What does it mean to earn the distinction of being the preseason National Player of the Year? More than anything, it sets the stage for one player and one program. The expectations become official. It's a big deal, and it should be.
Typically, the guy who's picked to be the best player in college basketball does not actually wind up being the best player. That makes sense; human behavior in sports can be hard to predict, especially when trying to do so against a field of literally thousands of other players. However, your friendly prognosticators here at CBS Sports have nailed the choice three times in the past seven seasons, including the all-too-obvious selection of Purdue's Zach Edey a year ago.
Dating back to the 2011-12 season, here is whom we have picked and, in turn, the eventual National Player of the Year (in parentheses). If we nailed it, the pick is in bold.
- 2011: Jared Sullinger (Anthony Davis)
- 2012: Cody Zeller (Trey Burke)
- 2013: Andrew Wiggins (Doug McDermott)
- 2014: Jahlil Okafor (Frank Kaminsky)
- 2015: Kyle Wiltjer (Denzel Valentine/Buddy Hield)
- 2016: Grayson Allen (Frank Mason III)
- 2017: Jalen Brunson
- 2018: RJ Barrett (Zion Williamson)
- 2019: Cassius Winston (Obi Toppin)
- 2020: Luka Garza
- 2021: Drew Timme (Oscar Tshiebwe)
- 2022: Drew Timme (Zach Edey)
- 2023: Zach Edey
With the exception of Wiltjer, who began his career at Kentucky before being chosen as the 2015-16 preseason NPOY while starring for Gonzaga, every player that was a preseason choice was not a transfer. That was then and this is now and we are in a different, much more transient era of college basketball. It's only apropos that for just the second time in CBS history, we're picking someone who started his college career elsewhere as our preseason National Player of the Year.
The best player on the best team in the SEC gets the nod.
Note: The CBS Sports Preseason Player of the Year was voted on by college basketball writers at CBS Sports and 247Sports as well as broadcasters from CBS and CBS Sports Network.
READ: 2024-25 CBS Sports Preseason All-America Teams
2024-25 CBS Sports Preseason Player of the Year
Mark Sears | Alabama | Combo guard | 6-1 | Gr.
The fifth-year, do-it-all backcourt general from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, was an All-America Second Team honoree last season after being one of only two players to average at least 20.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.5 steals. (Southern Illinois guard Xavier Johnson was the other.) Sears' stat line last season: 21.5 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 4.0 apg, 1.6 spg. He did so while head of the snake of the first team in Alabama history to reach the Final Four. En route to doing that, Sears won the NCAA West Region Most Outstanding Player award. Sears was his typical reliable self on the biggest stage, contributing 24.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists in the NCAA Tournament.
Alabama lost in the Final Four to UConn, but in doing so gave the championship Huskies their closest game of the tournament.
Sears' postseason performances left a lingering impression on our voting panel. With the Crimson Tide essentially a universal pick to be a top-five team this season, Sears won out in a competitive poll amongst CBS Sports' experts to be the preseason POY.
Sears also embodies the high-end, best-case-scenario potential for many players in this era of college basketball. He's ending his time in college at a different place than where he began.
Sears started at the University of Ohio, playing for Jeff Boals. And not just that, but when his college career began, he was a backup point guard to Jason Preston, who was the 33rd overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. Preston and Sears were on the Ohio team that upset Virginia in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament. I remember Boals raving to me in the offseason of 2021 that Sears could ultimately be just as good as Preston. At the time, that seemed a stretch. Boals knew what he was talking about. Sears started at Ohio as a sophomore, thrived in the MAC as a First Team all-league guy and has only continued to improve since joining Alabama in 2022.
Last season, Sears finished with 797 points. That's an Alabama program-record. He was also the first D-I player in three decades to exceed 795 points, 150 rebounds, 145 assists and 95 3-pointers in a season, according to Alabama's sports information department. Sears is also exceedingly efficient. He shot 50.8% from the field, which included 43.6% (sixth-best in D-I) from beyond the arc. His foul shooting: 85.7%. Pound for pound, nobody in college basketball enters this season with more production, reliability and value than Sears.
The Crimson Tide's reputation as an on-court disruptor has been drastically altered since Nate Oats became the coach in 2019. The Tide have twice earned a top-two NCAA seed and made it to the second weekend or beyond three times. This year's group carries the most anticipation in school history because Alabama stocked up as well as almost anyone in the portal.
But it's Sears who they are crazy for in Tuscaloosa and all surrounding precincts in Alabama. It's true that big men have been putting on something of a renaissance in college basketball in the past few years. They'll still control a lot of the attention; it could be that Cooper Flagg, Hunter Dickinson, Ryan Kalkbrenner or Johni Broome wind up as the best player in college basketball. But none of those guys will have the ball in their hands as much as Sears. It's for that reason — and because of the system that Oats runs, which ranked second in offensive efficiency last year with Sears toggling the controls — that we're going with the guy who wears No. 1 for Alabama to be the No. 1 player in college hoops for the next five-plus months.
