Meet the 2020 College Basketball POY Candidates

Now that we’re inching toward the start of March Madness, it’s a great time to get acquainted with the brightest stars in the game. For example, did you realize that a junior center in Iowa City might just be the most dominant player in the entire country?

According to the AP National Player of the Year odds at the top college basketball betting sites, Hawkeyes big man Luka Garza is the favorite to emerge. With that being said, there’s a handful of guys making a case to honored as the top dog in the land.

So who are the College Basketball Player of the Year candidates? Let’s take a look. To me, there are six standing out above the rest.

Iowa is currently ranked in the top 20 and is in the thick of the Big Ten race thanks to their center, Luka Garza. The 6’11” junior from Washington DC was a nice player for Fran McCaffery during his first two seasons, but he’s taken a massive leap in year three and is now the frontrunner to capture a whole bunch of hardware.

Garza is shooting over 54% from the field and has toyed with his opponents throughout Big Ten play. On top of being a force under the basket, he can even step back and hit the three.

Luka has scored in double figures all but one game and seems to be playing his best basketball as we wind down toward the end of the year. At this point, you can almost pencil him in as a finalist for the AP National POY.

Dayton is surging toward snagging a top-two seed in the NCAA Tournament bracket and is no longer a March Madness sleeper. The way Obi Toppin has been playing, the Flyers might be cutting more nets down than just the ones at the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament in Brooklyn.

Speaking of Brooklyn, the 6’9” Brooklyn native has a sweet inside-out game that’s going to translate tremendously at the next level. Toppin has been rocketing up 2020 NBA mock drafts all season long, as it’s hard to spot any weaknesses in his skill set. The 21-year-old has an array of moves, he plays hard on both ends of the floor, and he leads his teams to victories.

What more can you ask for?

Based on raw ability to put the ball in the basket, it’s hard to find anyone in college basketball better than Markus Howard. Markus dropped 51 in a game against USC, which shouldn’t surprise anybody when you look at this dude’s resume. The senior guard tallied 53 on the road at Creighton as a junior and poured in 52 at Providence during his sophomore campaign.

The Golden Eagles suffered tough overtime losses against the Friars and at Butler; otherwise, Steve Wojciechowski and his men could be staring at #3 seed in March. Either way, Howard’s undeniable productivity is going to keep him in the running to win several post-season accolades.

Oregon’s senior point guard is a shoo-in to be named as the Pac-12 Player of the Year, but he might not be done there. The Ducks are loaded with lots of capable athletes, but Payton Pritchard is the reason Dana Altman’s squad is poised to win their conference.

Payton has been a fixture in Eugene each and every year he’s been on campus, but his leadership and propensity to take over a game late have been the obvious differences in 2019/2020.

I’d tell you Payton is undoubtedly the best guard in America, but he actually might not even be the best guard on the West Coast. On that note, let’s segue into who has been equally — if not more — impressive.

I can’t say enough good things about Malachi Flynn and the way he has transcended the Aztecs program. San Diego State didn’t receive a single first-place vote in the Mountain West Conference in the preseason, yet here they are on the verge of entering the NCAA Tournament unblemished.

I’ve watched virtually every one of SDSU’s games, and it’s apparent that Malachi is the engine that keeps the motor running. Flynn sports one of the top assist-to-turnover ratios in the nation, he’s a terrific on-ball defender, and he’s a lethal shooter from beyond the arc.

It’s Malachi’s knack for finishing around the rim that really sets him apart. Simply put, he’s got no flaws in his game, and his team is a genuine threat to win the title.

So yeah, I’d call Malachi Flynn one of the College Basketball Player of the Year contenders for sure.

Vernon Carey Jr. was one of the most highly touted freshmen in the class of 2019, and he hasn’t disappointed during his first (and likely only) year in Durham.

Coach K’s premier post player may have started out slow in November, but he’s turned on the jets in ACC play and has quickly evolved into one of the most daunting big men in the country.

At 6’10” and 270 pounds, he’s the closest thing to Zion Williamson that the Cameron Crazies will see at Duke for a long, long time. He’s the total package when it comes to a frontcourt presence, and he’ll receive a lot of votes to win the AP National Player of the Year.

The fact that the Blue Devils are one of the true blue bloods in college basketball certainly doesn’t hurt his chances.

When Noah Davis first looked at the odds in November and made a College Basketball Player of the Year prediction, names like Cassius Winston and Jordan Nwora were sitting atop the betting sheet. Cole Anthony got hurt, and James Wiseman left Memphis, so you could see the door start to open in the POY race.

Here we are in February, and a whole host of names have slid right in.

If it was up to me to hand out the award at this point in time, I’d be torn between Obi Toppin and Malachi Flynn.

The good news is we still have a few more weeks of basketball left to see how it all shakes out.