Zion Williamson remains the heavy favorite to win National Player of the Year, and the number of his legitimate challengers continues to shrink.
With less than a month to go until Selection Sunday, the NCAA Basketball National Player of the Year race has hit the stretch run, which means it’s time to shrink the field of legitimate contenders even more.
Zion Williamson remains the clear leader in this race after months of occupying the top spot. As such, he has set the bar on how high someone else is going to have to go to beat him – and there are only a few people who are still capable of reaching that bar. We have eliminated many quality players because, even if they tear it up over the final three weeks of the year, would only then emerge as a challenger to Zion.
This race is no longer about people who can simply challenge for the award. It’s about narrowing it down to people who can actually win.
Cassius Winston, who was No. 3 in our last rankings, is now out following Michigan State’s struggles. R.J. Barrett, Williamson’s teammate at Duke, has been great but doesn’t seem to have enough to emerge as the best Blue Devil. Dedric Lawson won’t win due to the (relative) struggles for Kansas and the fact they might not win the Big 12. Both Rui Hachimura and Brandon Clarke cancel each other out somewhat. And Carsen Edwards only had a real chance when it looked like Purdue would win the Big Ten.
Again, all of these players are great and will be All-Americans. But this list is for the very best of the best, and we’re down the final five right now.
So, without further ado, here are the players that did make the cut and still pose somewhat of a challenge to Zion.