NCAA Basketball: Zion still leads Player of the Year race despite injury

By Brian Rauf | Mar 2, 2019

SOUTH BEND, IN - JANUARY 28: Zion Williamson #1 of the Duke Blue Devils reacts after scoring a basket and drawing a foul against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the second half of the game at Purcell Pavilion on January 28, 2019 in South Bend, Indiana. Duke won 83-61. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA – FEBRUARY 05: Zion Williamson #1 of the Duke Blue Devils rebounds against the Boston College Eagles during their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on February 05, 2019 in Durham, North Carolina. Duke won 80-55. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /

There are only a couple of games left in the regular season and four players remain as finalists for National Player of the Year. Here are the current standings.

March is here and, as the NCAA Basketball season comes to a close, time is running out for players to make their mark in the National Player of the Year race.

Zion Williamson has been the heavy favorite all season, yet the sprained knee he suffered against North Carolina opened the door for others to potentially claim the top spot on this list while he was out.

That hasn’t happened.

Tennessee’s Grant Williams was thought to be Zion’s biggest challenger before the Vols’ struggles over the past few weeks. Williams looked relatively average in losses to Kentucky and LSU, and then was not his dominant self in closer-than-expected victories over Vanderbilt and Ole Miss. Kentucky’s P.J. Washington may have unseat Williams as the favorite to win SEC Player of the Year, but Williams is still hanging around in the national picture.

That opened the door for Marquette’s Markus Howard, who has maintained a very high level of play all year. However, their loss to Villanova this week quelled a lot of the National Player of the Year talk surrounding him. He’s a lock to be the Big East Player of the Year but will need to go on an insane run to close the regular season to unseat Williamson.

Last time we cut the list to only five, and those three are the only players who return to this list as Ethan Happ and Ja Morant have fallen out of the race. Wisconsin’s recent play – including a loss to Indiana – has taken him out of the running while Morant, while still a projected top three pick in the NBA Draft, has not had the moments needed to keep him in the race.

However, one player who was not on the list last week has entered the fray as I believe there are four finalists for the award. Find out who that is and how those four players stack up in this week’s National Player of the Year Power Rankings.

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