{"id":551011,"date":"2026-01-21T13:13:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T13:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/551011\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T13:13:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T13:13:17","slug":"our-player-of-the-year-predictions-for-the-10-best-mens-college-basketball-conferences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/551011\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Player of the Year predictions for the 10 best mens\u2019 college basketball conferences"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mid-January means the thick of conference play is upon us, so what better time to take an updated look at the conference Player of the Year races in the sport\u2019s 10 best leagues?<\/p>\n

Caleb Wilson, North Carolina
Ebuka Okorie<\/a>, Stanford
Boopie Miller, SMU<\/p>\n

The national Player of the Year front-runner is also very clearly the ACC Player of the Year front-runner. I suppose there\u2019s a world where Boozer\u2019s production slips dramatically (or worse, he gets hurt) and Wilson, Miller or Okorie take their game to a level even higher than it\u2019s already been, but it\u2019s hard to envision that at the moment.<\/p>\n

Assuming Boozer does bring home the league\u2019s top individual honor, he\u2019ll be the fifth Blue Devil in the last nine years to do so.<\/p>\n

Robby Avila, Saint Louis
Rafael Castro, George Washington
Javon Bennett, Dayton<\/p>\n

George Washington fans are all-in on Castro\u2019s campaign. While he certainly has more than just a puncher\u2019s chance here, I\u2019ll go with the guy who\u2019s been the best player for one of college basketball\u2019s most pleasantly surprising teams.<\/p>\n

George Mason was picked to finish sixth in the Atlantic 10 going into the season. Heading into Monday evening\u2019s showdown with GW, the Patriots are 17-1 overall with an unblemished 5-0 mark in league play. Mincy, a transfer from Presbyterian, is the biggest reason why. The remarkably consistent guard is averaging 16.6 ppg and shooting a career-best 42.6 percent from three.<\/p>\n

Kanaan Carlyle, Florida Atlantic
Tylen Riley, Tulsa
Devin Vanterpool, Florida Atlantic<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t seen Rowan Brumbaugh hoop yet, you\u2019ve got about two months left to fix that. The 6\u20194\u201d junior, who played his freshman season at Georgetown, has scored in double figures in all 22 American Conference games he\u2019s played in. He\u2019s currently averaging 18.8 ppg for a Green Wave team that figures to be near the top of the American standings for the duration of the winter.<\/p>\n

FAU might look like the strongest team in the conference, but Carlyle and Vanterpool \u2014 who are both terrific \u2014 splitting the vote should bode well for Brumbaugh\u2019s (or someone else\u2019s) chances.<\/p>\n

J.T. Toppin, Texas Tech
Christian Anderson, Texas Tech
Joshua Jefferson, Iowa State
Kingston Flemings, Houston
Jaden Bradley, Arizona<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an outrageous list right there. Every one of those guys (and maybe even a couple others) not only has a chance to bring home this award, but they have a chance to be a First Team All-American when the season wraps up.<\/p>\n

Zuby Ejiofor, St. John\u2019s
Solo Ball, UConn
Michael Ajayi, Butler<\/p>\n

This is still a pretty wide open race in a conference that doesn\u2019t feature a ton of dynamic scorers. The Karaban pick is based largely on my belief that UConn is going to run through league play and demand that someone from their squad brings home this award. If that doesn\u2019t happen then Ejiofor is the safe bet, but Ajayi \u2014 an absolute double-double machine \u2014 should get at least a little bit of love as well.<\/p>\n

\"HARTFORD,<\/a><\/p>\n

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT – JANUARY 10: Alex Karaban #11 of the Connecticut Huskies goes on the fast break against Layden Blocker #2 of the DePaul Blue Demons during the second half of an NCAA men\u2019s basketball game at PeoplesBank Arena on January 10, 2026 in Hartford, Connecticut. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n

Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan<\/p>\n

Braden Smith, Purdue
Bennett Stirtz, Iowa
Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue
Keaton Wagler, Illinois<\/p>\n

Braden Smith was everybody\u2019s preseason National Player of the Year, but he finds himself in a dogfight for the top honor in his own conference.<\/p>\n

Michigan has been the league\u2019s best team, and Lendeborg has clearly been there best player, so there\u2019s that. There\u2019s also a growing contingent of folks (though still not a majority) arguing that it\u2019s Bennett Stirtz, and not Smith, who is actually the best floor general in the Big Ten. We\u2019ll see how that debate plays out over the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t sleep on Wagler here. In a year where freshmen are lighting up the sport like never before, a kid who was ranked as the 150th best player in the class of 2025 by 247 Sports has been absolutely sensational (16.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game) for the Illini.<\/p>\n

Javon Jackson, Murray State
Tyler Lundblade, Belmont
Chase Walker, Illinois State<\/p>\n

This is an incredibly competitive mid-major race in a league where the respective fan bases are all going to have extreme opinions on which guy deserves top billing.<\/p>\n

For now, the slight edge goes to Johnson, the 5\u201911 dynamo averaging a hair under 18 points per game for Bradley. If Murray State\u2019s unexpected dominance of the league continues, however, it\u2019ll be hard to not hand the hardware to Jackson.<\/p>\n

M.J. Collins Jr., Utah State<\/p>\n

Corey Camper Jr., Nevada
Mason Falslev, Utah State
Jake Hall, New Mexico<\/p>\n

He struggled a bit in Utah State\u2019s upset loss at the hands of Grand Canyon, but M.J. Collins (20.1 ppg) has still without question been the Mountain West\u2019s top individual performer so far this season. Potentially splitting some votes with teammate Mason Falslev feels like the only major obstacle in his way at the moment.<\/p>\n

Darius Acuff, Arkansas
Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt
Thomas Haugh, Florida<\/p>\n

Throw a dart at any of these names and you could very easily be right.<\/p>\n

Tanner has been a revelation for surprising Vandy, Acuff may have played himself into being the first point guard taken in this summer\u2019s NBA Draft, and Haugh has looked like a First Team All-American during Florida\u2019s resurgence.<\/p>\n

For now, I\u2019m rolling with Philon, who is putting up explosive numbers for an Alabama team that, while inconsistent, still has the ability to beat just about any team in the country on any given night. He hasn\u2019t been held to single digits in a game so far this season, and his 21.9 ppg scoring average is the second-best in the SEC and the 10th-best in the country.<\/p>\n

\"STARKVILLE,<\/a><\/p>\n

STARKVILLE, MISSISSIPPI – JANUARY 13: Labaron Philon Jr. #0 of the Alabama Crimson Tide shoots a three point basket over Josh Hubbard #12 of the Mississippi State Bulldogs during the first half at Humphrey Coliseum on January 13, 2026 in Starkville, Mississippi. (Photo by Jason Clark\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n

Paulius Murauskas, Saint Mary\u2019s
Braden Huff, Gonzaga<\/p>\n

Huff\u2019s recent knee injury almost certainly takes him out of the running, but I\u2019m still listing him as a contender because of how good he\u2019s been so far this year, and the potential for an early return and an outrageous final month.<\/p>\n

Assuming that doesn\u2019t happen, the winner here is likely going to be the player on the team that wins the conference. Ike and Murauskas are pretty evenly matched when it comes to their on-court accomplishments thus far, meaning whichever player (and team) shines the brightest in the pair of annual rivalry showdowns between the Zags and the Gaels will probably be your WCC POY.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mid-January means the thick of conference play is upon us, so what better time to take an updated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,354,231,772,1544],"class_list":{"0":"post-551011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-mens-college-basketball","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaab"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115933270352363011","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}