10 CBB Stars Who Can Take Over the 2026 Men's NCAA Tournament
The 2025-26 men's college basketball regular season has been arguably the most entertaining one in at least a decade.
But we all know that the NCAA tournament is where legends are etched in stone.
With that in mind, who are the players most likely to take over the upcoming iteration of March Madness?
From "Mid-Major Sensation" to "Windex Specialist," "Obligatory UConn Star" and plenty more in between, we've nominated 10 of the top candidates to cement their legacy in the Big Dance.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics are current through the start of play on Wednesday, Feb. 18.
The Nation's Leading Scorer: AJ Dybantsa, BYU
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Season Stats: 24.4 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 3.8 APG, 1.2 SPG, 35.9% 3PT
BYU's tournament ceiling took a major hit on Saturday when Richie Saunders suffered a season-ending ACL tear. He was one of three Cougars averaging at least 18 points per game, but also one of just three Cougars averaging at least eight points per game.
They do still have AJ Dybantsa, though, whose permanent green light turned an even darker shade of green in an instant.
The freshman superstar had already scored 36 in a game twice in his first three games of February, this after lighting up Utah for 43 points in late January. And though he struggled from the field after Saunders' injury, Dybantsa still finished that overtime victory over Colorado with 20 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists, and three steals (and seven turnovers).
For BYU to go on any sort of run in the tournament, he's probably going to need to do quite the impersonation of Hercules.
But remember back in 2008 when Stephen Curry averaged 34.3 points in leading Davidson to back-to-back-to-back upsets in the dance?
Dybantsa could do that.
The Windex Specialist: Rueben Chinyelu, Florida
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Season Stats: 11.8 PPG, 12.0 RPG, 1.0 BPG
In Tuesday night's win over South Carolina, Florida big man Rueben Chinyelu went for 15 points and 17 rebounds. It was his 16th double-double of the season, with the Gators sitting at a perfect 16-0 in those games.
By no means is Chinyelu a Zach Edey-type of dominant double-double machine. That dude averaged 23.8 points per game over his final two seasons, while Chinyelu has yet to score more than 20 in a game in his three-year college career.
But we can probably mention him in the same breath as Oscar Tshiebwe at this point.
Florida's star only plays about 24 minutes per game, but he's averaging 19.4 points and 19.7 rebounds per 40 minutes—on par with Tshiebwe's marks of 20.7 and 17.6, respectively, in his two seasons with Kentucky.
And though Tshiebwe only played in three tournament games, never getting a chance to become the star of March Madness amid Kentucky's failures, he did average 21.0 points and 19.7 rebounds in those three games, really putting on a show against teams who simply weren't prepared to deal with his physicality and tenacity in the paint.
Chinyelu could do something similar during an actual tournament run for Florida.
The Do-It-All Freshman Lead Guards: Kingston Flemings, Keaton Wagler and Darius Acuff Jr.
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Kingston Flemings Season Stats: 16.6 PPG, 5.3 APG, 3.7 RPG, 1.7 SPG, 38.8% 3PT
Keaton Wagler Season Stats: 18.5 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 4.3 APG, 43.2% 3PT
Darius Acuff Jr. Season Stats: 21.2 PPG, 6.3 APG, 2.9 RPG, 43.2% 3PT
Any one of these three lottery-bound freshmen could turn the NCAA tournament into their personal playground.
Flemings has had a few lackluster performances in recent weeks, but only in games where Houston didn't really need him to play a big role. Between the games against Iowa State, BYU, and UCF this month, though, he averaged 20 points and five assists, almost willing the Cougars to a road win at Hilton Coliseum.
Wagler was already quite good before Illinois had to adjust to life without Kylan Boswell for a few weeks, but Wagler discovered a different gear during that seven-game stretch, averaging 24.6 points and 5.7 assists. He had one brutal shooting night at Michigan State, but he went for 28 at Nebraska, 34 against Wisconsin, and 46 at Purdue.
But Acuff might be the scariest of the bunch, averaging 22.6 points and 6.9 assists per game for Arkansas dating back to Thanksgiving. No one has been able to even remotely figure out how to slow him down, and if you had to choose just one player liable to replicate some Kemba Walker magic 15 years later, Acuff would be a darn good pick.
The Mid-Major Sensation: Robbie Avila, Saint Louis
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Season Stats: 12.7 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 4.3 APG, 41.4% 3PT
Compared to averaging 32.5 minutes, 17.3 points, and 6.7 rebounds per game over the past two seasons, it appears as though Robbie Avila has taken a sizable step backward in his senior season.
Really, though, that's a product of a supporting cast that is much deeper than what he had in the past, as the Billikens have a nine-man rotation that could go on a multiple-weekend run in the dance.
Avila is still the star of the show, playing more efficiently than he did when he became a cult hero at Indiana State two years ago. He's a better three-point shooter, a more willing passer, and he has just about perfected the art of never getting into foul trouble.
And if SLU wins even one game in the NCAA tournament, you better believe there's a subset of college basketball fans that has been waiting 700 days for a bit of Larry Nerd in March Madness, ever since the Sycamores were denied a bid in 2024. It would be a bit of a Cinderella story in which we already know the main character.
The Soon-to-Be No. 1 Pick in the Draft: Darryn Peterson, Kansas
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Season Stats: 19.8 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 1.6 APG, 1.2 SPG, 41.3% 3PT
Insert the obligatory "If he even plays" commentary here, as well as the Ewing Theory-style observation that two of Kansas' best wins (Arizona and Tennessee) came without Darryn Peterson, while its two worst losses (West Virginia and UCF) came on afternoons when he was in the lineup.
But even the conspiracy theorists and haters alike have to know that Peterson is one of the likeliest candidates to take over the NCAA tournament, right?
His game-tying and game-winning triples earlier this month at Texas Tech were a fantastic reminder of why Peterson is still projected to be drafted No. 1 overall in a few months, even as we frustratingly wait for him to string together a handful of games at anything close to full health.
If he gets there, though?
If Peterson plays in every Jayhawks game the rest of the way and doesn't appear to have any limitations heading into the dance?
At that point, the sky's the limit.
The Obligatory UConn Pick: Silas Demary Jr., Connecticut
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Season Stats: 11.3 PPG, 6.4 APG, 4.6 RPG, 1.7 SPG, 45.8% 3PT
Over the past three decades, Connecticut has won twice as many national championships as the next closest program, with guys like Richard Hamilton, Ben Gordon, Kemba Walker, Shabazz Napier, and Tristen Newton putting the team on their back.
Basically, not including a Husky as a candidate to take over the NCAA Tournament would invalidate the entire list, since it happens so frequently.
From this year's team, you could make the case for any of the five primary starters, each of whom is averaging at least 11 points per game.
But it's the point guard who leads the team in assists, steals, and three-point percentage who seems most likely to go on a heater that we can't stop talking about.
Back in December, it would've been madness to put Silas Demary Jr. in this spot. He averaged 5.4 points and 5.9 assists per game that month. Over his last 11 games, however, he's at 14.4 assists and 7.4 assists per game, shooting 52.8 percent from downtown and averaging two steals per night.
The big question is ball security, as his nine turnovers in the loss to St. John's were maybe the biggest reason Connecticut has suffered a loss in the past three months. But when Demary keeps the giveaways to a minimum, he can take over any game.
The Runaway National Player of the Year: Cameron Boozer, Duke
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Season Stats: 22.8 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 3.9 APG, 1.7 SPG, 39.4% 3PT
You're not going to find a much better candidate to take over the tournament than the guy who took over the regular season. Cameron Boozer is headed for all of the National Player of the Year hardware, and he may well ensure that Duke completes the championship mission that it couldn't with Zion Williamson or Cooper Flagg.
However, one plausible argument against expecting Boozer to be the shiniest star of the dance is how "ho hum" his nightly dominance has become.
At this point, we just pencil him in for somewhere around 20 points and 10 rebounds with a few assists in every single game, because it's what he has been doing all season long.
But while he hasn't scored fewer than 17 in a game since before Thanksgiving, Boozer also has gone for 30 or more points just twice since the beginning of December.
Something like 22, 10, and four for six straight wins would surely qualify as taking over the tournament, but in much more of a "Welp, Boozer did his thing yet again" sort of way than a "Dude, did you see Boozer's 40 burger last night?!" sort of way.
Basically, with Boozer, it's more likely to be a slow burn than one or two inferno performances. But there's a solid chance it happens.
The Veteran Who Has Had Enough of the 'Year of the Freshman': Braden Smith, Purdue
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Season Stats: 14.9 PPG, 8.8 APG, 3.8 RPG, 1.8 SPG, 41.1% 3PT
Well, the original plan here was to wax poetic about JT Toppin as the possible anchor of a national championship run for Texas Tech. Sadly, though, that double-double machine suffered a torn ACL in Tuesday night's loss to Arizona State.
In his place, Braden Smith is now the senior most likely to take over a tournament that maybe should be dominated by freshmen this year.
Of course, there always was a good chance that Smith would generate a ton of buzz on his quest to become the NCAA's all-time leader in career assists.
He's currently up to No. 5 on the list with 986 dimes, 90 shy of tying Bobby Hurley for No. 1. He has five regular season games remaining, which should get him another 44 assists, if he maintains his season average. And from there, we'll see how many additional games Purdue plays between the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments.
Should the Boilermakers make it through the first few games of the dance, there's a non-zero chance he breaks the record on a game-winning bucket that sends Purdue back to the Final Four.
Think a scenario like that might get a little bit of national attention?
Even independent of the record, though, Smith can take a game over darn near by himself. He scored 20 second-half points in Tuesday night's loss to Michigan, and he went for 13 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds with just one turnover in Purdue's recent marquee win at Nebraska.
