Top 10 Men’s College Basketball Players 2025-2026 Rankings

Ranking the Top 10 Men’s College Basketball Player Rankings of the 2025-2026 NCAA Season as Yaxel Lendeborg, Cameron Boozer, and more battle for the top spot

By Sunday Umoh | April 16, 2026

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The recently-concluded 2025-26 NCAA Division 1 season revealed few surprises. The power 4.5 conferences (SEC, Big 12, Big 10, ACC, and a portion of the Big East Conference) continued the recent trend toward recapturing domination of the NCAA Tournament’s latter stages after several years of infiltration by mid-major programs. The Michigan Wolverines, via shrewd use of the transfer portal, started the season strong and ended it stronger, hoisting the March Madness championship trophy and cutting down the nets in Indianapolis.

At the individual level, there were a few unexpected individual, season-long performances across the country that garnered enough attention to earn those players a mention among the consensus pre-season All-America choices, who largely performed as expected. The pre-season choices are usually heavy on returning upperclassmen, but a strong freshman group crashed the party and performed well beyond their years.

Here is a look at the Top 10 Best Men’s College Basketball Players 2025-26 Rankings:

Honorable Mention

Darryn Peterson

School: Kansas Jayhawks

Position: Guard

Say what?

Hall of Fame football coach Bill Parcells once said, “The best ability is availability.” Though Peterson occasionally showed flashes of the type of skills on both ends of the floor that had him ranked as, at worst, one of the nation’s top three incoming freshmen, he simply missed too many games and hobbled around in too many others to make the type of impact many expected. It also prevented his Jayhawks team from developing any chemistry.

In spite of all that, Peterson was dynamic when healthy. He displayed amazing shot-making ability at times and shot a healthy 38 percent from 3-point range. His 6’5″ frame and long arms created problems on the defensive end, and he rebounded well for a guard. He was clearly a victim of expectations brought on by a stellar high school career and his nagging injuries limited him to 24 games, including several where the explosiveness he displayed early in the season was missing.

Caleb Wilson

School: North Carolina Tar Heels

Position: Forward

Yet another talented freshman joined a perennial basketball powerhouse and made an immediate impact. Wilson, a 6’10” forward from the talent-rich metro Atlanta area, eclipsed the 20-point mark in his first two games as a collegian, and never looked back. Like Peterson, Wilson only suited up for 24 of this team’s 33 games due to a late season finger injury. But in addition to his athleticism and powerful dunks, he averaged 19.8 points per game and was a model of consistency, scoring between 20 and 26 points in 17 of the 24 games he played in.

Wilson also brought a well-rounded game to Chapel Hill, averaging over nine rebounds per game, including 11 games with 10 or more. His passing chops were on display as well, handing out close to three assists per game. Many fans also feel Wilson got the better of his matchup against Duke’s Cam Boozer (23 points on 8-for-12 shooting). Had Wilson’s season not ended early, the Tar Heels might have made a deeper run in the NCAA Tournament and Hubert Davis might still be the coach.

Top 10 College Basketball Player Rankings 25-26

10. JT Toppin

School: Texas Tech Red Raiders

Position: Forward

JT Toppin enjoyed a great season at Texas Tech but a late injury cut it short. Nonetheless, the 6’9″ junior forward lead the 23-win Red Raiders in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots as an active inside player. He managed 16 double-doubles and was a devastating offensive rebounder. He finished the season with averages of 21.8 points and 10.8 rebounds.

He also had personal season highs of 18 boards, seven assists, five steals, and five blocks. He scored 30 or more points six times. and he stayed within his shooting range with a nearly 55 percent field goal percentage. He and teammate Christian Anderson, who could certainly make a case for being in this list, gave the Red raiders quite a tandem. But Texas Tech struggled in Toppin’s absence after an injury in mid-February, splitting their last eight games. His energetic absence was clearly felt.

9. Ebuka Okorie

School: Stanford Cardinal

Despite playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Stanford Freshman Ebuka Okorie played in obscurity relative to some of the more highly recruited freshmen, so we’ll use this space to give him his flowers.

One step away from committing to Harvard University, it was discovered that Okorie had the chops to ball at the power conference level. He had the grades for Stanford, they needed players, and a match was made. The results were astounding.

Okorie, listed at 6’2″, led the Cardinal in scoring at 23.2 points per game, including a 40-point outburst against Georgia Tech, on his way to a spot on the all ACC First team. And he did it with flair. His tight ballhandling and quick bursts to the basket combined with a jumper defenders had to respect, made him a nightmare to cover. And with better teammates, his assist totals will likely rise as well. He will either take his talents to the NBA this summer or become highly-coveted should he decide to enter the transfer portal.

8. Joshua Jefferson

Team: Iowa State Cyclones

Position: FORWARD

Let’s hear it for the upperclassmen in a season seemingly dominated by star freshmen players. Iowa State’s Joshua Jefferson is your not-so typical “do everything” basketball player, leading the 30-win Cyclones in rebounding and finishing second in scoring, steals, and assists. A 6’8″ 220 -pound forward averaging nearly six assists per game is rare. Jefferson handed out at least ten assists on four different occasions. Sounds like the kind of guy we’d all like to ball with, and the NBA scouts have taken notice as well.

Jefferson put up personal season high of 17 rebounds, five steals, and 12 assists while eclipsing the 20-point mark 10 times and hitting double figures in points in every game except one he left early with an injury.

7. Braden Smith

School: Purdue Boilermakers

Position: GUARD

Purdue University’s senior point guard Braden Smith is a throwback, of sorts, to the classic point guards from decades ago who could heavily impact a game without having to score. One of the most clever passers in the country, Smith led the nation in total assists for the third consecutive year while leading the Boilermakers to a 30-win season and the national semifinals.

And it’s not as if Braden Smith could not score. He registered a 29-point game against Alabama, three other games with 25 or more points, and was the second-leading scorer on a 30-win squad. Smith has been the engine behind a consistently good Purdue squad for several years now, and replacing him will not be easy.