Choosing Player of the Year for Every Conference in 2023-24 Men's College Basketball (2024)

Selection Sunday for the 2024 men's NCAA tournament is roughly 10 days away, which means we are fully entrenched in the most confusing portion of the season: Some leagues are knees deep in their conference tournaments while others are still wrapping up their regular seasons.

This also means that some leagues have already declared a Conference Player of the Year while others won't be doing so for another few days.

But rather than the drip-drab of 32 POY announcements spread out over the course of a week or more, here's all of them all at once.

No, these aren't the official POYs. (Well, some of them are, and where that is the case, we'll note the actual winner and whether or not we agree with the decision*.) These are simply our picks for each league. But most of them will be the winners.

We'll start with the 20 conferences whose POY will only be participating in the NCAA tournament if they first win their conference tournaments. Those 20 leagues are broken into four groups of five and presented in alphabetical order. After that, it's the five potential multi-bid leagues, followed by the seven definitely multi-bid leagues, with more real estate dedicated to those bigger conferences. (We'll also venture a guess at the full All-Conference first team for each of those seven leagues.)

Unless otherwise noted, statistics are current through the start of play Thursday.

*Selections were made on Sunday, the first draft of this was finished Tuesday morning and it wasn't until Thursday morning that I checked to see which conferences already announced a POY. Leagues with a ^ symbol have already announced their POY.

America East: Clarence Daniels, New Hampshire—Vermont won this league by a multiple-game margin, but the Catamounts have quality depth as opposed to star power. Maybe TJ Long wins AE POY as the best team's leading scorer, but give us the big man from the neighboring state who led the conference in scoring (19.6 PPG) and darn near led the league in rebounding, too (9.3 RPG).

^Atlantic Sun: Isaiah Cozart, Eastern Kentucky—We won't see him in the NCAA tournament because EKU got bounced by Jacksonville in the ASun quarters, but Cozart could have caused some problems for a No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the Dance. He averaged 15.6 points, 10.0 rebounds and 3.9 blocks per game, falling just shy of becoming the first 15-10-4 guy since Emeka Okafor two decades ago.

Big Sky: Dillon Jones, Weber State—Speaking of "first since" statistical marvels, both Jones and soon-to-be-discussed Vonterius Woolbright are in uncharted territory, averaging 20 points, 10 rebounds and five assists per game. Jones wasn't in that club until putting up a combined 51 points, 37 rebounds and 16 assists in span of home wins over Northern Colorado and Northern Arizona last week. He could be gearing up for something extra special.

^Big South: Drew Pember, UNC Asheville—Just another year at the office for Pember, who was also named Big South POY in 2022-23. Most of his numbers are down slightly from last season, but hard to argue with 20.4 PPG, 7.9 RPG, 3.4 APG and 1.9 BPG. Also virtually impossible to argue that anyone in this league has been more valuable.

Big West: Elijah Pepper, UC Davis—Similar to Vermont's situation in the America East, UC Irvine is going to win the league but simply doesn't have a clear BW POY candidate in its deep stable of contributors. But after three consecutive years on the All-Big West team, Pepper could get over the hump and land atop that POY ballot. He is leading the league in both points and steals and has been one of the best free-throw shooters in the nation at 91.5 percent.

Coastal Athletic Association: Tyler Thomas, Hofstra—We try to be impartial and not root for anything, but unless you have ties elsewhere in this league, how could you not be pulling for Hofstra in the CAA tournament so we can get Thomas into the Dance? The Pride's pride and joy is averaging north of 22 points per game while attempting more than 10 threes per contest. He almost never comes out of the game and has a permanent green light. It's so much fun to watch.

Conference USA: Daniel Batcho, Louisiana Tech—Perhaps teammate Isaiah Crawford gets this honor instead, but this transfer from Texas Tech has been both literally and figuratively huge for the Bulldogs, averaging 14.5 points, 9.9 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game. It's almost entirely because of him that they lead the nation in two-point defense.

^Horizon League: Trey Townsend, Oakland—This one was wide open to debate. Tristan Enaruna and BJ Freeman are both averaging north of 20 points and six rebounds per game. D.J. Burns is on the short list of players in the nation averaging a double-double. But in a close call, we agree with the decision to go with the top player on the league champ, which is Townsend. He carries averages of 16.6 points, 7.6 rebounds and 3.0 assists into the Horizon tourney.

Ivy League: Caden Pierce, Princeton—With a tip of the cap to Harvard's Malik Mack as one of the only freshmen even remotely in the conversation for a conference POY, I have to go with either Xaivian Lee or Caden Pierce, who have co-carried Princeton to the top of the Ivy League standings. It honestly might come down to who plays better in the season finale against Penn this Saturday.

Metro Atlantic Athletic: Jalen Leach, Fairfield—If Quinnipiac ends up finishing multiple games ahead of Fairfield, this one probably instead goes to the Bobcats' Matt Balanc, who is averaging more points per game (18.4) than Leach (16.3). But Leach is making more of an overall impact on both ends of the floor for the Stags, racking up a good number of assists and steals while also shooting nearly 40 percent from distance.

Mid-Atlantic: Enrique Freeman, Akron—For the majority of these picks, there is a reasonable argument to be made for a different player. But with all due respect to the rest of the MAC, this one is about as open and shut as it gets. Freeman is averaging 18.2 points and 12.9 rebounds for an Akron team that is likely going to win the league outright. I'm sure he won't be, but he could be a third-team All-American.

Mid-Eastern Athletic: Jamarii Thomas, Norfolk State—Thomas is already north of 500 points, 100 rebounds, 100 assists and 50 steals for the season, and he might end up with more than 200 made free throws with how often he gets to and converts from the charity stripe. He's not quite the stat-sheet stuffer that R.J. Cole was for Howard back in 2018-19, but he is equally important to the cause of an even better team.

^Northeast: Jordan Derkack, Merrimack—CCSU edged out Merrimack for the No. 1 seed in the NEC tournament, but Derkack led the league in scoring (17.8 PPG), finished second in steals (2.1 SPG) and ranks second in assists (3.9 APG). If the NEC is going to produce another Fairleigh Dickinson-level miracle in this year's Dance, Derkack will surely play a massive part in it.

^Ohio Valley: Riley Minix, Morehead State—Like Freeman at Akron, Minix has been a double-double machine for Morehead State. Over his final nine regular-season games, he averaged 24.4 points and 12.4 rebounds with a double-double in each game. If Morehead State wins the OVC, gets a No. 15 seed and draws Marquette in the first round, get your popcorn ready.

^Patriot: Braeden Smith, Colgate—The Raiders dominated Patriot League play, winning the league by a staggering six-game margin. And the star of that squad has been this 6'0" point guard. Smith is leading the team in points (12.2), assists (5.8) and steals (1.9) and impressively ranks second in rebounds (5.2) despite his limited size.

^Southern: Vonterius Woolbright, Western Carolina—Woolbright was already going to win this one, but he really sealed the deal by closing out the regular season with back-to-back triple-doubles—his fourth and fifth of the year. WCU's do-it-all star is averaging a Ben Simmons-like 21.4 points, 12.1 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game and has done almost all of his scoring damage from inside the arc, even though he's a 6'5" guard.

Southland: Shahada Wells, McNeese State—Shouldn't be any debate here. McNeese State is clearly the best team in the Southland, and this transfer from TCU is clearly its most valuable player. Wells is leading the Cowboys in points, assists and steals, each by a wide margin.

Summit League: Tommy Bruner, Denver—It's not often that a player from a 6-10 team (15-16 overall) can make a compelling case for conference POY, but it's also not often that a player from a 6-10 team is leading the nation in scoring. That's the case with Bruner, even after inexplicably closing out the regular season with a scoreless performance in a loss to St. Thomas. He's still sitting at 24.5 points per game, slightly ahead of Purdue's Zach Edey atop that leaderboard.

Southwestern Athletic: Ken Evans, Jackson State—If Southern's Tai'Reon Joseph had been able to stay healthy, he probably wins this one easily. But Evans is plenty deserving, going for a game-high 22 in the November upset of Missouri and averaging better than 18 points, five rebounds and three assists per game.

Western Athletic: Tyon Grant-Foster, Grand Canyon—GCU was going to be good even if it didn't get much of anything out of Grant-Foster—who missed all of last season and all but 15 minutes of the previous season following a life-threatening health issue while at DePaul. But he has been sensational for the 'Lopes, ranking top three on the roster in each of points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals.

American Athletic: Johnell Davis, Florida Atlantic—If the vote is split between FAU's Davis and Vladislav Goldin, maybe Memphis' David Jones could "steal" it as the league leader in both points and steals. But Nelly Davis has taken over so many games this season—most notably the double-OT victory over Arizona—that it feels like he's still the pick, even after a relatively inefficient run through February while the Owls slipped toward the bubble.

Atlantic-10: DaRon Holmes II, Dayton—With a shoutout to Jordan King having a great season as Richmond's leader, this one isn't a difficult call in the slightest. Holmes is going to get quite a bit of consideration for the All-American team for the work he has done as Mr. Everything for a team that spent a good chunk of the season in the AP Top 25. You could make the case that he has been even more indispensable to the Flyers than Zach Edey has been to Purdue.

^Missouri Valley: Tucker DeVries, Drake—Thought this one might go to Indiana State's Robbie Avila as by far the most nationally recognizable player in the conference, but no real qualms with DeVries winning for a second consecutive year. Drake's star has averaged 24.6 points over his last 16 games, including a 39-point, 13-rebound, seven-assist effort in the recent triple-OT win over UIC to keep hope alive for an at-large bid.

^Sun Belt: Terrence Edwards Jr., James Madison—This one was already announced earlier in the week, but it was going to be our pick anyway. Edwards got a lot of love right off the bat with his 24-point performance in JMU's road win over Michigan State, and he went on to lead the Sun Belt in scoring.

^West Coast: Augustas Marciulionis, Saint Mary's—Of the 10 that have been announced thus far, this is the only one I chose incorrectly, thinking that Graham Ike's remarkable finish (seven straight games of 20+ points) would be enough for the Gonzaga big man to get this hardware. But Marciulionis is totally deserving as the heart and soul of a Gaels team that almost ran the table in WCC play. With a strong run in the Dance, he might even supplant Matthew Dellavedova atop the all-time list of Saint Mary's point guards with names that are fun to say.

ACC POY: RJ Davis, North Carolina (21.5 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 3.5 APG, 1.3 SPG, 41.7% 3PT)

Of these seven definite multi-bid leagues that we're addressing one by one, the ACC is the toughest call of the bunch, as there is still a massive unknown in play: Saturday's UNC-Duke showdown.

With much love to Clemson's PJ Hall, this one is a tossup between Duke's Kyle Filipowski and UNC's RJ Davis. The Tar Heel is definitely-but-marginally in the lead at the moment, but that could change if he has a dud and/or the Blue Devil goes off in a win this weekend.

After all, that game will carry more weight than most, as it will be freshest in the minds of the voters when making their decision.

For now, though, it is Davis' award to lose.

At 21.5 points per game, he's the first ACC player at 20 or better since Duke's Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett both averaged 22.6 PPG in 2018-19. It also makes Davis the first UNC player north of 20 since Tyler Hansbrough in 2008-09.

After three years stuck in the combined shadow of Armando Bacot and Caleb Love, Davis has blossomed into an elite scorer. I declared back in early December that he was going to be this year's Buddy Hield, and he was only shooting 36.4 percent from distance at the time. He's at 44.2 percent in the 22 games since then, including that unforgettable 42-point game against Miami in which he shot 7-for-11 from distance.

It's possible that game sealed the deal here.

The rest of the All-ACC First Team:

Kyle Filipowski, Duke

PJ Hall, Clemson

Hunter Sallis, Wake Forest

Armando Bacot, North Carolina

Big 12 POY: Jamal Shead, Houston (13.2 PPG, 6.2 APG, 3.8 RPG, 2.3 SPG, 32.4% 3PT)

For the first half of the season, Jamal Shead seemed content with being a facilitator of Houston's offense. He was barely one of five double-digit scorers on last year's team (10.5 PPG) and was happy to let LJ Cryer slide into what had been Marcus Sasser's role as the primary scorer.

But during/after the back-to-back losses to Iowa State and TCU in mid-January, Shead's mentality shifted. With Cryer struggling mightily in each of those games, it became more clear than ever that there weren't as many offensive weapons on this year's team and that Shead was going to need to shoulder a heavier load if the Cougars were going to live up to the hype of being the best team in the country.

After averaging 10.1 points in his first 16 games, he averaged 16.9 points in his next 14, most notably doing much more purposeful driving, transforming from a guy who made 11 free throws in his first 16 games combined to one who made 12 freebies just in the rematch with Iowa State.

That game against the Cyclones was one of four times in the past seven weeks that Shead scored at least 23 points, during which team he blew right by the Kansas tandem of Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar Jr. who previously looked like options 1A and 1B for Big 12 POY.

The Rest of the All-Big 12 First Team:

Hunter Dickinson, Kansas

Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State

Max Abmas, Texas

Kevin McCullar Jr., Kansas

Big East POY: Tristen Newton, Connecticut (15.1 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 5.9 APG, 1.0 SPG, 31.8% 3PT)

This race took a pretty serious turn in the past few weeks.

It looked like Tyler Kolek was gearing up to run away with it. He was such an unstoppable force during Marquette's eight-game winning streak that there was an argument to be made he should be first runner-up to Zach Edey in the race for National Player of the Year.

But he struggled in the blowout loss at Connecticut. Then he suffered an oblique injury that will cause him to miss at least the final three games of the regular season. And now it's pretty clear that Big East POY needs to go to UConn's do-it-all point guard.

Tristen Newton maybe would have won this award anyway, especially if the Huskies managed to sweep the Golden Eagles and win the conference by a four-game margin. Because even though Kolek was looking like the pick, by no means was Newton a "best player from the best team with no other great argument for the award" type of option.

If he gets enough assists to get back up to 15 PPG, 7.0 RPG and 6.0 APG, Newton would become just the sixth player in the past 32 seasons to hit those marks while playing in at least 25 games, joining Penny Hardaway, Luke Walton, Kyle Collinsworth, Denzel Valentine and Jalen Pickett in that exclusive club.

We do wish he was a little more efficient as a shooter, considering he takes more shots than anyone on the roster. But we've already seen Newton play a key role for a national champion once and he's probably going to do it again.

The Rest of the All-Big East First Team:

Tyler Kolek, Marquette

Baylor Scheierman, Creighton

Devin Carter, Providence

Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton

Big Ten POY: Zach Edey, Purdue (24.1 PPG, 11.7 RPG, 2.2 BPG, 1.9 APG)

Respectfully, if you need any help being convinced that Zach Edey is the National Player of the Year—let alone the Big Ten POY—there might be something wrong with your medulla oblongata.

There was a point in the first half of January where it looked like Edey juuuuuust might leave the door open enough for someone else to swoop in and steal the NPOY trophy.

Through his first 16 games, Edey was averaging 21.8 points and 10.4 rebounds. Impressive marks, to be sure, but a step below his 22.3 and 12.9 averages from the previous season. And if we learned anything from Lamar Jackson not winning a second Heisman Trophy in college football a few years back, it's that voters will be reluctant to crown a player in back-to-back years if there's even a tiny drop in production.

Since the loss to Nebraska on Jan. 9, though, Edey has been a freight train, averaging 26.8 points and 13.1 rebounds, going for at least 30 points in six of those 14 games while recording a double-double in all but two of them.

He has also averaged more than 12 free-throw attempts per game during that stretch, which is lunacy. The single-season record for free-throw attempts belongs to Furman's Frank Selvy with 444 in 1953-54. And if Purdue plays in 40 games, Edey is on pace for around 440.

At the very least, Edey (currently at 323) is probably going to bypass Tyler Hansbrough (377 in 2007-08) for the title of most free throws in a season since Pete Maravich got to 436 in 1970—provided Purdue doesn't immediately lose to a No. 16 seed again.

The Rest of the All-Big Ten First Team:

Boo Buie, Northwestern

Jahmir Young, Maryland

Braden Smith, Purdue

Terrence Shannon Jr., Illinois (or teammate Coleman Hawkins if the voters are reluctant to recognize Shannon in light of his midseason suspension)

MWC POY: Jaedon LeDee, San Diego State (20.5 PPG, 8.3 RPG, 1.3 APG, 1.2 SPG, 38.9% 3PT)

Trying to put together a first-team ballot in this conference loaded with veteran stars is going to be a serious challenge, but there's really no debate about who deserves MWC POY.

After reaching last year's national championship game, San Diego State lost an awful lot. Leading scorer Matt Bradley, primary big man Nathan Mensah and key reserves Adam Seiko and Aguek Arop all exhausted their eligibility, and Keshad Johnson transferred to Arizona.

For the Aztecs to have any hope of repeating, someone—possibly several someones—would need to step up in a huge way.

And Jaedon LeDee rose to the occasion and then some, leading the Aztecs to the brink of what might be a split of the conference's regular-season title.

After scoring a combined total of 601 points in his first four seasons of college hoops, LeDee was this year's breakout sensation, sitting at 594 points and counting in his super senior season.

In emerging as the Mountain West's leading scorer and one of its top five rebounders, LeDee has put up at least 12 points in every game and has 11 double-doubles for the year.

Throughout last year's tournament run, it was anyone's guess who would be SDSU's leader. That couldn't be less of an unknown this year.

The Rest of the All-MWC First Team:

Isaiah Stevens, Colorado State

Great Osobor, Utah State

Tyson Degenhart, Boise State

Donovan Dent, New Mexico

Pac-12 POY: Caleb Love, Arizona (19.4 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 3.5 APG, 1.2 SPG, 36.2% 3PT)

We've been dreaming about a possible "Caleb Love vs. UNC" showdown in the NCAA tournament for a while now, but let's not overlook how incredible it is that we could be headed for both Love and RJ Davis as both All-Americans and conference POYs.

Early on after transferring to Arizona, it looked as though Love had turned over a new leaf, willing to accept more of a secondary role. Through his first three games, he was averaging just 8.0 field-goal attempts and barely 10 points per game.

It didn't last long, though. Since then, he's at 20.4 points on 15.8 shots per game, never even remotely shy about letting it fly in the process of becoming Arizona's primary offensive weapon by a country mile.

Can Tommy Lloyd keep Love somewhat reeled in during the NCAA tournament, though? Because when he takes at least 19 shots, Arizona is 4-5—compared to 19-1 when he isn't openly embracing hero ball.

It's a tough road to navigate, because you absolutely do want Love to have a green light, as he has shown many times over the past four years that he can take a game over in an instant. But the thought of this soon-to-be P12 POY resolutely trying to shoot his way out of a slump—for a team that has won a combined total of just four NCAA tournament games dating back to 2016—is going to make for an anxiety-inducing process of filling out a bracket.

The Rest of the All-Pac-12 First Team:

KJ Simpson, Colorado

Myles Rice, Washington State

Isaac Jones, Washington State

Keion Brooks Jr., Washington

SEC POY: Dalton Knecht, Tennessee (20.7 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 1.8 APG, 40.6% 3PT)

How do you prefer your Player of the Year candidate?

If you love a good metronomic leader who's going to finish just about every game in the vicinity of 20 points, four rebounds and four assists, Alabama's Mark Sears is your guy. He is just consistently rock solid with minimal outliers.

But most prefer a guy who goes nuclear every couple of weeks, which is why—in addition to Tennessee winning the SEC regular-season title outright—Dalton Knecht is the kind of obvious choice here.

In addition to his 37-point performance against North Carolina back in November, Knecht has had five 30-point games in SEC play, most notably torching Auburn for 39 in that marquee win one week ago.

He did have an atypically off night in the road win over Alabama this past Saturday, but that wasn't anywhere near enough to bump him from the top spot.

Maybe things get interesting again if he also struggles in the season finale against Kentucky whilst Sears lights up Arkansas. But given the way Kentucky's defense has been looking again as of late, the more likely outcome might be Knecht putting up a 40 burger in the process of ending this debate once and for all.

The Rest of the All-SEC First Team:

Mark Sears, Alabama

Johni Broome, Auburn

Antonio Reeves, Kentucky

Reed Sheppard, Kentucky