Big Ten Player of the Year Power Rankings: Keaton Wagler vs. Yaxel Lendeborg

Illinois’ Brad Underwood put it best after his team’s win at Nebraska: “Awards go to the teams that win." With that in mind, the top two players on our updated Big Ten Player of the Year list hail from the two squads knotted in a two-way tie atop the league standings (Illinois and Michigan). Here is the entire top five:

Top 5 Big Ten Basketball Player of the Year power rankings

No. 5: Bennett Stirtz, Iowa

The Hawkeyes are 6-4 in Big Ten play, but they have rattled off four straight wins – thanks in very large part to lead guard Bennett Stirtz. Perhaps the most indispensable player in the country, Stirtz is the heartbeat of this Iowa team.

There are other valuable pieces (Tavion Banks has been impressive), but Stirtz carries a large burden – and he does it with impressive ease. Over the four-game win streak, Stirtz has scored at least 20 points in each outing while also averaging 4.8 assists. He capped it all off with a severely overlooked 32-point, seven-assist, two-steal, zero-turnover performance in a blowout win at Oregon on Sunday night.

No. 4: Jeremy Fears Jr., Michigan State

Grumble about Jeremy Fears Jr.’s antics all you want, but one way or another, he gets the job done. Although it took 31 free-throw attempts, he is scoring 30 points per game over the past two outings – and, mind you, he’s a pass-first lead guard. In that same stretch, he also averaged 8.0 assists while snatching four total steals. And none of that includes his 17-point, 17-assist effort in a 43-point win against Maryland.

An extremely high-IQ, unflappable floor general and perhaps the top whistle-drawer in the nation, Fears has a unique offensive package, but it’s quite effective. Defensively, he’s an on-ball pest who boasts absurd advanced numbers for a guard (seventh among Big Ten players in defensive box plus-minus). Nevertheless, he doesn’t have much help, and it’ll continue to take Herculean feats for Michigan State to even compete with the premier teams in the league.

No. 3: Braden Smith, Purdue

There may not be a better player in the Big Ten than Braden Smith, but a player’s impact can be only so valuable if his team isn’t winning. Purdue dropped three in a row before getting back on track by steamrolling Maryland. Smith has continued to (mostly) do Smith things – aside from a few costly, out-of-character turnovers down the stretch in late games.

Braden Smith on the reload!@BoilerBall is cookin' pic.twitter.com/rcyPLAJbBG
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) February 1, 2026

But the averages – 15.3 points (50.0 percent from the field), 3.6 rebounds, 8.9 assists and 1.8 steals – remain remarkable, while he passes the eye test with flying colors, as always. Expect Smith and his Boilermakers to right the ship, but until they find consistency and beat a top conference squad (at Nebraska next week is a fantastic opportunity), he’s stuck outside the top two of our list.

No. 2: Keaton Wagler, Illinois

Keaton Wagler’s 46-point afternoon at Purdue was a loud performance. Everyone from here to Shawnee, Kansas, knew he had 40-plus. The entire game went through Wagler. He took – and hit – high-degree-of-difficulty, heavily contested shots.

On Sunday at Nebraska, though, he had a relatively quiet showing – yet still wound up with 28 points. Wagler, despite being a high-usage player, finds ways to score within the flow of the game, rarely forcing the issue and consistently making the right play. He just so happened to sandwich a 22-point, eight-assist night against Washington in between those two marquee performances in top-five road wins.

Wagler is now averaging 18.1 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists (against just 1.5 turnovers) while shooting a conference-best 43.8 percent from long range (hitting 2.5 per game). The driving force on the hottest non-undefeated team in the country, Wagler has a really strong argument for the top spot … but he’s not quite there just yet.

No. 1: Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan

Yaxel Lendeborg finally broke through with a statement effort in Big Ten play – and it couldn’t have come against a better opponent, at least as far as Wolverines fans are concerned. He went for 26 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks in a win at Michigan State.

A killer on the offensive glass (he has averaged 4.7 offensive boards over the past three games), skilled at driving on closeouts, a gifted finisher and a respectable long-range shooter, Lendeborg can do it all offensively. To understand his strengths (and relative weaknesses) as well as he does and be so willing to take a back seat at times despite being one of the best players in college basketball is truly admirable – and it’s a key reason Michigan is ranked No. 2 in the nation.

And that’s just on offense. Defensively, there isn’t a player in the NCAA who possesses a better combination of on-ball versatility (Lendeborg can guard 1 through 5), rim-protection ability and off-ball IQ. It certainly doesn’t hurt that he plays alongside fellow defensive standouts Aday Mara and Morez Johnson Jr., but Michigan’s defensive prowess all comes back to Lendeborg’s extraordinarily diverse skill set on that end.