Updated Player of the Year Rankings for College Basketball in 2016-17
We're almost seven weeks from the start of the NCAA tournament, which means we're getting down to the nitty-gritty as to which teams will get themselves in position to win it all. And a key to national title contention is having someone on the roster that's worthy of National Player of the Year honors.
Just like the possible team contenders, the pool of POY candidates is also starting to thin. Creighton's lofty goals took a major hit last week when senior point guard Maurice Watson suffered a season-ending ACL injury, the same injury that befell Indiana sophomore wing OG Anunoby. Meanwhile, Oregon junior forward Dillon Brooks is dealing with another injury to the foot that delayed the start of his 2016-17 season. His absence was a factor in two Ducks losses before the team ran off what's now 16 consecutive wins.
And another loss for Duke—this one at home, to in-state rival North Carolina State on Monday—has the perennial title-contending Blue Devils reeling. That affects their top players' chances of being named the best.
A lot can still happen before the Naismith and Wooden awards are handed out, but as of now, these are the 10 players who are in best position to get a nod (or an All-American team spot, at the very least).
10. Ethan Happ, Wisconsin
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2016-17 Stats: 13.7 PPG, 9.2 RPG, 3.0 APG, 1.9 SPG, 1.0 BPG, 60.3% FG, 52.0% FT
It was Ethan Happ's teammate, Nigel Hayes, who was tabbed as the Big Ten's Preseason Player of the Year back in October. While Hayes is putting together a good season, if any Wisconsin player is going to receive that award, it's going to be Happ. The fact they're both having strong performances is why the Badgers are 6-1 in the conference and alone in first place.
Happ had an effortless 14 points, eight rebounds and three steals in Tuesday's blowout win over Penn State, doing so in 26 minutes. That court time was normal for the 6'8” sophomore forward, who came in playing 25.8 minutes per game.
And because he's not regularly playing a full game—he's only logged 30 or more minutes in five of the Badgers' 20 contests—his overall numbers aren't as great as they could be. But using the per-40 average, things get much better: Happ entered Tuesday averaging 21.1 points and 14.3 rebounds on full-game minutes.
9. Lauri Markkanen, Arizona
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2016-17 Stats: 17.1 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 1.1 APG, 52.4% FG, 50.0% 3-pt FG, 83.5% FT
Arizona soared back into the national title picture with its 96-85 win at UCLA on Saturday, a game that saw Wildcats sophomore guard Allonzo Trier return after a 19-game suspension for failing a drug test. Once he gets up to speed, Trier should resume being one of Arizona's best and most reliable players. But for now, Lauri Markkanen holds that distinction, and he doesn't look ready to give up the crown.
The Finnish freshman forward averaged 20.5 points and 7.5 rebounds in Arizona's road sweep of the Los Angeles schools, earning him Pac-12 and U.S. Basketball Writers Association Player of the Week honors. In those victories, he made eight of his 10 three-pointers. He's shooting 61.8 percent from outside in conference play.
With 48 made threes, Markkanen is 11 away from having the most by a 7-footer in Division I history, per Jonathan Givony of Draft Express.
8. Johnathan Motley, Baylor
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2016-17 Stats: 15.7 PPG, 9.6 RPG, 2.2 APG, 1.2 BPG, 51.4% FG, 33.3% 3-pt FG, 67.0% FT
It's been more than two weeks since Johnathan Motley had one of the worst games of his career, recording only eight points along with a season-low five rebounds in Baylor's lone loss of the campaign. The 6'9” junior forward had three of the Bears' 29 turnovers against West Virginia that day, and the impact of that loss lingered with Motley in the following game when he had just seven points at Kansas State.
Motley has appeared to recover—and then some. Last week, he had 32 points and 20 rebounds, both career highs, as well as three blocks against Texas. He followed that up with 15 points and eight boards at TCU.
Pacing Baylor in scoring and rebounding, Motley is the team's unquestioned leader on the court, and he wants to get revenge against West Virginia. That won't be possible until the final week of the regular season, but before then, he and the Bears get two cracks at perennial Big 12 powerhouse Kansas, starting with the Feb. 1 clash in Lawrence.
7. Malik Monk, Kentucky
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2016-17 Stats: 21.9 PPG, 2.4 RPG, 2.4 APG, 1.2 SPG, 49.8% FG, 39.9% 3-pt FG, 82.9% FT
When Malik Monk is on, it's a thing of beauty...unless you're his opponent, as North Carolina—which watched the freshman guard score 47 in December—and many others have discovered this season. He's scored at least 20 in 12 of Kentucky's 20 games and is on pace to challenge the single-season scoring record under coach John Calipari (22.7 ppg) that Jamal Murray set a year ago.
But Monk has his bad games, as was the case in Tuesday's loss at Tennessee. He had 25 points but was just 7-of-19 from the field and made only three of 13 three-pointers. He entered that game as Kentucky's team leader from three at 41.4 percent, but he now trails backup Mychal Mulder (40.4 percent) after one of the worst performances of his career. It was reminiscent of when the 6'3” freshman was 6-of-17 overall and 1-of-9 from three in a December loss at Louisville.
Still, Monk's 61 made threes are more than any of his teammates' totals on the season.
6. Nigel Williams-Goss, Gonzaga
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2016-17 Stats: 14.5 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 4.7 APG, 1.7 SPG, 47.0% FG, 36.4% 3-pt FG, 87.5% FT
As the only remaining unbeaten team in college basketball, Gonzaga automatically gets a player onto this list. But for a team with no noticeable weaknesses, it also doesn't have that one guy it leans on more than the rest.
Nigel Williams-Goss is the closest the Bulldogs have to a go-to player, though, so he's their de facto Player of the Year candidate. And if he didn't have so much help around him, his numbers would be much better. We've seen him flash that potential, as when he had 36 points (on 12-of-15 shooting) along with 11 rebounds and six assists in a 95-80 win at San Francisco earlier this month.
A 6'3" junior guard, Williams-Goss is in his first season at Gonzaga after playing two years at Washington. He sat out 2015-16, during which he was able to observe how the Bulldogs operated in the backcourt and where they were most deficient, enabling him to fill that void this season.
5. Caleb Swanigan, Purdue
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2016-17 Stats: 18.8 PPG, 12.7 RPG, 2.8 APG, 56.2% FG, 50.0% 3-pt FG, 78.9% FT
Caleb Swanigan isn't just a double-double machine—he's college basketball's most likely player to reach both 20 points and 20 rebounds in a game. The 6'9” sophomore has hit those marks four times in 2016-17, compared to eight times for the rest of Division I's players, with none of them getting there more than once.
He had to settle for 25 points and 17 rebounds (as well as a solid win) on Tuesday as Purdue pulled out an 84-73 victory at Michigan State. Swanigan was 8-of-13 from the field and made three of four three-pointers while collecting six offensive boards.
The year-over-year improvement from Swanigan is unreal. He's already surpassed his 2015-16 totals in points, rebounds, field goals and free throws. His 21 made three-pointers have come on 42 tries, after needing 72 attempts to reach that mark a season ago. And following a 2015-16 campaign that featured nine losses and six setbacks in league play, Purdue is 17-4 overall and 6-2 in the Big Ten.
4. De'Aaron Fox, Kentucky
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2016-17 Stats: 16.2 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 5.8 APG, 1.6 SPG, 48.2% FG, 18.0% 3-pt FG, 71.1% FT
For most of this season, De'Aaron Fox has been the facilitator while fellow freshman (and Player of the Year hopeful) Malik Monk has been the scorer. And when Fox isn't able to do his job, Kentucky's offense just doesn't move as smoothly.
Look at Saturday's home win over South Carolina, for example. The 6'3" freshman guard sprained his ankle and was limited to eight minutes, and in his absence, the Wildcats struggled despite winning by 16. Without Fox, they committed 17 turnovers, tied for their most in a game this season.
Fox returned to action Tuesday and had 17 points, but he wasn't himself. His four assists were his second-fewest in SEC play, and he didn't record a rebound for the first time in his career. Not surprisingly, Kentucky lost 82-80 at Tennessee for its first conference setback.
3. Lonzo Ball, UCLA
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2016-17 Stats: 14.9 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 8.2 APG, 1.8 SPG, 54.2% FG, 43.6% 3-pt FG, 67.2% FT
UCLA fell back to Earth when it lost at home to Arizona on Saturday, yet its best player continues to rise. Lonzo Ball had a career-high 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting along with six rebounds, eight assists and two steals against the Wildcats. The 6'6” freshman point guard recognized early in that game that his teammates were struggling, and he responded by becoming more aggressive.
This has been a season-long trend for Ball, who has four 20-point games but also six with 10 or more assists. In four of those games, he took fewer than 10 shots.
"I can't remember the last time anyone—let alone a freshman—had an understanding of when the team needs him to shoot/pass quite like Lonzo," Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller tweeted during the first half. At that time, Ball had 15 points and was 6-of-9 from the field, while the rest of UCLA was 9-of-25 for 22 points.
Ball's only flaw has been his foul shooting, which might be causing him to avoid drawing contact. In the Bruins' two losses, he's only attempted three free throws, making one. He's had just two more attempts in UCLA's three single-digit wins.
2. Josh Hart, Villanova
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2016-17 Stats: 19.0 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 3.5 APG, 1.6 SPG, 53.6% FG, 42.8% 3-pt FG, 78.1% FT
He remains the best player on the nation's best team—Villanova's loss at Marquette will knock it from the No. 1 spot in the polls, but the Wildcats are still the defending national champions—and therefore Josh Hart is still high on our list.
And had the 6'5” senior guard taken the final shot against Marquette, instead of sophomore Jalen Brunson, the Wildcats might have forced overtime or won the game. Instead, Hart's 16 points and eight rebounds were in a losing effort, one that likely will cause Villanova to regroup as it did after losing earlier this season at Butler.
Hart followed up that previous loss by scoring 19 (on 8-of-13 shooting) against Marquette on Jan. 7, one of 16 games this season where he's shot at least 50 percent from the field.
1. Frank Mason, Kansas
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2016-17 Stats: 19.9 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 5.2 APG, 1.3 SPG, 51.2% FG, 52.8% 3-pt FG, 73.7% FT
Kansas' 18-game win streak ended Tuesday at West Virginia, but Frank Mason remains atop our rankings despite that loss. He still had 15 points in that game, though he needed 16 attempts to get there. It marked the first time all season the 5'11” senior guard had more shots than points.
Mason's play wasn't what caused the Jayhawks to lose their first Big 12 game of 2016-17, but he'd been influential in how they started league play. Prior to Tuesday, Mason was averaging 20.9 points and 4.6 rebounds per game in conference action, hitting 60 percent of his three-pointers.
He's going to get his points, but the two assists he logged against West Virginia are more telling. Mason only had one other game this season, a mid-January win at Iowa State, in which he failed to record at least three assists.
All statistics courtesy of Sports-Reference.com, unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information courtesy of Scout.com, unless otherwise noted.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
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