For a second consecutive season, men’s college basketball is in the advantageous position of having a reigning national player of the year return to the sport.
A year ago, Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe opted to come back after his dominant 2021-22 performance. For a long time, though, it wasn’t like this. In 2008, North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough swept the national player of the year awards as a junior and opted in for his final season of college basketball. The sport was better for it then, and will be better for it this season.
For a dozen years, a NPOY winner won and said goodbye to college hoops — normally because the NPOY tends to go to a senior whose eligibility is exhausted at the culmination of his college career. (In 2021, Iowa’s Luke Garza came back, and while he did win Sporting News’ NPOY award, Obi Toppin won all other major NPOY honors that season.)
After a historically dominant showing a season ago, Purdue’s Zach Edey decided to return to school. In doing so, he became the immediate 2023-24 favorite to win national player of the year and firmed up his status as the most well-known player in college basketball. (We’ll miss ya, Drew Timme.)
It’s never an easy thing to predict in October who will be the sport’s best player by the end of March. Edey seems different, though. It would be stunning if he regressed as a basketball player, and given his 7-4 frame, he will be a stats magnet on a Purdue team that is almost universally regarded as one of the three or four best teams heading into the season.
As for the national freshman of the year, that conversation is different. You’ll read about our preseason pick below, but here’s something to consider: Due to college players being afforded a bonus year of eligibility because of COVID protocol, this sport has never been older. It’s put less of a spotlight on top-10 freshmen. Based on the past two seasons, it’s been a generation or two…
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