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Men’s College Basketball Awards: No. 1 Seeds Sweep Naismith Honors
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On Monday, UConn and Michigan will battle for the national championship, and another men’s college basketball trip around the sun will be complete.
Before the ball is tipped, however, three of the sport’s most prestigious individual honors must be handed out. On Sunday, the Atlanta Tipoff Club presented the Naismith Men’s College Player of the Year, the Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year, and the Naismith Men’s College Defensive Player of the Year awards to their trio of winners. In 2025, these awards went to Duke forward Cooper Flagg, St. John’s coach Rick Pitino and Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner, respectively.
Here, in tabular form, are your 2026 winners—along with a brief look at their seasons and careers.
2026 men’s Naismith award winners
AWARD | WINNER |
|---|---|
Men’s College Player of the Year | Cameron Boozer, forward, Duke |
Men’s College Coach of the Year | Tommy Lloyd, Arizona |
Men’s College Defensive Player of the Year | Rueben Chinyelu, center, Florida |
Men’s College Player of the Year: Cameron Boozer, forward, Duke
Boozer’s award is the 10th in the Blue Devils’ storied history, He joins guard Johnny Dawkins (1986), forward Danny Ferry (1989), center Christian Laettner (1992), center Elton Brand (1999), forward Shane Battier (2001), guard Jay Williams (2002), guard J.J. Redick (2006), forward Zion Williamson (2019) and Flagg.
The son of former Duke center Carlos Boozer more than lived up to the hype he garnered entering this season as one of the nation’s top recruits. He averaged 22.5 points, an ACC-high 10.2 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game, and his advanced metrics were even better—he led Division I in offensive win shares, defensive win shares, and total win shares. In fact, his 10.38 win shares were the second-most by any men’s player in any season in the 2020s, trailing Purdue center Zach Edey’s 10.47 in 2024.
The other finalists for the award were Arkansas guard Darius Acuff Jr., BYU forward AJ Dybantsa and Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg.
Men’s College Coach of the Year: Tommy Lloyd, Arizona
Lloyd is the first Wildcats coach to win the award, and just the fourth-ever Big 12 coach to win it. Kansas’s Roy Williams won the award in 1997, the Jayhawks’ Bill Self won in 2012 and Kansas State’s Jerome Tang won in 2023.
Arizona hired the Kelso, Wash., native away from his longtime post as a Gonzaga assistant before the 2022 season—a move that paid immediate dividends as the Wildcats went 33–4 and reached the Sweet 16. Since then, Lloyd has gone 148–36 and Arizona has resumed its 1990s-era position among the nation’s elite. The Wildcats’ Final Four trip this year was their first since 2001; they lost 91–73 to Michigan Saturday (Lloyd, to the surprise of several present, still showed up to accept his award in person).
Other finalists for this award included Fred Hoiberg of Nebraska, Dusty May of Michigan and Jon Scheyer of Duke.
Men’s College Defensive Player of the Year: Rueben Chinyelu, center, Florida
Chinyelu, a native of Enugwu-Agidi, Nigeria, is the first Gator to win the Naismith Men’s College Defensive Player of the Year award and the second SEC player after Auburn center Walker Kessler in 2022.
Starting his career at Washington State in ’24, Chinyelo transferred to Florida and started every game of the Gators’ national championship season in ’25. In ’26, he further raised his game, averaging 11.2 rebounds per game to lead the SEC, grabbing nearly a quarter (24.2%) of boards available while on the floor.
There were three other finalists for that award: Kansas forward Flory Bidunga, St. John’s forward Zuby Ejiofor and Houston forward Joseph Tugler.
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Patrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a double major in history .