NCAA Basketball: Threats to Zion emerge in National Player of the Year race
By Brian Rauf
Zion Williamson still leads the NCAA Basketball National Player of the Year race, but a number of serious contenders have emerged. Here’s how the nation’s top players rank.
We’re less than two months away from Selection Sunday yet the hype surrounding Zion Williamson has yet to subside. If anything, it has only grown throughout the course of the season.
The talented Duke freshman is starting to run away with the National Player of the Year race thanks to his recent play. Williamson has scored at least 30 points in two of Duke’s last three games and has a double-double in five of their last six. (the only one he didn’t hit those marks in came against Florida State, a game in which he didn’t play in the second half due to an eye injury).
Throw in his highlight reel plays, Duke’s national standing, and the fact that NBA scouts are drooling over him, and it’s easy to see why Williamson has become the biggest star in the sport.
However, a number of legitimate contenders have emerged over the last few weeks that could make this race interesting before the end of the season.
Murray State freshman Ja Morant has had just as many viral dunks as Williamson this year (if not more) and Marquette’s Markus Howard already has three games with at least 45 points – including a 53-point outburst against Creighton.
Tennessee’s Grant Williams, Kansas’ Dedric Lawson, and Michigan State’s Cassius Winston are firmly in the mix by being the best players on some of the best teams in the nation, while preseason favorites like Duke’s R.J. Barrett and Wisconsin’s Ethan Happ are hanging around, too.
Many others have and will continue to emerge as this race hits the stretch run of the season, but how do the frontrunners stack up right now? Find out in our latest National Player of the Year Power Rankings.