Despite Duke’s loss, Tre Jones solidly in running for the Wooden Award

With another chaotic week of college basketball now in the books, as well as a plethora of surprising upsets and victories, we’re making a plethora of changes in our Wooden Award rankings.

The No. 1 team in college basketball has fallen three times in the month of November — an unprecedented historical event. Michigan State, Kentucky and now Duke have all fallen in unexpected manners in the young campaign.

Michigan State fell to the Kentucky Wildcats in an early-season matchup. Kentucky then took the No. 1 spot. Kentucky then fell to Evansville.

Spoiler alert: Evansville didn’t take the No. 1 spot, but Duke did.

Then, in dramatic fashion, Duke fell to the Lumberjacks of Stephen F. Austin.

Has anyone trademarked “November Madness” yet?

We’ve seen breakout star Cole Anthony dominate the sport, while breakout players continue to come out of unexpected areas and shine for the nation to witness. It’s not even just players buying into the Madness this early in the season — the new anti-flopping rules are also bringing up important questions.

Needless to say, college basketball is back.

Thus, so is the heralded award given to the top player in college basketball who manages to navigate the sea of confusion each year — the Wooden Award. Last week, we saw North Carolina’s freshman starlet Anthony take the lead in the race for the nation’s top player, overtaking Michigan State senior Cassius Winston.

Anthony has continued his stellar performances, and Winston has kept pace, despite his team’s falling to a (in my opinion, very underrated) Virginia Tech Hokies squad on a neutral court in Maui. At the lower half of the list, we’ve already seen some turmoil and changes in terms of who lands in the No. 3, 4 and 5 spots on our Wooden list. This week is no different, with a shakeup happening and even a new face appearing.

Will there be another shakeup this week? Or how about there being another  new face on the list?

Let’s break down this week’s edition of our player of the year rankings.

5. Myles Powell

According to the Kenneth Pomeroy rankings, the Seton Hall Pirates have been the 19th-best team in college basketball this season and have the No. 18 offense in the nation after their first five games.

Most of that strength and almost all of that offensive prowess comes from the scoring dynamo that is senior Myles Powell. Powell has scored more than twice as many points, at 22.6 per game, than the next-highest scoring player, Sandro Mamukelashvili, who is averaging 11.2 per game.

Powell is an incredibly dynamic scorer, and he and the Seton Hall Pirates will get their next big test of the year (the only other one of note being their close loss against Michigan State) Wednesday night when they face Oregon in the Battle 4 Atlantis.

4. Markus Howard

At times, the Marquette Golden Eagles seemingly turn into “The Markus Howard show.”

That’s not a knock on Howard’s teammates, but more a testament to just how good Markus Howard has been the last three years and is expected to be this season. He’s one of the nation’s best natural scorers, with an ability to get to the basket as well as shoot the 3 that is almost certain to see him picked up ahead of next year’s NBA season.

Howard slips just a bit this week thanks to some stellar play from Tre Jones in recent games, but retains a strong spot on this list. Howard and the Marquette Golden Eagles currently have the No. 34 overall offense on the Kenneth Pomeroy rankings and also have the No. 40 overall defense.

A lot of that stellar play comes as a direct result of Markus Howard’s ability on both sides of the court. He may have slipped a little thanks to some less-than-expected numbers, but is still averaging 21.3 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game on the season while shooting over 40 percent from the field.

Look for Howard to continue to improve as the season gets older, starting with his next game against a tough Davidson team.

3. Tre Jones

As the duo of Tre Jones and Vernon Carey Jr. have gotten more games under its belt, the whole Blue Devils team has benefited. Well, except for when those Blue Devils were paired up against the mighty Lumberjacks.

Tre Jones and the Duke squad fell to the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks in a game where the Blue Devils struggled on the offensive end. The only bright spot was the continuously improving duo of Jones, the sophomore guard, and Carey, the freshman center.

Jones put up 17 points and 12 assists against SFA, and is currently averaging 15.1 points per game to pair with 7.0 assists on the season. He’s also shown true scoring capabilities (his recent 31-point game comes to mind) but elects to be more of a chance creator for this Duke squad, opening things up for Carey on the inside.

When you make it to your sophomore year at Duke, you’re the team veteran. Tre Jones is a true leader for this team, and sits among the top players in line to have a shot at this year’s Wooden award.

2. Cassius Winston

It’s always a tough scene when the team, which you are hailed as the untested leader of, falls in an upset loss on a neutral court. That’s only magnified when you come into the season as the No. 1 seed.

The Michigan State Spartans are still one of the best teams in the country, even though the team as a whole has had a pretty rocky, slow start with losses to Kentucky and Virginia Tech.

Though credit where credit is due, Winston has done just about everything to help his team in the early goings of the season. He is averaging 17.5 points, 2.2 rebounds and a solid 6.3 assists a night while also shooting over 40 percent from the field.

Winston is the clear leader of this Spartans team, and if they are to continue to be hailed as a contender all the way through, much of this is going to come from his play. He put up a solid 20-point showing against the UCLA Bruins in a game where Michigan State looked to finally put some pieces together.

1. Cole Anthony

The 2019-20 college basketball season has been, at least for those of us interested in watching the nation’s best players night in and night out, the Cole Anthony Show.

At the beginning of the year, questions were raised about who from the class of 2019 would rise from the pack of star freshman and fill in the large (very literally) shoes of Zion Williamson, as the man who always seemed to be capable of a real-life NBA Street game-breaker moved on to the NBA.

Anthony has largely filled that void so far this season, posting 22.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game while also averaging just a minimum of turnovers despite being the clear-cut first option for the Tar Heels this season.

The team heavily relies on Anthony, and if he keeps up his promising start to the year, he may make himself a shoo-in for the Wooden Award, and maybe even the first overall selection in the 2020 NBA Draft.