Who would make a college basketball all-star game? Smith, Lendeborg, Boozer headline East

If college basketball had an NBA-style midseason all-star game, what would the rosters look like?

We divided the country along the Mississippi River and created East and West rosters of college basketball’s very best players. With most of the ACC, Big East, Big Ten and SEC, the East region is overstuffed with options, forcing us to make some difficult cuts.

This is the second part of our series — here’s the East roster (if you missed the West, check it out here).

Starters

Braden Smith, Purdue

A four-year starter and the maestro of one of the best offenses in the sport, Smith fits the senior captain and point guard role on this squad. He remains in the hunt to break the NCAA’s all-time career assist record, and his pick-and-roll mastery makes life easier on his teammates.

He actively creates passing angles that few others can even conceive, and his shooting — 51.7 percent from midrange per CBB Analytics, 41.9 percent from 3 — means you cannot just sag off him and make him be a scorer.

Keaton Wagler, Illinois

Even the considerable early-season hype around Wagler could not have predicted this. The unheralded freshman has risen to the top of the sport, among the strongest challengers to Cameron Boozer’s National Player of the Year campaign, thanks to his remarkable offensive prowess.

Wagler shows shades of Stephen Curry: underrecruited but dominant through his feel, change of pace and long-range shooting touch, while still underdeveloped physically.

Per CBB Analytics, Wagler is hitting 45.6 percent of his 3s that come from 25-plus feet. That’s ridiculous. As he gets stronger and tightens his handle, he is going to become even more unstoppable.

Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan

The connective tissue between Michigan’s gargantuan frontcourt and skilled backcourt, Lendeborg is the versatile destroyer that gives Dusty May tremendous lineup flexibility. He ranks in the 100th percentile in CBB Analytics’ Regularized Adjusted Plus-Minus (RAPM), which isolates how much better Michigan performs when he’s on the court compared to an average player.

Even as Lendeborg struggles with his 3-point shot in Big Ten play, he remains one of the most efficient offensive players in the country because of his authoritative finishing, activity on the offensive glass, and intelligent passing. He also impacts the game in myriad ways defensively.

Cameron Boozer, Duke

Boozer is the overwhelming favorite for national player of the year. Of course, he is going to start on this all-star team! Boozer is the model of consistency, averaging 23 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, no matter who the Blue Devils face.

His feel and footwork are far beyond his years, and he’s lethal in any way Jon Scheyer chooses to deploy him. Boozer ranks in the 78th percentile or higher in efficiency across all eight primary play types, via Synergy. Percentile rankings compare him to all Division I players.

Whether you think he is the top pick in the NBA Draft or not, there’s very little debate that Boozer is currently the best and most productive player in college basketball.

Caleb Wilson, North Carolina

Neither Wilson nor Boozer is a true center, but we’re bending positional rules to get the five best players on the court. Wilson’s athleticism is remarkable, and he leads the country in dunks as a result (67, per Bart Torvik, narrowly edging out the 64 from Kansas’ Flory Bidunga).

He is more than just the eye-popping highlight reels, though, displaying an efficient mid-post arsenal, strong passing instincts and an ability to drive around slower-footed big men. Like Boozer, he is wildly consistent: He has tallied between 20 and 23 points in 12 of UNC’s last 16 contests.

However, Wilson is out indefinitely with a fractured left hand, creating another spot. Auburn’s Keyshawn Hall, an immensely productive scorer for a likely NCAA Tournament team, makes the most sense as a replacement. To fill Wilson’s spot in the starting group, I would elevate St. John’s center Zuby Ejiofor, as the East’s lineup needs real size to combat the West’s interior heft.

Bench

Jeremy Fears, Michigan State

Fears’ extracurricular activities on the court have made the most noise lately. However, on sheer ability and impact, he is an incredibly worthy honoree. His ludicrous 53.5 percent assist rate is out of this world. For context, the best final season rate in the past five years was 49.1 percent, by Saint Louis’s Yuri Collins in 2023.

His 4.13 assist/turnover ratio is also absurd. Michigan State’s entire offense is letting Fears run ball screens and probe gaps until he gets into the paint or finds a passing target. He’s a pesky on-ball defender, as well. He may not be your favorite player, but he’d be great on an all-star team.

Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt

Tanner’s emergence as a dominant force this year is one of the best under-the-radar stories in the sport. A tiny speedster who lives in the lane or can launch from deep, Tanner recently exploded for 37 points against Oklahoma — and he may be even more impactful on the defensive end. He’s top 30 nationally in steal rate, and his devious ball pressure helps fuel Vandy’s transition attack.

He’s pesky, fighting over screens and his defensive impact shows up in advanced metrics: He ranks fourth among all Division I point guards in Evan Miya’s Defensive Bayesian Performance Rating, which measures how much better a team’s defense performs with a player on the court, and is right below Arizona’s Jaden Bradley in the rankings.

Tyler Tanner has been a two-way force for Vanderbilt this season. (John Reed / Imagn Images)

Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Tennessee

Gillespie was somehow not a midseason finalist for the Bob Cousy Award (which speaks to the incredible depth at that position), but he warrants a spot on this all-star team for a bevy of reasons. He’s an analytical darling, ranking 12th nationally among all players in EvanMiya’s BPR, an all-in-one impact stat that combines box score and play-by-play data.

He is an invaluable creator, defender and shooter for the top-20 Volunteers, and beyond him and freshman Nate Ament, Tennessee sorely lacks perimeter creation. He has struggled to finish at the rim this year, but his overall impact and irreplaceability earn him a spot on the squad.

Labaron Philon, Alabama

The catalyst for one of the nation’s fastest and most efficient offenses, Philon has fully completed the transformation from Mark Sears’ perimeter sidekick to high-usage alpha — and he got more efficient while doing so. He is absolutely devastating as a ball screen creator, ranking in the 99th percentile in frequency and the 87th percentile in points per possession in those actions, per Synergy. That effectiveness is buoyed by his outstanding runner/floater package, deftly finishing over the top of bigs once he gets downhill past his man. He has also impressively raised both his volume and effectiveness from beyond the arc. He’s not a defensive ace, but his overall offensive impact is enormous.

Thomas Haugh, Florida

Florida’s balanced scoring makes them a difficult all-star case. All five starters have usage rates between 19 and 23 percent, meaning the individual stats do not leap off the page. But the Gators are the best team in the SEC and a true Final Four contender, so I wanted a representative, and Haugh barely edges out teammate Rueben Chinyelu for the honor.

Haugh’s malleability makes him a vital linchpin in Florida’s massive lineups, as he can defend smaller players and knock down perimeter shots. That means Todd Golden can play big without fully sacrificing spacing or defense. Chinyelu’s jaw-dropping rebounding numbers and elite defense give him a strong case, as well. Still, Haugh is a few notches higher per EvanMiya analytics, plays way more minutes and is the Gators’ leading scorer.

Tarris Reed, UConn

Silas Demary Jr. is probably UConn’s more worthy option: His on/off splits are better than Reed’s, and he’s 9th nationally in EvanMiya’s BPR, compared to Reed landing 28th. If you wanted to take Demary instead as a UConn representative, I would have no issue with that. However, I needed another big man to anchor the paint, so I pivoted to Reed, a rebounding colossus who makes his hay via physical post seals around the rim in UConn’s patient half-court offense. He is also an imposing defensive presence for a top-five unit, per KenPom, and he has displayed surprisingly effective passing vision this year, as well.

Zuby Ejiofor, St. John’s

Ejiofor has been as advertised this year, dominating the paint with his relentless effort and brutish physicality. He remains one of the conference’s best finishers despite drastically raising his usage (26.5 percent compared to 21.1 percent last year, per KenPom), and is also a stout defensive presence.

His remarkable evolution as a playmaker warrants significantly more attention: He is seventh in the Big East in assist rate conference games, and his season-long assist rate of 21.8 percent dwarfs his last two season rates of 9.3 and 10.6 percent.

Honorable mention: Demary, UConn; Ament, Tennessee; Morez Johnson, Michigan; Chinyelu, Florida; Quadir Copeland, NC State, Otega Oweh, Kentucky; Aday Mara, Michigan; Nick Boyd, Wisconsin; Bruce Thornton, Ohio State; Ryan Conwell, Louisville