NCAA Basketball: Most important player on each top-25 team for 2022-23 season

14. Tennessee Volunteers – Olivier Nkamhoua

Even if five-star freshman forward Julian Phillips plays some undersized power forward this upcoming season, the Vols’ frontcourt will be fairly thin overall. The bigs includes Jonas Aidoo, Uroš Plavšić, and Olivier Nkamhoua. Of the trio, Nkamhoua is the one with the most potential, showing that last season before injuries slowed them down.

When healthy and starting in the frontcourt, Nkamhoua was averaging around14.0 ppg and 7.0 rpg last season. If he can produce numbers like that throughout an entire year, Tennessee will be a big threat in the SEC. There’s a lot of offensive talent in the backcourt but the frontcourt has more question marks. A big year from the junior forward can alleviate that.

13. TCU Horned Frogs – Eddie Lampkin

The Frogs return almost all of their roster from last season, led by guards, Mike Miles and Damion Baugh. It’s hard to see a breakout candidate and someone that can improve so much but one guy to watch is the center Lampkin, who averaged 6.8 ppg and 6.2 rpg in 22 mpg. The 6’11 big man was an afterthought on the national level but had 20 points and 14 rebounds in the team’s near upset over No. 1 seed Arizona in the NCAA Tournament.

Lampkin is a good rebounder and defender and with more of an offensive role can become one of the best bigs in the Big 12. Plus, an improved game from him raises the collective ceiling for TCU this upcoming season. He’s the one returning player that can still grow and the Horned Frogs will need that from him.