Latest 2025-26 Men's College Basketball National Player of the Year Rankings
For the second consecutive men's college basketball season, a Duke freshman has seemingly already won the race for National Player of the Year before February even begins, with Cameron Boozer following in Cooper Flagg's footsteps.
If anything, Boozer has been even more relentless than Flagg was, though the current Blue Devil's competition is a heck of a lot stronger than what Flagg had to contend with. If Boozer slips even a little bit, AJ Dybantsa, JT Toppin and plenty of others will be champing at the bit to overtake him.
One crucial thing to keep in mind when it comes to National Player of the Year candidates is that team success is a major component of the criteria for consideration, as the Wooden Award winner almost always comes from a team that earns a No. 2 seed or better in the NCAA tournament.
As such, every player in our top 10 (as well as each of our honorable mentions) plays for a team that currently ranks top-28 on KenPom. And as the season progresses, that range of teams "eligible" for consideration will only shrink.
Statistics current through the start of play on Thursday, Jan. 29.
Honorable Mentions: Nate Ament, Christian Anderson, Brayden Burries, Jeremy Fears Jr., Thomas Haugh, Alex Karaban, Darryn Peterson, Labaron Philon, Tyler Tanner
10. Caleb Wilson, North Carolina AND Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas
1 of 10
Caleb Wilson
Season Stats: 19.9 PPG, 10.1 RPG, 2.8 APG, 1.6 SPG, 1.4 BPG
Signature Performance: 22 points, 16 rebounds, six assists, two blocks vs. Florida State (Dec. 30)
Previous Rank: 7
Darius Acuff Jr.
Season Stats: 20.2 PPG, 6.3 APG, 2.9 RPG, 41.4% 3PT
Signature Performance: 31 points, six assists, two blocks, two rebounds vs. LSU (Jan. 24)
Previous Rank: Honorable Mention
Though the competition is fierce, leaving either of these star freshmen out of the top 10 would be somewhat laughable.
The biggest problem for each is that the team isn't in particularly great shape. Both North Carolina and Arkansas were No. 6 seeds in our projection of the tournament field this past Tuesday morning, and Wooden Award winners almost exclusively come from No. 1 or No. 2 seeds.
Counterpoint, though: Would either the Tar Heels or the Razorbacks even have a tournament pulse right now were it not for Wilson and Acuff?
UNC's first-year phenom is averaging a double-double and anchoring one of the better frontcourt defenses in the nation. (Let's not talk about UNC's perimeter defense, though.) Wilson has scored at least 13 points in every game this season, going for at least 20 more often than not.
Meanwhile, Acuff has scored at least 17 points in 15 straight games, typically racking up at least half a dozen assists in the process. He pretty well carried the Hogs to their recent wins over LSU and Oklahoma, the latter being his third game this season with at least 18 points, nine assists and no turnovers—something that has only been done 11 times in this entire men's college basketball season, so it's slightly ludicrous that he is responsible for three of them.
If either team goes on a tear and surges back into the mix for a No. 4 seed or better, we'll be ready to put its freshman star more legitimately back into this conversation.
9. Jaden Bradley, Arizona
2 of 10
Season Stats: 14.0 PPG, 4.4 APG, 3.6 RPG, 1.9 SPG, 44.4% 3PT
Signature Performance: 26 points, three assists, three rebounds, two steals at BYU (Jan. 26)
Previous Rank: 9
As we'll discuss in a bit with Yaxel Lendeborg, it's extremely rare for someone to win National Player of the Year while averaging fewer than 17 points per game.
On top of that, here's your impossible to believe fun fact of the day: Jaden Bradley has not been named the KenPom Game MVP at any point during Arizona's quest for 40-0.
No one in the country rises to the occasion quite like Bradley does, though, seemingly always playing a huge role in the Wildcats' biggest games.
In fact, they've played eight "Tier A" games, and he has averaged 19.8 points in those contests, including 21 at UConn, 23 at UCF, 26 at BYU and 27 in the season opener against Florida.
Instead of padding his stats against cupcakes, Bradley has saved his energy for the important nights, content to let others shine against the likes of Utah Tech and Bethune-Cookman.
But let's be honest here, someone from 21-0 Arizona would be named a first-team All-American if ballots were due today. And assuming they get through these next two games against Arizona State and Oklahoma State unscathed to be sitting at 23-0 when the "I guess I'll watch college basketball now that the NFL season is officially over" crowd shows up to the party, there's going to be a groundswell of support for a Wildcat to enter the NPOY conversation.
Granted, it might be Koa Peat or Brayden Burries. But with seven consecutive Tier A games starting on Feb. 9, buckle up for the Jaden Bradley Show.
8. Joshua Jefferson, Iowa State
3 of 10
Season Stats: 17.4 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 5.2 APG, 1.6 SPG, 1.0 BPG, 40.4% 3PT
Signature Performance: 17 points, 12 assists, 10 rebounds, four steals, one block, zero turnovers vs. UCF (Jan. 20)
Previous Rank: 8
There's still a chance that Milan Momcilovic comes to be regarded as Iowa State's top candidate for National Player of the Year, leading the nation in both three-point percentage (54.1) and made threes (80).
But while Momcilovic has been king of the triples, Joshua Jefferson has become king of the triple-doubles with two already in Big 12 play against UCF and West Virginia. He also had 17 rebounds at Baylor and had a pair of games earlier this season with 10 dimes, so maybe he has another one or two left in his bag of tricks.
Notably, though, he was stifled in the loss at Kansas (12 points on 14 shots, eight rebounds, one assist and five turnovers), and the Cyclones scored their feather-in-the-cap road win over Purdue in spite of a woeful afternoon from their biggest star (11 points, four assists, two rebounds and six turnovers).
In order to be taken seriously in this race, he'll eventually need to bring the thunder against someone better than Iowa and UCF.
To that end, if Jefferson gets hot late in the season when Iowa State faces all of Kansas, Houston, BYU, Texas Tech and Arizona in the span of 17 days, he could become a stone-cold lock for first-team All-American and a serious threat to Cameron Boozer's likely stockpile of hardware.
7. Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan
4 of 10
Season Stats: 14.2 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 3.1 APG, 1.4 SPG, 1.3 BPG, 30.3% 3PT
Signature Performance: 29 points, nine assists, eight rebounds, three blocks, two steals at Maryland (Dec. 13)
Previous Rank: 4
That stat line against Maryland was preposterous. But that was the only time in the past two months that Yaxel Lendeborg has scored at least 20 in a game. And it is next to impossible to make the case for the Wooden Award while averaging just 14.2 points per game.
Only three players have ever won it while averaging fewer than 17 points per contest: Ralph Sampson in 1982 (15.8 PPG, 11.4 RPG and 3.1 BPG for a No. 1 seed), T.J. Ford in 2003 (15.0 PPG and 7.7 APG for a No. 1 seed) and Anthony Davis in 2012 (14.2 PPG, 10.4 RPG and 4.7 BPG for a No. 1 seed).
For a while, at least Lendeborg had the "best player on the best team" argument working in his favor, back in early January when the Wolverines were lapping the field in total efficiency. They've really fallen back to the pack, though, now behind Arizona and jostling with Duke for the title of second-best team.
And in that marquee win over Nebraska on Tuesday, Lendeborg was a non-factor, finishing with 10 points on 10 shots while matching season-worst marks in each of rebounds (three), assists (one), blocks (zero) and steals (zero).
Had he at least been the MVP of that one, we'd probably still find room for him in our top five. Instead, his mediocre night was maybe the biggest reason Michigan darn near lost to a short-handed Cornhuskers squad.
Opportunities abound, though. Michigan still faces Duke, Illinois and Purdue away from home, plus the two games against Michigan State, the first coming Friday night at the Breslin Center.
6. Braden Smith, Purdue
5 of 10
Season Stats: 15.1 PPG, 9.0 APG, 3.7 RPG, 1.9 SPG, 41.9% 3PT
Signature Performance: 27 points, 12 assists, three rebounds, one turnover vs. Illinois (Jan. 24)
Previous Rank: 2
Two weeks ago, it looked like a foregone conclusion that Braden Smith would break Bobby Hurley's all-time assists record. Smith was 154 behind Hurley, but averaging 9.6 per game with at least 16 games yet to come. Probably more like 20 games, though, assuming any sort of run in either the Big Ten or NCAA tournament, for which the Boilermakers were in the conversation for a No. 1 seed.
In three of his last four games, though, Smith has tallied five or fewer assists, with Purdue very uncharacteristically held below 70 points in each of those three contests.
He's still setting 'em up, but Fletcher Loyer and Co. have stopped knocking 'em down. This has resulted in Smith falling slightly off the record-setting pace and Purdue free-falling out of the No. 1 seed mix with three consecutive losses.
At this point, the Boilermakers are probably looking at a No. 4 seed, tanking our argument from two weeks ago that Smith would be hard to ignore for NPOY if he breaks Hurley's record while steering Purdue to the No. 1 overall seed. Heck, after this schneid, Purdue most likely won't even earn a double bye as a top-four team in the Big Ten tournament.
Thus, he plummets out of our top five, though we do suspect he'll get back into the mix if and when the countdown to the assists record takes center stage.
5. Kingston Flemings, Houston
6 of 10
Season Stats: 17.5 PPG, 5.4 APG, 3.4 RPG, 1.9 SPG, 40.3% 3PT
Signature Performance: 42 points, six assists, two steals, two rebounds at Texas Tech (Jan. 24)
Previous Rank: 5
Midway through conference play is typically when high-usage freshmen hit the proverbial wall.
But the only thing Kingston Flemings has been hitting lately is shot after shot.
In Wednesday night's game at TCU, Houston was tested by a bubble team in desperate need of a marquee win. With less than 12 minutes to go, it was a three-point game. But Flemings scored 13 of his 27 points during that closing stretch, keeping the Horned Frogs from ever getting over the hump and into the lead. The Cougars ended up winning by nine.
Those 27 points would have been a new career high for Flemings, had it not come one game after he lit up Texas Tech for 42 points on Saturday.
Unfortunately for Houston, it wasn't enough. Only one other Cougar (Emanuel Sharp) scored more than six points while the JT Toppin-led Red Raiders did the unthinkable in dropping 90 on Houston's always-elite defense. But Flemings gave them a chance at a marquee road win that might have vaulted them straight to the No. 1 seed line.
The Big 12 might be the best league in the country, and Flemings is merely averaging 21.6 points and 6.3 assists through seven conference games. Should be quite the fireworks show when he goes up against AJ Dybantsa next Saturday.
Between those two games, Flemings shot 23-for-42 from the field, 6-for-12 from distance and 17-for-19 from the charity stripe. He also had at least five assists in each contest, now hitting that mark in nine straight and 12 of his last 13.
4. Keaton Wagler, Illinois
7 of 10
Season Stats: 17.5 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 4.0 APG, 43.5% 3PT
Signature Performance: 46 points, four assists at Purdue (Jan. 24)
Previous Rank: Honorable Mention
We've been oscillating between National Player of the Year and National Freshman of the Year rankings on a weekly basis for a little while now. And in last week's frosh rankings, we bumped Keaton Wagler up from No. 6 to No. 3 following 10 consecutive solid performances dating back to an early December breakout performance in a win at Tennessee.
And then Saturday happened.
It's one thing to score 46 points. But for a freshman to score 46 points on 17 field-goal attempts in a road win over a top 10 Purdue was nothing short of a legendary performance.
We weren't sure how Illinois would adjust to life without point guard Kylan Boswell, who suffered a broken hand less than 10 days ago. But letting Wagler cook surely seems like a good plan, as he also went for 13 points, eight assists and seven rebounds in the Illini's rout of Maryland the day after the Boswell news broke. (Would have been considerably more points, too, if he hadn't endured a rare off night from three-point range, missing eight of his nine attempts.)
Prior to Thursday's game against Washington, Wagler had tallied at least 11 points and three assists in 12 straight games, averaging 20.1 points, 5.3 assists and 4.8 rebounds while shooting 47.1 percent from distance during that stretch. He did have a couple of stinkers in early losses to Alabama and UConn, but those feel like ancient history from what could be a first-team All-American.
3. JT Toppin, Texas Tech
8 of 10
Season Stats: 22.1 PPG, 10.9 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1.7 BPG, 1.1 SPG
Signature Performance: 35 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, three blocks, three steals at Illinois (Nov. 11)
Previous Rank: Honorable Mention
Can't imagine we're spoiling any sort of big reveal here, but the top two candidates battling for National Player of the Year are Cameron Boozer and AJ Dybantsa.
In addition to being two wildly talented freshmen, though, one major common factor linking those soon-to-be lottery picks that JT Toppin would love for you to know about is that they both suffered losses to Texas Tech.
Against Boozer and Duke, he went for 19 points and 10 rebounds in that come-from-behind win at Madison Square Garden. His committing three fouls in the first half and a fourth with more than 15 minutes remaining in regulation almost derailed the Red Raiders, but he was huge in the final 12 minutes.
Against Dybantsa and BYU, Toppin was the star, playing all 40 minutes and racking up 27 points and 13 rebounds while both shutting down Keba Keita and providing invaluable help defense on Dybantsa.
Toppin was also clearly the brightest star in his game against our No. 4 player with the above stat line at Illinois and Keaton Wagler.
And in two games against our No. 5 player, Kingston Flemings, Toppin had a combined line of 49 points, 23 rebounds, five blocks and four assists. Not too shabby.
Will it be enough for him to overcome The Year of the Freshman and win this thing?
We'd love to wait until Valentine's Day to make a call on it. That's when Texas Tech plays at Arizona, which might be sitting at 24-0 heading into the game. But if Toppin does his thing in an upset of that elite frontcourt, this race could get all sorts of fun.
2. AJ Dybantsa, BYU
9 of 10
Season Stats: 23.6 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 3.6 APG, 1.3 SPG, 31.8% 3PT
Signature Performance: 43 points, six rebounds, three assists, one block vs. Utah (Jan. 24)
Previous Rank: 3
BYU has only played two games against the other five teams in the Big 12's sextet of potential "No. 4 seed or better in the dance" squads, and he wasn't exactly great in either one, shooting a combined 12-for-41 from the field (1-for-11 from distance) in those losses to Texas Tech and Arizona.
In between those inefficient individual performances, though, Dybantsa went off for 43 points in the Holy War victory over Utah.
As tends to be the case in his best outings, there came a point in the second half where it became abundantly clear to himself and everyone in the building that the opposition had no answer for him.
There was a five-possession stretch early after the intermission in which he racked up seven points, two assists and two rebounds, jump-starting a prolonged stretch in which BYU started to pull away. Dybantsa later went on a personal 13-5 run to put the game out of reach.
Can he eventually bring the heat for a full game against a title contender, though?
Early in the year, he went for 25 against UConn and 28 against Clemson, but he was basically a ghost in the first half of both of those games before spearheading a huge comeback.
BYU is at Kansas this Saturday, hosts Houston next Saturday and still has games left against Arizona, Iowa State and Texas Tech. Plenty of opportunities remaining for a showstopper in a blockbuster—which is probably what it's going to take for him to make a real push at winning the Wooden Award.
1. Cameron Boozer, Duke
10 of 10
Season Stats: 23.5 PPG, 9.9 RPG, 4.1 APG, 1.8 SPG, 37.0% 3PT
Signature Performance: 35 points, nine rebounds, three assists, two steals vs. Arkansas (Nov. 27)
Previous Rank: 1
There's nothing flashy about Cameron Boozer's game, which is part of why the runaway favorite for NPOY is probably going to go no higher than third in the NBA draft this summer.
But he just delivers game after game after game to a degree that is uncommon for any college basketball player, let alone a true freshman.
Case in point, Boozer had 19 points, 10 rebounds and four assists in a 31-point rout of a solid Louisville team on Monday...and it legitimately may have been one of his three worst games of the season.
To be clear, it was still an impressive performance. But he shot 50 percent or worse from the field for the first time in nearly two months and shot below 60 percent from the free-throw line for just the second time all season, so it wasn't his typical efficient dominance.
That "dud" came on the heels of back-to-back gems of at least 30 points in blowouts of Stanford and Wake Forest. And that "dud" was still his 10th double-double of the season as he flirts with becoming the first ACC player to average at least 22 and 10 since Tyler Hansbrough in 2007-08.
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