So here’s a thing: Not a single freshman made the first or second team in voting for The Athletic All-America team.
Duke’s Vernon Carey was a runaway winner as our national freshman of the year, accumulating all but two votes from our panel of 21 college basketball writers, and yet he’ll have to settle for third-team honors.
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It’s a reminder that the 2019-20 college basketball season (gone too soon) was one built around guys not wowing us in their one year between EYBL and the NBA but more traditional college basketball athletes. Our player of the year, Obi Toppin, is a dunking sensation who led his team to heights it had never before achieved, but was criminally under-recruited before Dayton took a Flyer on him. He’s joined on the All-America team by two upperclassman big men who steadily developed their games during the course of their college careers and a pair of four-year college point guards who wowed us with how many big shots they made.
Did putting together this team make us regret even more that we do not have a NCAA Tournament this year? Yes. Did it make us appreciate even more the friends we made along the way? Absolutely.
Player of the year
Obi Toppin, Dayton
Toppin had a very good freshman year. He was the Atlantic 10 rookie of the year. He led the Flyers in scoring. He thought about declaring for the NBA Draft, then came back to Dayton. And then he went to Maui, and everything changed. Twenty-five points against Georgia. Twenty-four more with eight rebounds the next day against Virginia Tech. And, in an overtime thriller against Kansas, Toppin had 18 points, eight rebounds and four blocks. Kansas won the game, but Toppin and the Flyers were the story of Thanksgiving week and it never really stopped.
Toppin ended the season averaging 20.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks a game. He made 69.8 percent of his 2s and 39 percent of his 3s. He went consistently viral with some of the best in-game dunking we’ve ever seen. There were other very good players this year — Iowa’s Luka Garza did collect two votes for this award — but Obi was Obi. And no one was better.
Coach of the year
Anthony Grant, Dayton
In late February, Brian Bennett wrote a story detailing just how Anthony Grant, whose offenses at Alabama left something to be desired, had turned Dayton into an offensive powerhouse. It all still holds, and is very much worth your time. So we’ll just say this here: It sounds simple to combine a good scheme, recruit players who fit it and then be aware enough to analytically look at all the best options. But if it was that easy, everyone would do it. It’s not, but Grant did. Congrats to him on an awesome year.
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Grant received 11 votes from our panel. San Diego State’s Brian Dutcher and Baylor’s Scott Drew each got four, and there was also mentions for Kansas’ Bill Self and Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton.
Freshman of the year
Vernon Carey, Duke
On the first night of the college basketball season, in the first game of his career, Carey was matched against Kansas’ Udoka Azubuike. Have fun, kid! That was not Carey’s best night, but he did what he could and the Blue Devils won. And there were much better days ahead. If Duke won all season because of its depth, as Mike Krzyzewski repeatedly insisted, it at least had Carey in the middle as a consistent force. He scored 17.8 points and had 8.8 rebounds and 1.6 blocks a night, both team highs, in less than 25 minutes a game, and finished on a high note with 25 points and 10 boards against rival UNC. If this was it for Carey’s college career, then it was a good run.
The other two votes went to USC’s Onyeka Okongwu.
First team
Udoka Azubuike, Kansas
The team that finished No. 1 in the final AP poll definitely shared in the credit for its rise back to the top. Devon Dotson (more in him in a second) and Marcus Garrett had, by any measure, great seasons, but Azubuike who gets the nod here. He was the most efficient shooter in the country (a steady diet of dunks helps), but it was his defense that set him apart, with 10.5 rebounds and 2.6 blocks a night.
Luka Garza, Iowa
It was a hell of a year in the Big Ten for big men, and Garza stood out in that group as a consistently dominant force who had the Hawkeyes firmly in the NCAA Tournament despite multiple injuries. Garza finished with averages of 23.9 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game.
Markus Howard, Marquette
Howard finished his NCAA career 21st in NCAA career scoring, just eight points behind J.J. Redick, and with a decent postseason run, could have moved into the top 15, at least. It was quite the run by the elite scorer: He averaged 27.8 points per game as a senior, including scoring at least 30 points in each of his last five games.
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Payton Pritchard, Oregon
Would you like a point guard who makes 41.5 percent of his 3-point attempts, has an assist rate of 31.6 (63rd nationally), turns the ball over on only 16 percent of possessions and gets players from a program that annually churns over (Pritchard had 37 college teammates, FYI) all marching in the right direction? Yeah, that’s what we thought.
Obi Toppin, Dayton
See above.
Second team
Devon Dotson, Kansas
As a sophomore Dotson led the Jayhawks in scoring (18.1 per game) while also improving his assist rate and lowering his turnover rate from 2018-19.
Malachi Flynn, San Diego State
The redshirt junior, a Washington State transfer, was the star of the Aztecs’ 26 straight wins to open the season. The point guard averaged 17.6 points, 5.1 assists and 1.8 steals a game.
Filip Petrusev, Gonzaga
A bit role as a freshman turned into star billing as a sophomore, as Petrusev averaged 17.5 points and 7.9 rebounds a night for a team that was a lock for a No. 1 seed.
Myles Powell, Seton Hall
Powell’s chance of March glory was taken from him, but the guy averaged 21 a game as a senior. He had 37 against Michigan State, 32 against Oregon and a combined 45 points in two games against Butler.
Cassius Winston, Michigan State
Winston’s senior year was both tragic and epic, and it was ending on a high note. He scored 18.6 points with 5.9 assists and 1.2 assists per game, and like so many others on this list, had earned one more shot at a title.
Third team
Vernon Carey, Duke
See above
Jordan Nwora, Louisville
A 40.2 percent 3-point shooter, Nwora averaged 18 points per game in his final year in college before declaring for the NBA Draft.
Immanuel Quickley, Kentucky
The sophomore was named SEC Player of the Year after scoring 16.1 points per game and making 42.8 percent of his 3s and 92.3 percent of his free throws.
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Jalen Smith, Maryland
The big man averaged a double-double (15.5 points, 10.5 rebounds), blocked 2.4 shots a night and was the biggest reason why the Terps won a share of the Big Ten title.
Xavier Tillman, Michigan State
He ranked in the top 10 in the Big Ten in rebounds (10.3), blocks (2.1) and steals (1.2), and was hailed by his peers as maybe the strongest post guy in the stacked Big Ten.
Honorable mention
Precious Achiuwa, Memphis; Saddiq Bey, Villanova; Jordan Ford, Saint Mary’s; Tre Jones, Duke; and Devin Vassell, Florida State.
