Latest 2025-26 Men's College Basketball National Player of the Year Rankings
For all intents and purposes, the race for this year's men's college basketball Wooden Award is over. Of the sports books that haven't already stopped taking bets on who will be named the 2026 NPOY, the best line you can get on Duke's Cameron Boozer is -8000, while the shortest odds on any other player belong to BYU's AJ Dybantsa at +1700.
At this point, a bet on anyone other than Boozer is basically a bet that he'll suffer a major injury in his next game. But even that perhaps wouldn't be enough to swing the final vote.
As was the case in our last NPOY rankings article two weeks ago, though, our rationale for keeping this going is to see how close we can get to projecting the consensus first-, second- and third-team All-American teams.
Statistics current through the start of play on Thursday, Feb. 26.
Honorable Mentions: Graham Ike, Jeremy Fears Jr., Bennett Stirtz
Third-Team All-Americans
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Unofficial No. 16: TBD Connecticut Starter
You have to go back to 2019 North Carolina to find the last time a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament didn't have at least a consensus third-team All-American. And after pummeling St. John's on Wednesday, UConn is very well on its way to a No. 1 seed. We're just having a hard time deciding which of the Huskies' starters is most deserving of the honor, but will likely have that player in the top 15 in place of JT Toppin two weeks from now in our final ranking.
15. Jaden Bradley, Arizona
13.9 PPG, 4.7 APG, 3.6 RPG, 1.6 SPG, 41.2% 3PT
See: Honorable Mention above. Someone from Arizona is very likely going to be named a consensus All-American. The only question at this point is whether it ought to be Bradley or Brayden Burries. And while the freshman shooting guard is leading the team in scoring, this veteran point guard has been leading the team, period.
14. Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt
18.5 PPG, 5.2 APG, 3.5 RPG, 2.4 SPG, 37.0% 3PT
A lot of people seem to have forgotten about Tanner and Vanderbilt as the team has taken some lumps since its 16-0 start. The Commodores are still looking good for a No. 4/5 seed, though, with this diminutive breakout star leading the way. Through six games this month, Tanner is averaging 21.0 points, 5.5 assists and 2.0 turnovers.
13. Caleb Wilson, North Carolina
19.8 PPG, 9.4 RPG, 2.7 APG, 1.5 SPG, 1.4 BPG
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but it also makes the National Player of the Year argument grow weaker. Wilson has missed the last four games with a fractured hand, with latest reports being that he'll miss the next two before ideally returning for the regular season finale against Duke. If he does so and plays well, he could leapfrog back up into the Nos. 6-8 range. For now, though, we're dropping him from second-team to third-team.
12. Labaron Philon Jr., Alabama
21.3 PPG, 5.0 APG, 3.3 RPG, 1.2 SPG, 38.7% 3PT
In the wildly entertaining double overtime win over Arkansas last week, Philon went for 35 points and seven assists to will the Crimson Tide to victory. He subsequently struggled against LSU and missed Wednesday's game against Mississippi State, but he has been their rock all season long.
11. Thomas Haugh, Florida
16.9 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.0 SPG, 1.0 BPG, 33.8% 3PT
Double-double machine Rueben Chinyelu was on the verge of bypassing Haugh as the best candidate among Gators, until he amassed a combined total of just eight points and 10 rebounds over their last two games. Meanwhile, Haugh put up a 20-9-4-2-1 line in the recent road win over Ole Miss, reaffirming himself as the biggest star of this title contender.
Second-Team All-Americans
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10. JT Toppin, Texas Tech
21.8 PPG, 10.8 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1.7 BPG, 1.4 SPG
9. Christian Anderson, Texas Tech
19.6 PPG, 7.7 APG, 3.9 RPG, 1.3 SPG, 43.9% 3PT
It's tough to know what to do with this dynamic duo that is now a sensational solo act. Toppin was No. 2 in our previous rankings, which published the day before he went off for 31 points and 13 rebounds in a road win over Arizona. He suddenly had a compelling argument for winning the Wooden Award, but suffered a torn ACL three days later.
Since then, though, Anderson has thus far kept the Red Raiders on track, putting up a combined 52 points, 17 assists and 16 rebounds between the convincing wins over Kansas State and Cincinnati. If he can continue doing that in upcoming road games against Iowa State and BYU, he just might claim the first-team spot that previously had been reserved for Toppin.
8. Kingston Flemings, Houston
16.6 PPG, 5.1 APG, 3.8 RPG, 1.6 SPG, 37.9% 3PT
Flemings was our No. 5 player two weeks ago. But while he went for 55 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists in the recent gauntlet of Iowa State, Arizona and Kansas, the fact that Houston lost all three of those games—and the fact that it took him 50 field-goal attempts to get those 55 points—was enough to bump him down a couple of spots. Still a decent chance, though, that Flemings joins Marcus Sasser and Jamal Shead as the third Houston guard to be named consensus first-team AA in the past four years.
7. Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas
22.2 PPG, 6.2 APG, 3.1 RPG, 43.0% 3PT
We previously mentioned Philon's performance in last week's double OT spectacle, but Acuff was even more remarkable, playing all 50 minutes en route to 49 points, five assists and five rebounds. And while Philon has been recovering from that busy night, Acuff racked up 42 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds across the subsequent two wins over Missouri and Texas A&M. Good chance this freshman unanimously wins SEC Player of the Year, especially if he puts on another show this Saturday at Florida.
6. Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan
14.2 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 3.3 APG, 1.4 BPG, 1.2 SPG, 30.9% 3P%
Lendeborg's per-game numbers pale in comparison to most of the players in our top 14. Among Wolverines, though, he's No. 1 in points, rebounds and steals, as well as No. 2 in assists and blocks, easily the most important cog of this nine-man machine. If Michigan finishes strong with wins over Illinois, Iowa and Michigan State, first-team All-American becomes a near-certainty.
5. Joshua Jefferson, Iowa State
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Season Stats: 16.6 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 5.2 APG, 1.5 SPG, 36.1% 3PT
What Joshua Jefferson is doing this season isn't quite as absurd as when Denzel Valentine averaged 19.2 PPG, 7.8 APG and 7.5 RPG en route to splitting National Player of the Year honors with Buddy Hield in 2016. Nor does it match Evan Turner putting up 20.4 PPG, 9.2 RPG and 6.0 APG while winning all of the NPOY awards in 2010.
Still, averaging roughly 17, seven and five for a possible No. 1 seed is kind of ridiculous—as is the fact that his play hasn't generated more national buzz, but such is life for an Iowa State senior in the Year of the Freshman.
Part of the problem is that his biggest games rarely come in Iowa State's biggest games. He had 12, six and five in the win over Houston. He averaged 11.5, 6.5 and 2.5 with 3.5 turnovers between the two games against Kansas. He had 11 points, two rebounds and six giveaways in the statement win at Purdue early in the year. (The Cyclones somehow still haven't played Arizona or Texas Tech yet this season.)
However, Jefferson has scored at least 10 points in every game, including a pair of triple-doubles in January against UCF and West Virginia. And even in the Cyclones' two losses in the past month to BYU and TCU, he had a combined line of 25 points, 17 rebounds and 16 assists, doing his best to get something going in what were disappointing games for the offense.
He has been No. 2 in the KenPom POY standings for the vast majority of the season, and he's going to become a lock for first-team AA if he thrives in the upcoming games against Texas Tech and Arizona. Which, frankly, he should, as TTU no longer has JT Toppin and Arizona might be without Koa Peat.
4. Braden Smith, Purdue
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Season Stats: 14.9 PPG, 8.7 APG, 3.8 RPG, 1.9 SPG, 41.2% 3PT
Because Purdue has failed to live up to the hype as the No. 1 team in the country, Braden Smith hasn't gotten the first-team All-American hype that he arguably deserves.
It didn't help matters that he laid a six-turnover egg in that blowout loss to Iowa State barely a month into the season. Kind of feels like he has been trying to claw his way back to the top of the Big Ten POY conversation ever since then.
It also doesn't help matters that Smith isn't even leading his conference in assists per game. He's No. 2 in the nation, but he just so happens to rank second to Michigan State's Jeremy Fears Jr. in that department.
Though Smith is a much more reliable three-point shooter—and a considerably less frequent tripper of opposing players—than Fears is, something about ranking behind Fears while trying to chase the NCAA's career assists record doesn't quite compute.
Hard to argue with 15 and nine, quality defense and the occasional Herculean effort, though.
Smith had 13 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in the road win over Nebraska. It was his seventh points-assists double-double of the season, as well as his sixth game with at least 10 dimes and just one turnover.
Smith also scored 29 in the early win over Alabama, had 27 and 12 in the loss to Illinois and scored 20 second-half points in the recent near-comeback against Michigan.
When he's cooking, anything is possible.
3. Keaton Wagler, Illinois
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Season Stats: 18.2 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 4.3 APG, 42.0% 3PT
In the Illini's recent game at UCLA, they got quite the scare.
With about eight minutes left in the first half and Illinois holding a 20-point lead, Keaton Wagler went down with a left shoulder injury. He missed less than five minutes of game time before returning to finish the night with 19 points, eight rebounds and six assists, but the psyche damage was done. Illinois blew half of its big lead with Wagler out and eventually lost in overtime, unable to ever re-harness its initial fire.
Sometimes it's those games that tell you more about a player's value to his team than things like the 46-point spectacular at Purdue, the 28-point gem at Nebraska or the 34-point showing in the overtime loss to Wisconsin. But Wagler has those on his game log, too.
Since the beginning of December, Wagler has been the most valuable player in the country, at least as far as Torvik data is concerned. He has averaged 20.1 points, 5.3 assists and 4.9 rebounds in those 20 games, shooting 44 percent from three-point range.
If he had been playing like that in November, Illinois probably wins the neutral-site games against Alabama and Connecticut, in which Wagler had a combined 11 points, four rebounds, two assists and eight personal fouls in 50 minutes played.
As long as that version of Wagler doesn't suddenly show up again in March, Brad Underwood might finally get to a Final Four.
2. AJ Dybantsa, BYU
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Season Stats: 25.1 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 3.8 APG, 1.1 SPG, 36.8% 3PT
While the projected No. 1 pick in the NBA draft has become one of the biggest lightning rods for terrible hot takes in the recent history of college basketball, this projected No. 2 pick has been putting on an absolutely ridiculous show over the past month.
Thus far in February, Darryn Peterson is averaging 16.2 PPG, 2.5 RPG and 0.7 APG with one DNP in a win over the Big 12's best team.
Meanwhile, AJ Dybantsa has averaged 30.4 points, 7.9 rebounds and 4.9 assists, playing his heart out on a nightly basis while trying to keep BYU's head above water without Richie Saunders.
Dybantsa is now leading the nation in points per game, and by enough of a cushion that he could almost go scoreless in his next two games and still be in first place.
Though we've grown accustomed to freshmen doing some remarkable things during the one-and-done era, this is almost uncharted waters. The only other freshman in more than two decades to lead the nation in scoring was Trae Young doing so in 2018, with a permanent green light on an Oklahoma team that played at one of the fastest tempos in the nation.
Young averaged 40.4 points per 100 possessions, whereas Dybantsa is at 41.8.
And, if you'll recall, Young (and Oklahoma) hit a wall when the calendar flipped to February. He was averaging 30.3 points through the end of January before tapering off to 21.8 PPG the rest of the way. Dybantsa has flipped that script, going from 23.3 PPG through his first 21 games to north of 30 this month.
Preposterous stuff, without even accounting for the fact that BYU had to deal with Arizona, Houston and Iowa State this month, merely three of the eight most efficient defenses in the nation this season.
Were team success not such a big factor for NPOY, Dybantsa would at least be within plausible shouting distance of Cameron Boozer. Alas.
1. Cameron Boozer, Duke
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Season Stats: 22.7 PPG, 10.1 RPG, 4.0 APG, 1.7 SPG, 40.8% 3PT
Captain Consistency was at it again this past week.
In the high-profile, neutral-site showdown with Michigan, Cameron Boozer flirted with what would have been his first triple-double before foul trouble limited his minutes down the stretch. He still ended up with 18 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in a marquee win over Michigan.
Three days later, he had one of his most efficient performances of the season in a road demolition of Notre Dame, finishing with 24 points (on eight field-goal attempts) with 13 rebounds, three steals, two assists and no turnovers.
As has been the case in every week for a while now, that's a two-game average of 21.0 PPG, 11.5 RPG and 4.5 APG, almost exactly in line with his season averages.
He just keeps churning out these games night in and night out. Doesn't matter if Duke is facing the best team in the country or making a mockery of one of the ACC's bottom-feeders—Boozer always delivers.
That's why he has run away with all of the NPOY honors.
Boozer is just a metronome-like force who has carried what is by the slimmest of margins (+38.40 net rating to Michigan's +38.39 net rating) the No. 1 team on KenPom at the moment.
Duke has three tough games remaining against Virginia, NC State and UNC, but feel free to pencil in Boozer for around 65 points, 30 rebounds and a dozen assists amid that trio of tests. It's almost inevitable at this point.
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