Once again CBS Sports presents our Candid Coaches series, which spotlights relevant topics and issues in men’s college basketball. Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander polled nearly 100 coaches in recent weeks on a variety of topics. Coaches spoke on background and were provided anonymity to offer unfiltered opinions. This is the third installment in our 2025 survey; links to our previous questions can be found at the bottom of this story.
Earlier this week we unveiled an annual question we ask: Who’s going to be the best team?
Now it’s time for another one of our reliables: Who’s going to be the best player?
College basketball has had a fortunate run this decade in returning First Team All-Americans. And so it gets that again with not just one well-known stud, but two. Braden Smith of Purdue and JT Toppin of Texas Tech both earned First Team status (along with Cooper Flagg, Johni Broome and Walter Clayton Jr.) here at CBS Sports when we published our All-America honors in the lead-up to the 2025 Final Four.
Smith is a senior, Toppin a junior. Smith is poised to finish his four-year college career as one of the most statistically decorated point guards of the past few generations. Toppin, after commanding one heck of a payday, didn’t even enter his name into the draft despite being a first-round talent in the eyes of some NBA evaluators.
Those two, predictably, earned the most votes in our poll question this year, but it’s not as though they’re the only high-level talents. Just the opposite. We had seven players earn at least five votes, with three of those being glitzy freshmen and the other two being transfers into the Big Ten.
Candid Coaches: Who will be the best men’s college basketball team this season?
Matt Norlander
Here are the results, and a record-setting return at that. (I explain in the “Takeaway” portion further down in this post.)
Who will be college basketball’s best player in 2025-26?
Other players receiving votes: PJ Haggerty (Kansas State), Bennett Stirtz (Iowa), Milos Uzan (Houston)
Quotes that stood out
About Smith
“No one else in college basketball impacts the game and his team like him. He is also going on Year 4 in the same program with the same coach. That is an automatic leg up on the competition.” “He’s the best point guard in the country and the best player. And don’t listen to anybody who says he won’t play in the NBA. He will, probably for a long time.””Purdue will have a top-five team and he’s a magician with the ball in his hands. Was very impressed when we played him, with his pace, vision and decision making. The game is played at his speed “”Braden Smith will be the best player in college basketball. He will have the greatest impact on winning night in and night out. He’s been in every situation you can imagine, and they’ve consistently won. There may be guys more talented if you are looking at the next level, but nobody impacts winning for their respective team more.””Best player/leader and proven winner. You take him off the floor at Purdue and I would anticipate more of a drop-off than the other guys on the list.”
About Toppin
“There is something to be said about second year in a system, where I think he’ll make another jump statistically this year. 19 ppg, 11 rpg, 2.5 bpg on 59% FG shooting during Texas Tech’s four games in the NCAA Tournament.””Proven multi-year producer with big-time tourney experience. Can’t speed him up in the post, lethal in the short roll, and a developing and evolving face-up, 3-point game.””I am not sure if they will be a top-10 team in order to get the [NPOY] votes from those who only just look for players on a top-10 team, but his combined points and rebounds stats are off the charts.”
About Peterson
“Give me the No. 1 pick and let’s go from there. ESPECIALLY a lead guard. Guards always affect winning more.””He will have the ball in his hands and he will prove to be a little more steady and consistent than Dybantsa, although AJ will have more loud moments.”
About Dybantsa
“Most talented player in college basketball. BYU’s system will allow him to utilize his pro skill set. He will have freedom to showcase his overall game and his size will allow him to have a more immediate impact than Darryn Peterson.””His combination of size and athleticism is rare. A high-level offensive player that can score from just about anywhere on the floor. Should be a fun player to watch this year.”
About the others
On Dent: “Fastest player in America. Elite open-floor playmaker. Cronin will get him to guard and expand his game.”On Dent, part 2: “Special player. He has tremendous speed and control, his vision and IQ is excellent, he delivers passes on time which allows for easy finishes for his teammates, and he can finish games with his ability to score and get fouled at key times. Defensively, he has tremendous instincts which allows him to get steals and easy baskets for his teammates.”On Lendeborg: “His game mixed with Dusty May’s offensive mind is extremely dangerous. He’s going to expand his game and be around a lot of talented players, which helps.”On Stirtz: “I think experience matters a lot in college basketball. He has a ton of talent, though he’s not the most talented guy, but it is unbelievable the amount of responsibility that was placed on his shoulders at Drake. You watch him play, study their offense, everything — every single play – ran through him. The ball was in his hands as a scorer or playmaker. The kid has this demeanor about him, it doesn’t matter who he’s playing. Doesn’t get sped up. He’s almost a genius within that system. He leads the whole charge, never comes out of the game, his durability is incredible.”
The takeaway
We’ve run our Candid Coaches series since 2012 and asked this question almost every year.
No player received a higher percentage of the vote than Smith’s 51% return this year.
Now, there is a catch to that fact. In 2023 we didn’t ask this Q because Zach Edey was coming off a national player of the year season and would’ve almost certainly dominated with more than 80% of the vote, so we sidestepped it. So, that in mind: Purdue can boast the two biggest winners in this survey question. (In 2020, there was no live recruiting period and, due to COVID, we didn’t run our Candid Coaches series that year.)
Here are the previous winners and their total percentage of votes.
2024: Cooper Flagg, Duke (36%)2022: Drew Timme, Gonzaga (44%)2021: Timme (45%)2019: Cassius Winston, Michigan State (50%)2018: RJ Barrett, Duke (16%)2017: Michael Porter Jr., Missouri (20%)2016: Grayson Allen, Duke (13%)2015: Kris Dunn, Providence (26%)2014: Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin (17%)2013: Marcus Smart, Oklahoma State (34%)2012: Cody Zeller, Indiana (35%)
Smith is listed at 6 feet, 170 pounds, but in reality he’s probably just shy of both those measurements. Which makes his standing in this poll all the more impressive. It speaks to his value, durability, intelligence and guile, particularly when there’s another returning First Team A-Aer in Toppin and three freshmen who are vying for what could be a tremendous race for the No. 1 pick in 2026. Keep in mind, Smith also got that many votes while playing alongside Trey Kaufmann-Renn, who in fact led Purdue in scoring a season ago (20.1 to Smith’s 15.8).
Because of his diminutive stature, and (I guess?) because Purdue hasn’t yet won a national title under Matt Painter, Smith is sometimes dismissed by college basketball casuals who troll on social media, looking to hate because that’s become sports-fan dopamine more and more. But their opinions don’t matter. In college hoops, in the eyes of the experts who know the game at this level and see what skills impact winning the most, Smith is a runaway favorite. By the way, he was ranked 198th coming out of high school.
As for the others …
Toppin should be an absolute monster this season. I’m excited to see how he expands his game and how he handles all the hype and being the target for every team, every night. Peterson, Dybantsa and Boozer are all drastically different players, and boy oh boy what a strong freshman trio the game will be gifted this season. Peterson’s going to have a chance to be the most athletic, must-watch guard in the country. Dybantsa’s length and natural scoring ability could put him among the best freshmen scorers we’ve seen in the past 15 years. Boozer is an unrelenting big whose knack for making winning plays is as reliable as almost any freshman in the past generation.
Add in Dent (such a tempting dark horse pick for NPOY) and Lendeborg (who joined Flagg as the only players last season to lead their teams in all five major statistical categories) and I think we’ve got another potent group of stars ready to immediately shine come early November.
With Haggery, Stirtz and Uzan all getting votes as well — each of them deserving of a nod, I think — the player best player to not get at least one vote? I’d probably pick Kentucky’s Otega Oweh. And there’s plenty more lined up right behind him.
