Due to the unpredictable, volatile and unforgiving nature of the NCAA Tournament, college basketball’s best player often doesn’t make it
We were fortunate the past two years to see Zach Edey (Purdue, 2024) and Cooper Flagg (Duke, 2025) survive long enough in the bracket to receive their NPOY honors in person at the Final Four.
But this year, the top guy on the court won’t be on the floor to vie for a national title in Indianapolis.
Every fan of college basketball who followed this season from the start is aware that the race for national player of the year was Cameron Boozer’s to lose by the time we reached Thanksgiving. And though the space he had on other competitors varied as the season went along, the Duke freshman was never threatened for NPOY honors here or anywhere else.
He is going to sweep all the awards, and rightfully so. Boozer was even more statistically productive and valuable than Flagg’s phenomenal season in 2024-25. In winning NPOY, Boozer becomes the 11th Blue Devil to take the honor. Duke claims more national players of the year than any school.
Jon Scheyer is now the first coach to ever have back-to-back players of the year who were freshmen. Boozer joins Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Zion Williamson and Flagg as the only freshman to earn the honor. What’s more, the Flagg/Boozer combo marks the first time since Shane Battier and Jay Williams won in 2001 and 2002 that the same school had different players win NPOY honors in consecutive seasons. St. John’s also claims this with Chris Mullin and Walter Berry in 1985 and ’86, as does UCLA Sidney Wicks and Bill Walton in 1971 and ’72.
But that’s it: just four instances in men’s college basketball history.
Let’s look deeper at Boozer’s season, then reveal our choices for national coach of the year and transfer of the year. The coach pick was a competitive vote with four really strong candidates, while the top transfer really isn’t up for debate.
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