College Basketball: Top 5 candidates for Player of the Year

What initially looked like a wide-open race for college basketball’s Player of the Year is quickly coming into focus.

Last season, the college basketball landscape was dominated by impact freshmen. The Kentucky Wildcats put together a remarkable a 38-1 run behind one of the best group of underclassman the game has ever seen, while one-and-dones like Jahlil Okafor and Justise Winslow led the Duke Blue Devils to the national title.

That’s not the case in 2015-16 as the season moves into the back half of conference play. Upperclassmen are leading the way in what’s becoming a wide-open race to the Final Four where no team can seem to hold on to a No. 1 ranking for more than a week.

Just two freshmen were on the midseason Wooden Award watchlist, one of the many awards given to the national player of the year: Kentucky’s Jamal Murray and Ben Simmons of the LSU Tigers. While Simmons has lived up to the hype, neither is likely to win National Player of the Year recognition.

As dominant as freshmen have been in the one-and-done era, seniors have swept the Player of the Year awards the last two seasons. Doug McDermott of the Creighton Bluejays won in 2013, while Frank Kaminsky took home honors last season en route to leading the Wisconsin Badgers to the title game.

That streak is likely to be extended to three this season. After the race for Player of the Year looked like a complete toss-up following nonconference play, Buddy Hield of the Oklahoma Sooners has separated himself over the past few weeks with some historically good shooting numbers.

While Hield has a commanding lead in the race for Player of the Year, he still needs to finish strong and hold off a number of talented standouts. The field is bunched up after Hield, but a few candidates have separated themselves with five weeks until Selection Sunday.

Next: Dillon Brooks, Oregon