NCAA Basketball: Luka Garza new leader in National Player of the Year rankings

A new leader has emerged in the NCAA Basketball National Player of the Year race as the field of legitimate contenders is threatening to shrink even more.

NCAA Basketball’s National Player of the Year race is coming to a head with roughly three weeks remaining until the NCAA Tournament, leaving players with precious few remaining opportunities to make their mark.

That limited time left, plus the diminished play of several of the top contenders is threatening to thin out the group of legitimate candidates even thinner. One man has stepped forward and raised his game over the last week or two as the rest have struggled. This race as been sitting with only four or five contenders for the past month and a half, and there’s the potential that the list will be cut down to three shortly.

How do our five contenders stack up, and what do they need to do to continue to give themselves a chance moving forward? Find out in our new National Player of the Year Power Rankings.

Stats: 26.7 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 3.2 apg

Markus Howard worked his way back into the forefront of the National Player of the Year race last week, and he followed that up with one of his worst performances of the year in a loss to Creighton.

His 13-point performance was his third-lowest of the season, and the Bluejays held him scoreless in the first half. The reigning Big East Player of the Year only shot 28.6 perfect from the field while struggling with turnovers (four) and fouls (four).

There’s no doubt it was a significant hit to his candidacy, which had gained a good deal of support and momentum. Now, he doesn’t have any room for error to keep his place at the forefront of the race.

Marquette is now on a two-game losing streak with both losses coming against top 20 teams (Villanova, Creighton), which isn’t any real cause for alarm – but this can’t start spiraling on them. The Golden Eagles have five games left in the season and only one, Seton Hall, is against a ranked team. That will be Howard’s chance to really vault himself up this list, but both he and Marquette need to take care of business.

This coming week, they face Providence on the road and Georgetown at home. Both of them are bubble teams searching for a quality win to push them over the edge, and Marquette is that opportunity for each of them. Howard needs to return to form if the Golden Eagles are going to win each of those games, both of which need to happen for Howard’s candidacy to regain the momentum it lost this week.