This year’s Naismith Player of the Year Award watchlist has gone through many forms, largely due to the topsy turvy nature of this college basketball season. Still, familiar names do indeed remain.
Here are our top five names in the Naismith Player of the Year Award watchlist.
His 25.8 points per game rank second nationally, helping lead the Sooners to the top spot in the AP Top 25 poll the past few weeks. But it isn’t just that he has an empty stat line that screams off the page, it’s that he’s had huge moments throughout the season. Throughout this year, where he’s hitting career highs all across the board, he’s shown up in the biggest of moments, especially on the road against Kansas, where the Sooners ultimately fell but he finished with 46 points on the night.
Uthoff is on pace to rise up the Iowa record books throughout the remainder of the year, but where he’ll ultimately finish in this race is TBD. A month ago no one was talking about him in any national award conversations, whether it be due to his relatively unfamous name or the fact that he plays for Iowa, a program that doesn’t generate serious national buzz even when it’s playing as well as anyone else in the country. Either way, Uthoff and his 18.6 points and 6.3 rebounds are firmly on this list.
Denzel Valentine, Michigan State Spartans
The early season favorite lost some momentum when he went down with an injury, but since he’s returned, MSU is slowly getting back to playing the kind of basketball that had them ranked No. 1 throughout last December. He’s still averaging 18.5 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 6.6 assists per game while helping MSU get back into the nation’s top ten.
Kris Dunn, Providence Friars
If Providence were better, as a team, than they are then he’d be much more of a competitor than he is at this point. Dunn hasn’t wowed in recent weeks like he did earlier in the season, and the Friars have suffered as a result. Though we still consider him to be the country’s best point guard, he’s not a true competitor for this award anymore.
Ben Simmons, LSU
It’s going to take a few years for us to truly appreciate the season that Simmons is putting together, I’d bet. But as of now, his team is too poor to really challenge for POY honors despite his ridiculous numbers.
