Latest Rankings for College Basketball's Player of the Year in 2014-15 Season

Welcome back to the Jahlil Okafor-Frank Kaminsky debate.

A couple of weeks ago, I was ready to put Notre Dame's Jerian Grant in the conversation for Player of the Year—I even thought he passed Okafor after the Fighting Irish upset the Blue Devils—but after that game, Notre Dame went on to lose at Pittsburgh and has since been blitzed by Duke in the rematch.

Ohio State's D'Angelo Russell is making a push, but have the Buckeyes been good enough to make this a three-man race? I don't think so. Team success, historically, has been just as important to individual numbers and performance.

This list includes 10 players, and you can consider those 10 as the guys I believe most deserving to be All-Americans to date, but Player of the Year is a two-man debate.

All stats are accurate through Feb. 11 games.

10. Justin Anderson, Virginia

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Previous rank: 6

The way I think of these ranking is "if the season ended today, who would be most deserving?"

With that in mind, there's no way you cannot include the best player on the nation's second-best team.

Anderson's fractured finger that will keep him out four to six weeks will also hurt his chances at postseason accolades. You could see teammate Malcolm Brogdon take his place, assuming the Cavaliers can take care of business without Anderson. But he was definitely Virginia's MVP until he got hurt, providing excellent defense and consistent outside shooting.

To show his value, take a look at the game he's missed so far (North Carolina State) and the Louisville matchup where he got injured, playing only 16 minutes. Over the first 21 games of the season, Virginia scored better than a point per possession 19 times. In the last two games, the Wahoos have been under a point per possession both times.

9. Buddy Hield, Oklahoma

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Previous rank: 10

Hield is the current favorite to win Player of the Year in the nation's best conference, and his team is helping his cause of late. The Sooners have won five straight and appear, at the moment, to be the biggest threat to Kansas in the Big 12.

Hield has been consistent scoring the ball all season, averaging 17.6 points per game, and he's become a better all-around player this year. He's averaging a career-best 5.5 rebounds per game, and he also deserves some credit for OU's drastic improvement on the defensive end this season.

The Sooners rank fifth nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency, per KenPom.com, after ranking 91st last year.

8. Seth Tuttle, Northern Iowa

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Previous rank: 8

Tuttle has been an efficient machine all season. He makes 64.7 percent of his twos, 45.5 percent of his threes and 77.1 percent of his free throws—drawing an impressive 6.8 fouls per 40 minutes. He's also an excellent passer, especially for a big man, averaging 3.2 assists per game.

And he just keeps getting better.

Over the last four games, which includes his 29-point gem in the win over Wichita State, Tuttle is averaging 20.1 points, has made 22 of 35 twos (65.7 percent), five of eight threes (62.5 percent) and 22 of 25 free throws (88 percent), and he's had 15 assists.

You could argue the competition is weak, but remember, his best game of the four was against the 15th-ranked Shockers.

7. Karl Anthony-Towns

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Previous rank: Unranked

This is the Kentucky slot. The Wildcats deserve to have at least one player make first- or second-team All-American. Maybe two. At this point, they have four legit candidates: Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, Devin Booker and Aaron Harrison.

Since what makes UK great is its defense, Towns and Cauley-Stein are the top two guys for the Wildcats. Towns has the better shot-blocking numbers (2.3 per game), but Cauley-Stein is just as valuable on that end.

Where Towns is starting to set himself apart is on the offensive end. He hasn't been as aggressive as John Calipari probably has wanted him for most of the year, but over the past three games, he's looked and played like the best player on the floor.

It helps that he's gotten starter minutes (29.3 per game) in those three games, and the scoring has followed, averaging 15.3 points per contest.

6. Kyle Wiltjer, Gonzaga

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Previous rank: 5

Offensive rating is a statistic that measures how many points a player produces over 100 possessions. Wiltjer currently has an offensive rating of 130.2, per KenPom.com, which is the best in the country for players who use at least 24 percent of their team's possessions.

Impressive, right?

Well, even more impressive is that in Ken Pomeroy's player database, which goes back to 2003-04, Wiltjer's offensive rating would be tied for the best mark over that time in the higher usage category if the season ended today. He'd also be the first big man to lead that category since Indiana's Cody Zeller in the 2011-12 season.

5. Delon Wright, Utah

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Previous rank: 3

Wright has been in a bit of a slump since the last rankings. He had two assists and four turnovers in a loss at UCLA and followed that up with only one assist and three turnovers in a win at USC. He's averaging just 10 points over his last four games.

But you cannot ignore his season-long numbers—14.2 points per game and 5.6 assists—or the fact that he has a team that won just three Pac-12 games three years ago tied for first place in the league.

4. D'Angelo Russell, Ohio State

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Previous rank: 16

Russell is the hottest player in college basketball, and if Ohio State was on the level of Duke or Wisconsin, Player of the Year would be a three-man race. He'll probably get some votes just because of his silly numbers.

The season-long totals are great (19.4 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 5.5 APG), but he's been on another planet since the calendar turned to 2015.

In those 11 games of the new year, he's averaged 22.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists, has a triple-double—23 points, 11 boards and 11 dimes last Sunday at Rutgers—and three other double-doubles. And it's not like he's a chucker. He's shooting 46.7 percent from deep over those 11 games.

3. Jerian Grant, Notre Dame

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Previous rank: 4

This week I recorded a video for Bleacher Report in which I picked the best guard in the country bracket-style. Grant and D'Angelo Russell made the final two.

Grant's numbers don't quite stack up to Russell's—Grant is averaging 17.0 points and 6.2 assists—but here's what made the difference for me: team success.

The surrounding talent around both guys is comparable. Ohio State is 8-4 in the Big Ten. Notre Dame is 10-3 in a much better league. Yes, Russell's numbers are better, but Grant is on another level, making those around him thrive, and his team has had the more impressive season. That's why he wins by a hair.

2. Jahlil Okafor, Duke

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Previous rank: 1

The race between Okafor and Wisconsin's Frank Kaminsky is so close that it could come down to whose team performs better down the stretch. I'll get to why Kaminsky would be my pick on the next slide.

There are a lot of impressive numbers you can throw around for Okafor, but there's one that I think shows how dominant he's been as a low-post scorer.

For a guy who has different defensive schemes and double- or triple-teams sent his way constantly, he's had only four games this season when he didn't shoot better than 50 percent from the field, and he ranks second nationally in field-goal percentage (66.5 percent).

1. Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin

Nati Harnik/Associated Press

Previous rank: 2

Their numbers are almost even.

• Kaminsky: 17.3 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 2.5 APG, 1.7 BPG
• Okafor: 18.0 PPG, 9.1 RPG, 1.4 APG, 1.5 BPG

You could argue Kaminsky's numbers are slightly better because his team averages nearly seven fewer possessions per game. But let's go ahead and call the numbers a wash.

The team success is close as well. Wisconsin has lost two games, but one of those (at Rutgers) was without Kaminsky. Duke has lost three times but plays in a tougher league and won head-to-head against Wisconsin.

Like I said in the previous slide, team success could ultimately determine the winner, but for now, we'll call that a wash as well.

The reason I like Kaminsky is that there is not one thing he does that you could say hurts his team. He's a great passer, solid rebounder and a good defender. Okafor, on the other hand, is not a good defender, and Mike Krzyzewski has had to come up with ways to hide that. So unless Wisconsin falls apart or Okafor just has a ridiculous stretch to end the year, my vote for Player of the Year will go to Kaminsky.

C.J. Moore covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @CJMooreBR.