NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from state of New York of last decade

1. Obi Toppin – Dayton

The cancellation of the 2020 NCAA Tournament created a plethora of what-ifs, and Toppin headlines one of the biggest ones. A 6’9 forward from Ossining, Toppin transformed himself into a national star during his sophomore season at Dayton, leading the Flyers to what likely would have been a top seed in the cancelled postseason.

As a part-time starter on a team that made the NIT, Toppin was still impressive as a freshman, averaging 14.4 points a game, but he really came into his own in that second season. Toppin helped lead Dayton to a 29-2 record, including a perfect run through A-10 play, all while averaging 20.0 points and 7.5 rebounds per game for the Flyers. He scored a career-high 31 points near the beginning of a season-ending 20-game winning streak.

Toppin was A-10 Rookie of the Year and was twice named All-Atlantic 10 First Team, but he really broke the bank for that sophomore season. He was a First Team All-American who was AP Player of the Year, winning the Karl Malone Award, the Wooden Award, and most of the major player of the year awards. Toppin was the most efficient player and most accurate shooter in the A-10 for those two seasons and could’ve made history had the pandemic not cancelled his chance at glory. A few months later, he was a lottery pick in the 2020 NBA Draft and continues to star for the New York Knicks.

We have finished our long look at the best college basketball players of the last ten years from the state of New York; were there any obvious or glaring mistakes in today’s piece or did we get the order right?