Ranking the Top 25 Players in College Basketball One Month Into the 2019-20 Season
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12/11/2019 ESPN.com - Ranking the top 25 players in college basketball one month into the 2019-20 season ESPN.com: Men's College Basketball [Print without images] Wednesday, December 11, 2019 Ranking the top 25 players in college basketball one month into the 2019-20 season By John Gasaway ESPN.com Times have changed since the preseason. The last time we ranked the top 25 players in college basketball, we thought Michigan State might stick at No. 1 for a good long while, Florida would be a fixture in the top 25 all season and Virginia would be great on defense but would struggle to make shots. Fine, we were spot-on with that last bit. The point is, the presence of actual basketball games changes our evaluations of teams and players dramatically. It's therefore high time that we update our rankings of the game's top 25 players. Just a reminder, these are rankings based on college performance, and not a mock draft. Here are the top 25 players of 2019-20 so far: 1. Markus Howard, Marquette Golden Eagles Thank you, Markus Howard, for giving us a fascinating controlled experiment on how NBA potential or its perceived lack can influence our perception of college performance. For instance, Howard is a 20-year-old senior listed at 5-foot-11. The next level, understandably, would prefer to risk a first-round pick on someone 18 months younger and five or more inches taller. So be it, yet here is Howard having a college season for the ages. He scored 40 or more points twice in his first six games, and, despite the new 3-point line, his accuracy from beyond the arc has gone up since last season. Howard can perhaps be usefully thumbnailed with a couple recent Oklahoma greats. Steve Wojciechowski's star is carrying a Trae Young-level workload while making a Buddy Hield-level share of his 3s. It's an amazing sight, even if no "how will it translate to the next level" talk ensues. 2. Jordan Nwora, Louisville Cardinals The Louisville offense is more sharply bifurcated between featured heroes and role players than we're used to seeing from recent national title contenders (we were told the Villanova-Virginia-brand versatile swarm was the future), and that makes what Nwora is doing all the more impressive. The 6-7 junior carries a higher number for possession usage than most major-conference players not named either "Markus Howard" or "Myles Powell," yet he's making his shots from both sides of the arc and has been virtually automatic at the line. As a team, the insider.espn.com/espn/print?id=28231997 1/8 12/11/2019 ESPN.com - Ranking the top 25 players in college basketball one month into the 2019-20 season Cardinals' shooting has been superb (it was even more superb before the Texas Tech game), and, even when Nwora is not the one attempting the shot, he is the one exerting a fierce gravitational pull on the opposing defense's attention. 3. Myles Powell, Seton Hall Pirates The Pirates split a two-game series with Iowa State (the loss was in Ames) and dropped nail-biters against Oregon and Michigan State, but the point remains: Seton Hall is as strong as it has been in years, and Powell is the largest single factor driving that status. He's accounting for an incredible 40% of SHU's shot attempts during his minutes, and the offense is in fact vastly improved since last season. Powell is averaging close to four made 3s a game on 40% shooting, and he's taking excellent care of the ball. The senior has been even better than expected. 4. Udoka Azubuike, Kansas Jayhawks At the risk of being overly analytical, Azubuike is just too huge to stop when he gets the ball anywhere near the basket. The senior is a career 75% shooter inside the arc, and this season he's recording (what a coincidence) fully 75% of his 2-point attempts at the rim. Note additionally that Azubuike's block rate is higher than it has ever been, and his 29-point outburst against Dayton in the title game of the Maui Invitational marked a career high. With Isaiah Moss healthy and Devon Dotson, Marcus Garrett and Ochai Agbaji being their usual selves, KU's "small ball" attack now looks fully armed and operational at last. Just keep in mind it's a version of small ball that thrives with a 7-foot, 270-pound star as its motor. 5. Obi Toppin, Dayton Flyers Once you're making more than seven 2-pointers a game you are in some rarefied company. Toppin is doing just that (7.1), and his volume is helped along by the fact he's shooting 73% inside the arc. In three games at the Maui Invitational against Georgia, Virginia Tech and Kansas, the 6-9 sophomore rang up 65 points on just 36 shots from the field. Now Toppin is being projected as a 2020 lottery pick, thanks not only to his Zion Williamson- esque interior performance but also on the basis of the hints thrown out by 47% career 3-point shooting at the lowest of volumes. insider.espn.com/espn/print?id=28231997 2/8 12/11/2019 ESPN.com - Ranking the top 25 players in college basketball one month into the 2019-20 season 6. Cassius Winston, Michigan State Spartans Don't blame Michigan State's travails on Winston. The senior has been pretty much what everyone thought he would be when he was earning preseason first-team All-American honors. When the Spartans edged Georgia in Maui, Winston scored 28 points on 16 shots and dished out eight assists. He is the catalyst of what could still, even with three losses, turn out to be one of the best offenses in the nation. He leads the team in made 3s, and the career 85% foul shooter is doing even better than that this season. The MSU defense has been less formidable than predicted, but Winston is still the leader of an elite offense. 7. Kaleb Wesson, Ohio State Buckeyes Wesson gives Chris Holtmann one of the better combinations of rim defense, rebounding and (relative) freedom from foul trouble in the country. What is particularly interesting, and unusual, is that Wesson has ceded such a large chunk of his workload on offense this season and, of course, that it has worked beautifully for Ohio State. Rather incredibly, the Buckeyes' 6-9, 270-pound potential Big Ten player of the year is averaging about two 2- point makes per game. Don't mess with success: OSU as a team is hitting its shots and completely shutting down opposing offenses. 8. Payton Pritchard, Oregon Ducks The pass-first freshman point guard you remember from the 2017 Final Four is now the clear featured scorer in a rotation where he just happens to be an excellent point guard as well. His eight 3-pointers over two games against Gonzaga and North Carolina weren't enough to prevent the Ducks from recording two close losses, but the senior is recording the best shooting of his career from the field. Pritchard also accounts for a higher percentage of UO's assists during his minutes than ever before. 9. Tre Jones, Duke Blue Devils The case for Jones being one of the top players in the country in 2019-20 is exceedingly simple. You know him to be one of the best defenders in Duke's recent history and an excellent distributor as well. Now as a sophomore, he's making a normal share of his low-volume 3s (33%) too. The sagging that opposing defenses used to display so ostentatiously and understandably when guarding Jones on the perimeter is becoming a thing of the past. That's good news for Vernon Carey (who will have more room to operate in the paint) and bad news for opponents. insider.espn.com/espn/print?id=28231997 3/8 12/11/2019 ESPN.com - Ranking the top 25 players in college basketball one month into the 2019-20 season 10. Devon Dotson, Kansas Jayhawks Dotson turned in what is likely to stand as the best six-turnover game of 2019-20 with his 31-point, five steal effort in KU's overtime win against Dayton in Maui. He's playing a much more prominent role in the Jayhawk offense as a sophomore, as well he should. While his perimeter shot has yet to cooperate this season, Dotson has been deadly inside the arc and has connected on better than 85% of his frequent free throw attempts. Best of all, the sophomore and his similarly versatile teammates give Bill Self the luxury of "going small" on offense with little or no penalty on defense. 11. Kamar Baldwin, Butler Bulldogs When Baldwin erupted for 31 points on just 15 shots to lead Butler to a 67-58 win at Ole Miss, Rebels head coach Kermit Davis Jr. offered a succinct appraisal of what he'd just witnessed: "That cat can play in the NBA." Although nominally undersized as a 6-1 scoring guard, the senior is riddling opposing defenses with makes while carrying a larger number for possession usage than any Bulldog in more than a decade. Butler has taken a giant leap forward on both sides of the ball since last season, and having a featured scorer who's posting career- highs for accuracy both from beyond the arc and at the line has definitely accelerated the teamwide improvement on offense.