of slowing down, averaging 22.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists over his last 16 games, scoring at least 16 in each of those contests.
In last weekend's overtime win over Rice, Haggerty set season-high marks of 30 points and 10 rebounds, plus six assists and a pair of steals.
As has been the case all season in this ranking, we continue to marvel at Haggerty's ability to do damage from the free-throw line. A 6'3" guard who might weigh 200 pounds soaking wet, Haggerty seeks contact in the lane like some shrunken version of Tyler Hansbrough, averaging 9.4 free-throw attempts per game and making just under 80 percent of them.
...If only he were doing this all for a team that mattered in the slightest.
There's only so much that one player can do on a basketball court, but it's mighty difficult to make the argument that the most valuable freshman in the country is playing for a Tulsa team that just fell to 13-13 overall Wednesday night.
Haggerty did score 25 against Florida Atlantic and 27 against Memphis way back when the Tigers looked like a tournament team. But it's even harder to argue he belongs at No. 1 when the vast majority of his damage has come against opponents who also have no hope for a bid.
But it's not like any other .500 team from a potential one-bid league has a freshman averaging 20 points per game, so he deserves a ton of praise.
Just probably not the trophy.
2. Rob Dillingham, Kentucky
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Season Stats: 15.0 PPG, 3.8 APG, 2.9 RPG, 1.2 SPG, 44.5% 3PT
Previous Rank: No. 1
In the three games leading up to our previous set of rankings, Rob Dillingham was playing out of his mind, averaging 25.0 points and 5.7 assists. He was impressive long before that, too, but it looked like he was gearing up to cruise to a victory in this race.
But for the next 3.75 games, you could have put that version of Dillingham on a milk carton.
He was a non-factor in the loss to Gonzaga, scoring six points on six shots. He barely got to double digits in the wins over Ole Miss and Auburn. And nearly 30 minutes into Wednesday's game against LSU, he had two points, one rebound and two turnovers.
Then, Dillingham did Dillingham things, scoring 21 of Kentucky's final 25 points, almost single-handedly willing the Wildcats to victory.
Some of the shots he made were downright ridiculous, too. The and-1 finger roll to cut the deficit to one in the final minute was a work of art. As was the leaning jumper that he splashed in to give the Wildcats the lead with about 10 seconds to go. (Unfortunately for Kentucky, though, LSU won on a buzzer-beater.)
After 150 minutes of comparative mediocrity, that 10-minute surge of dominance was almost enough for us to keep him at No. 1.
Without it, he would have dropped to No. 5.
Suffice it to say, we are still splitting hairs with about two weeks left in the regular season.
1. Jared McCain, Duke
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Season Stats: 13.5 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 1.8 APG, 1.1 SPG, 40.1% 3PT
Previous Rank: No. 6
Early in the year, it seemed like Duke was going to have to win in spite of Jared McCain—that it might be better off with Caleb Foster as the lone freshman in the starting lineup.
But now, McCain might be the main reason Duke makes a deep run in the NCAA tournament.
He was barely even on the radar when we posted our initial Freshman of the Year rankings on the morning of Dec. 20. At that time, he was averaging 9.5 points per game, struggled in the losses to Arkansas and Georgia Tech and was a scoreless, non-factor in Duke's only good win (Michigan State).
The night after that first ranking published, though, McCain threw his hat into the FOY ring with a 21-point gem in a marquee victory over Baylor. And he has been a consistently solid contributor ever since that mediocre first month of the season.
Scoring 21 in the one-point win over Clemson put McCain firmly on the Freshman of the Year radar.
Though Duke lost the game, going for 23 points and 11 rebounds at North Carolina put McCain seriously in the top-five conversation for the first time.
And that 35-point explosion at Florida State this past weekend—coming on the heels of consecutive double-doubles against Boston College and Wake Forest—was one heck of a jolt to the top of the leaderboard.
(McCain wasn't much of a factor in Duke's win at Miami on Wednesday night. Then again, neither was Miami.)
We shall see if McCain can hang on to this spot down the stretch. While he gets games against Wake Forest, Virginia and eventually North Carolina on March 9, Kentucky's stars will get games against Alabama, Mississippi State and eventually Tennessee on March 9. Baylor's dynamic duo also has a bunch of marquee opportunities remaining.
For now, though, McCain has a slight lead in what is going to be an exponentially more intriguing race to the finish line than what we are getting from the National Player of the Year "competition."
Statistics current through the start of play Thursday.
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