NEC Basketball: Ranking of 25 best players from last decade (2013-23)

College basketball has changed drastically over the years, but the sport is more or less the same as a century ago. Each team scores points and makes memories, with thousands of coaches and players building their legacies in this sport. Those players we all remember made their legacies stand out on the national stage, but there have been so many other stories told in this game.

In this series, we’ve been doing our part in telling some of those stories. This series has been looking at the best players of the last ten years from each of the current athletic conferences in the country. While conference realignment is drastically changing the face of college sports, it doesn’t take away from the accomplishments and incredible work in every league in the country, even the ones that fly under the radar.

We’re not looking at the ACC or the SEC or a major conference today; our focus is solely on NEC Basketball. It’s easy to call this league a low major, but it’s even easier to ignore some of the talent that’s come out of this conference. Programs like North Carolina Central and Norfolk State have had great success in recent years and there have honestly been impressive young men writing their own stories at every school in this league. The NEC champion rarely has a great seed in the Big Dance or a great record, but they usually have some great players in the fold.

Each player in today’s piece played in the last ten seasons. All they had to do to qualify for the piece was to play in that time span, though they could’ve certainly had time prior to 2013 or in another conference. What’s important to remember is that only those seasons in the NEC in the last ten years will be considered for today’s rankings, though we’ll do our best to at least mention where some transfers came from or ended up. Without further ado, let’s start getting through these names from the NEC.