NCAA basketball: Ranking the 30 Naismith award finalists
On Wednesday morning, the 30 finalists for the annual Naismith award were named. How do they rank amongst each other?
The annual Naismith award list of the top players of the country have been released late into the season. It’s a collection of the top talent, who have guided their teams to a position to make a deep run come March.
Last season, Frank Mason of the Kansas Jayhawks won the award, after guiding his team to yet another Big 12 regular season title. His replacement has Bill Self’s team in position once again, which is why he’s on this list.
Also appearing are many of the likely one-and-done players who have played up to, and even past expectations. One in particular, have shattered records and put himself in the driver sear for every top award.
But there are also seniors, who in their last season in college basketball have made the most of it, and elevated their stocks sky-high for the next level. And while most of these guys come from the power conferences, a few mid-major stars have managed to get into this conversation as well.
It what will be an impossible task, I will attempt to rank all of these players, from 30-1 in terms of impact performances, winning and value to the team. This isn’t a predictor of who will win the award, just a recognition of the players involved.
So who’s the top players in the country? And of course, who continues to be disrespected – even by myself? Find out with a top-30 rankings of the best players from the Naismith watch.