NABC Player of the Year

The NABC Player of the Year is an award given annually by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) to recognize the top player in men's college basketball across the three largest college athletic associations in the United States. The award has been given since the 1974–75 season to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I basketball players, and since the 1982–83 season to its Division II and Division III players. The award has been given since the 2007–08 season to National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and to two-year schools' players. The awards have previously been sponsored by State Farm Insurance.

NABC Player of the Year

Awarded for	the most outstanding men's basketball players in all levels of competition
Country	United States
Presented by	NABC State Farm Insurance
History
First award	1975
Most recent	NCAA DI: Zach Edey, Purdue NCAA DII: KJ Jones II, Emmanuel NCAA DIII: Logan Pearson, Wisconsin–Platteville NAIA: Elijah Moore, Grace Two-year schools: Curt Lewis, John A. Logan
Website	Official website

At NCAA Division I, Duke has the most all-time awards with six and the most separate recipients with five. Their rival, North Carolina, as well as Kansas are tied for second in both awards and individual recipients, with four each. There have been three ties for NABC Player of the Year (2002, 2004, 2006), and only three players have won the award multiple times (Jason Williams, Ralph Sampson, and Zach Edey, with Sampson and Edey having been the sole winner of two awards).

At NCAA Division II, Virginia Union leads for most awards with four and individual recipients with three. It is followed by Florida Southern, Kentucky Wesleyan, Metro State, Northwest Missouri State, and Winona State with three awards each. Among these schools, Northwest Missouri and Winona State each have one two-time recipient. Only one tie has occurred (2006), while four players have won the award more than once (Stan Gouard, Earl Jones, John Smith, and Trevor Hudgins).

At NCAA Division III, three programs are tied for the most awards—Amherst, Cabrini, and Potsdam State. Each has had one two-time recipient. Four other programs have had two recipients—Calvin, Guilford, Otterbein, and Wittenberg. There have been two ties (2007, 2010) and four repeat winners (Leroy Witherspoon, Andrew Olson, Aaron Walton-Moss and Joey Flannery).

At the NAIA, the NABC presented a single award in the 2007–08 season, even though the NAIA had held separate Division I and Division II national championships since 1992. The following season, the NABC began presenting separate awards in Divisions I and II, and continued to do so through the 2019–20 season. After that season, the NAIA eliminated its basketball divisions, returning to a single championship for all members, and the NABC accordingly returned to a presenting a single NAIA award. During the divisional era, Division I member Georgetown (KY) received the most awards and had the most individual recipients, with three each. The only player to have won more than one Division I award is Dominique Rambo of SAGU, who shared the 2013 award and was sole recipient in 2014. The only other school with more than one D-I recipient is Oklahoma Baptist with two. The only player with more than one Division II award is Dominez Burnett, who received two awards with Davenport. Two other programs, Northwood (FL) (now Keiser) and Oklahoma Wesleyan, had two D-II recipients. One other player received the award in both the divisional and non-divisional eras: Kyle Mangas of Indiana Wesleyan received the final Division II award in 2020 and the single award in 2021.

At two-year schools, every winner has been a sophomore and had gone on to play at an NCAA Division I school after their community college careers ended until 2020. Jay Scrubb, that year's winner, hired an agent and declared for the 2020 NBA draft, thereby forgoing his remaining collegiate eligibility. He had committed to Louisville prior to renouncing that decision to enter the NBA draft pool.

Key

†	Co-Players of the Year
Player (X)	Denotes the number of times the player has received the player of the year award

NCAA

Division I

David Thompson of North Carolina State won the first award in 1975.

Danny Ainge of BYU won in 1981.

Emeka Okafor shared the award in 2004, also leading UConn to the national title.

Kevin Durant of Texas was the first freshman to win the award, in 2007.

In 2022, Oscar Tshiebwe became the first player from Kentucky to win the award.

Season	Player	School	Position	Class
1974–75	David Thompson	NC State	SG / SF	Senior
1975–76	Scott May	Indiana	F	Senior
1976–77	Marques Johnson	UCLA	G / F	Senior
1977–78	Phil Ford	North Carolina	PG	Senior
1978–79	Larry Bird	Indiana State	SF	Senior
1979–80	Michael Brooks	La Salle	F	Senior
1980–81	Danny Ainge	BYU	SG	Senior
1981–82	Ralph Sampson	Virginia	C	Junior
1982–83	Ralph Sampson (2)	Virginia	C	Senior
1983–84	Michael Jordan	North Carolina	SG	Junior
1984–85	Patrick Ewing	Georgetown	C	Senior
1985–86	Walter Berry	St. John's	PF	Senior
1986–87	David Robinson	Navy	C	Senior
1987–88	Danny Manning	Kansas	PF	Senior
1988–89	Sean Elliott	Arizona	SF	Senior
1989–90	Lionel Simmons	La Salle	SF	Senior
1990–91	Larry Johnson	UNLV	PF	Senior
1991–92	Christian Laettner	Duke	PF	Senior
1992–93	Calbert Cheaney	Indiana	SF	Senior
1993–94	Glenn Robinson	Purdue	SF / PF	Sophomore
1994–95	Shawn Respert	Michigan State	SG	Senior
1995–96	Marcus Camby	UMass	C	Junior
1996–97	Tim Duncan	Wake Forest	C	Senior
1997–98	Antawn Jamison	North Carolina	SF	Junior
1998–99	Elton Brand	Duke	C	Sophomore
1999–00	Kenyon Martin	Cincinnati	PF	Senior
2000–01	Jay Williams	Duke	PG	Sophomore
2001–02†	Drew Gooden	Kansas	C	Junior
	Jay Williams (2)	Duke	PG	Junior
2002–03	Nick Collison	Kansas	PF	Senior
2003–04†	Jameer Nelson	Saint Joseph's	PG	Senior
	Emeka Okafor	UConn	C	Junior
2004–05	Andrew Bogut	Utah	C	Sophomore
2005–06†	Adam Morrison	Gonzaga	SF	Junior
	JJ Redick	Duke	SG	Senior
2006–07	Kevin Durant	Texas	SF	Freshman
2007–08	Tyler Hansbrough	North Carolina	PF	Junior
2008–09	Blake Griffin	Oklahoma	PF	Sophomore
2009–10	Evan Turner	Ohio State	SF	Junior
2010–11	Jimmer Fredette	BYU	PG	Senior
2011–12	Draymond Green	Michigan State	PF	Senior
2012–13	Trey Burke	Michigan	PG	Sophomore
2013–14	Doug McDermott	Creighton	SF	Senior
2014–15	Frank Kaminsky	Wisconsin	PF / C	Senior
2015–16	Denzel Valentine	Michigan State	SG	Senior
2016–17	Frank Mason III	Kansas	PG	Senior
2017–18	Jalen Brunson	Villanova	PG	Junior
2018–19	Zion Williamson	Duke	SF / PF	Freshman
2019–20	Obi Toppin	Dayton	PF	Sophomore
2020–21	Luka Garza	Iowa	C	Senior
2021–22	Oscar Tshiebwe	Kentucky	C	Junior
2022–23	Zach Edey	Purdue	C	Junior
2023–24	Zach Edey (2)	Purdue	C	Senior

Division II

Charles Oakley won in 1985 and later became an NBA All-Star while playing for the New York Knicks.

Braydon Hobbs won the award in 2012 with Bellarmine.

Zach Hankins won the award in 2018 with Ferris State.

Season	Player	School	Position	Class
1982–83	Earl Jones	District of Columbia	C	Junior
1983–84	Earl Jones (2)	District of Columbia	C	Senior
1984–85	Charles Oakley	Virginia Union	PF	Senior
1985–86	Todd Linder	Tampa	SF	Junior
1986–87	Ralph Tally	Norfolk State	PG	Senior
1987–88	Jerry Johnson	Florida Southern	PG	Senior
1988–89	Kris Kearney	Florida Southern	F	Senior
1989–90	A. J. English	Virginia Union	SG	Senior
1990–91	Corey Crowder	Kentucky Wesleyan	SF / SG	Senior
1991–92	Eric Manuel	Oklahoma City	SF	Senior
1992–93	Alex Wright	Central Oklahoma	SG	Senior
1993–94	Derrick Johnson	Virginia Union	C / PF	Senior
1994–95	Stan Gouard	Southern Indiana	G	Junior
1995–96	Stan Gouard (2)	Southern Indiana	G	Senior
1996–97	Kebu Stewart	Cal State Bakersfield	PF	Senior
1997–98	Joe Newton	Central Oklahoma	PG / SG	Senior
1998–99	Antonio García	Kentucky Wesleyan	F	Senior
1999–00	Ajumu Gaines	Charleston (WV)	PG	Senior
2000–01	Colin Ducharme	Longwood	PF	Senior
2001–02	Ronald Murray	Shaw	SG / PG	Senior
2002–03	Marlon Parmer	Kentucky Wesleyan	PG	Senior
2003–04	Elad Inbar	UMass Lowell	F	Senior
2004–05	Mark Worthington	Metro State	F	Senior
2005–06†	Darius Hargrove	Virginia Union	SG / SF	Senior
	Turner Trofholz	South Dakota	PF	Senior
2006–07	John Smith	Winona State	C	Junior
2007–08	John Smith (2)	Winona State	C	Senior
2008–09	Josh Bostic	Findlay	SF	Senior
2009–10	Jason Westrol	Bentley	PG	Senior
2010–11	Darryl Webb	Indiana (PA)	F	Senior
2011–12	Braydon Hobbs	Bellarmine	PG	Senior
2012–13	Clayton Vette	Winona State	PF	Senior
2013–14	Brandon Jefferson	Metro State	PG	Senior
2014–15	Mitch McCarron	Metro State	SG	Senior
2015–16	Dan Jansen	Augustana (SD)	PF	Senior
2016–17	Justin Pitts	Northwest Missouri State	PG	Junior
2017–18	Zach Hankins	Ferris State	C	Junior
2018–19	Daulton Hommes	Point Loma Nazarene	G	Junior
2019–20	Brett Hanson	Florida Southern	G	Senior
2020–21	Trevor Hudgins	Northwest Missouri State	G	Junior
2021–22	Trevor Hudgins (2)	Northwest Missouri State	G	Senior
2022–23	RJ Sunahara	Nova Southeastern	F	Junior
2023–24	KJ Jones II	Emmanuel	PG	Senior

Division III

Jimmy Bartolotta was the first recipient to play for MIT. He was the Division III Player of the Year in 2008–09.

Season	Player	School	Position	Class
1982–83	Leroy Witherspoon	Potsdam State	PG	Junior
1983–84	Leroy Witherspoon (2)	Potsdam State	PG	Senior
1984–85	Tim Casey	Wittenberg	G	Senior
1985–86	Dick Hempy	Otterbein	G	Junior
1986–87	Brendan Mitchell	Potsdam State	SF	Senior
1987–88	Scott Tedder	Ohio Wesleyan	SF / SG	Senior
1988–89	Greg Grant	TCNJ	PG	Senior
1989–90	Matt Hancock	Colby	SG	Senior
1990–91	Brad Baldridge	Wittenberg	C	Senior
1991–92	Andre Foreman	Salisbury State	PF	Senior
1992–93	Steve Hondred	Calvin	C	Senior
1993–94	Scott Fitch	SUNY Geneseo	G	Senior
1994–95	D'Artis Jones	Ohio Northern	SG	Senior
1995–96	David Benter	Hanover	F	Senior
1996–97	Bryan Crabtree	Illinois Wesleyan	SF	Senior
1997–98	Mike Nogelo	Williams	F	Senior
1998–99	Merrill Brunson	Wisconsin–Platteville	PG / SG	Junior
1999–00	Aaron Winkle	Calvin	PF	Senior
2000–01	Horace Jenkins	William Paterson	PG	Senior
2001–02	Jeff Gibbs	Otterbein	F	Senior
2002–03	Bryan Nelson	Wooster	F	Senior
2003–04	Richard Melzer	Wisconsin–River Falls	F	Senior
2004–05	Jason Kalsow	Wisconsin–Stevens Point	PF	Junior
2005–06	Brandon Adair	Virginia Wesleyan	SF	Junior
2006–07†	Andrew Olson	Amherst	PG	Junior
	Ben Strong	Guilford	C	Junior
2007–08	Andrew Olson (2)	Amherst	PG	Senior
2008–09	Jimmy Bartolotta	MIT	SG	Senior
2009–10	Tyler Sanborn	Guilford	C	Senior
2010–11	Michael Taylor	Whitworth	SG	Senior
2011–12	Chris Davis	Wisconsin–Whitewater	PF	Senior
2012–13	Aaron Toomey	Amherst	PG	Junior
2013–14	Aaron Walton-Moss	Cabrini	PG	Junior
2014–15	Aaron Walton-Moss (2)	Cabrini	PG	Senior
2015–16	Joey Flannery	Babson	PG	Junior
2016–17	Joey Flannery (2)	Babson	PG	Senior
2017–18	Tyheim Monroe	Cabrini	PF	Senior
2018–19	Booker Coplin	Augsburg	SG	Junior
2019–20	Nate West	LeTourneau	PG	Senior
2020–21	Not presented; no D-III championship was held due to COVID-19 disruptions
2021–22	Ryan Turell	Yeshiva	SG	Senior
2022–23	Tyson Cruickshank	Wheaton (IL)	PG	Graduate
2023–24	Logan Pearson	Wisconsin–Platteville	F	Graduate

NAIA

In 2008–09, the NABC began presenting separate awards for players of the year in NAIA Divisions I and II. In 2020–21, the NAIA removed its divisional classifications.

Divisional era (2009–2020)

Division I Season Player School Position Class 2008–09 Geoff Payne Westminster F Senior 2009–10 Nate Brumfield Oklahoma Baptist F Senior 2010–11 Justin Johnson Concordia Irvine G Senior 2011–12 Emmanuel Wilson Oklahoma Baptist G Senior 2012–13† Vic Moses Georgetown (KY) F Senior Dominique Rambo SAGU G Junior 2013–14 Dominique Rambo (2) SAGU G Senior 2014–15 Kenny Manigault Pikeville SG / SF Senior 2015–16 Deondre McWhorter Georgetown (KY) PF Senior 2016–17 Delarian Williams Life F Senior 2017–18 Ryan Imhoff Carroll (MT) SG Senior 2018–19 Jeff Garrett LSU–Shreveport PF Senior 2019–20 Chris Coffey Georgetown (KY) PF Senior

Division II Season Player School Position Class 2008–09 William Walker Bethel (IN) F Senior 2009–10 Steve Briggs Oklahoma Wesleyan G Senior 2010–11 Sadiel Rojas Oklahoma Wesleyan F Senior 2011–12 Jonathan Dunn Northwood G Senior 2012–13 Ra'Shad James Northwood G Senior 2013–14 Joe Mitchell Friends G Senior 2014–15 Dominez Burnett Davenport F Junior 2015–16 Dominez Burnett (2) Davenport F Senior 2016–17 Warren Hall Warner PG Senior 2017–18 Kyle Steigenga Cornerstone F Senior 2018–19 Cameron Hunt Southwestern (KA) PG Senior 2019–20 Kyle Mangas Indiana Wesleyan G Junior

Non-divisional era (2008; 2021–present)

Season	Player	School	Position	Class
2007–08	Ryan Fiegi	Oregon Tech	G	Senior
2020–21	Kyle Mangas (2)	Indiana Wesleyan	G	Senior
2021–22	Zach Wrightsil	Loyola (LA)	SG / SF	Senior
2022–23	Mason Walters	Jamestown (ND)	F	Senior
2023–24	Elijah Moore	Grace	C	Senior

Two-year schools

Since community college players only attend for two years, these players are only either freshmen or sophomores. Afterwards, they move on to a four-year university to finish their last two seasons of NCAA eligibility. The University column reflects which team these players would play for following their junior college careers.

Season	Player	Two-year college	Position	Class	University
2007–08	Jeremie Simmons	Mott	G	Sophomore	Ohio State
2008–09	Nafis Ricks	Johnson County	G	Sophomore	Missouri State
2009–10	Jae Crowder	Howard (TX)	F	Sophomore	Marquette
2010–11	Kiel Turpin	Lincoln (IL)	C	Sophomore	Florida State
2011–12	Cleanthony Early	SUNY Sullivan	PF	Sophomore	Wichita State
2012–13	Chris Jones	Northwest Florida State	G	Sophomore	Louisville
2013–14	Kadeem Allen	Hutchinson	G	Sophomore	Arizona
2014–15	Brandon Brown	Phoenix	G	Sophomore	Loyola Marymount
2015–16	Kavell Bigby-Williams	Gillette	F	Sophomore	Oregon
2016–17	Shakur Juiston	Hutchinson	F	Sophomore	UNLV
2017–18	Charles Jones Jr.	College of Southern Idaho	G	Sophomore	Utah
2018–19	Chris Duarte	Northwest Florida State	G	Sophomore	Oregon
2019–20	Jay Scrubb	John A. Logan	G	Sophomore	None
2020–21	Malevy Leons	Mineral Area	F	Sophomore	Bradley
2021–22	Damarco Minor	South Suburban	G	Sophomore	SIU Edwardsville
2022–23	Curt Lewis	John A. Logan	G	Sophomore	Missouri

See also

• List of U.S. men's college basketball national player of the year awards

External links

• Official website