Feast Week is formally over, which implies there’s no higher time to unveil the primary version of this season’s Ballislife Nationwide Participant of the Yr Ladder. This can be a weekly tracker that examines the resumes of the 5 main candidates, with twists and turns positive to be aplenty if the primary few weeks of the season are any indication.
Headlining this week’s listing is a doubtlessly generational freshman ahead, a 23-year-old journeyman who has a narrative as loopy as his high-flying sport, and a Las Vegas native who’s coming off an insanely spectacular efficiency on the Gamers Period Championship in his personal city. Come to think about it, just a few of those guys placed on a present underneath the Strip’s shiny lights final week. Or in one other unique location.
With the eyes of the nation watching Duke’s nationally-televised bout with Arkansas on Thanksgiving evening, essentially the most achieved prep participant in trendy historical past delivered a efficiency that made him the clear NPOY frontrunner.
Boozer poured in 35 factors in an 81-71 win over the Razorbacks in Chicago, making 13-of-18 makes an attempt from the sphere along with grabbing 9 rebounds. Duke’s win pushed them to 7-0 of their non-conference schedule with further double-digit wins towards Texas and No. 24 Kansas.
The tremendous freshman isn’t a one-game marvel, both. He ranks sixth in the complete nation with 22.9 factors per sport this season and even has a further 35-point sport on a extra environment friendly 13-of-16 taking pictures in a 38-point win over Indiana State. With Darryn Peterson injured and A.J. Dybantsa going via a bit extra rising pains, issues are lining up for Boozer to run away with the key NPOY awards and doubtlessly the No. 1 general choice in June’s NBA Draft.
It’s unimaginable to argue towards Boozer as the present frontrunner, given his present tempo, however the efficiency Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg placed on tape virtually convinces you to have the dialog anyway. His Wolverines seemed unbeatable in Vegas final week, rattling off 40-point wins over San Diego State and No. 12 Gonzaga and a 30-point win over No. 21 Auburn.
Lendeborg has been the motor behind Michigan’s unreal begin, main the workforce in scoring in 5 of its first seven video games and doing so in a method that may solely be described as eye-popping. Lendeborg put down a trio of highlight-reel dunks throughout Gonzaga’s thrashing, salting the wound for a Zags workforce that seemed pretty much as good as any in latest reminiscence heading into that sport.
It’s positively not unhealthy for a 23-year-old in Lendeborg who performed simply 11 varsity basketball video games in highschool and was pressured to go the JUCO route at Arizona Western. Regardless of the dearth of high-level expertise, the plain athleticism that’s so obvious at this time finally landed him a scholarship at UAB, the place he gained back-to-back AAC Defensive Participant of the Yr awards earlier than commanding a serious NIL wage to switch to Michigan in lieu of coming into the NBA Draft final summer season. Once more, not unhealthy.
Yaxel Lendeborg placed on fairly a present for the various NBA executives assembled in Las Vegas. Pushing off the glass, discovering teammates on the transfer, creating off the bounce and making photographs. The 6’10 large man can do some little bit of all the things. pic.twitter.com/SIOxapJWRS
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) November 26, 2025
Whereas Lendeborg had the flashier and finally extra noteworthy efficiency within the desert final week given Michigan’s dominance, you may make an actual case that the best and most useful efficiency of the week got here from Iowa State senior Joshua Jefferson.
It was an additional particular week for Jefferson, who graduated from Liberty Excessive College in neighboring Henderson. The senior ahead tallied 17 factors towards No. 14 St. John’s, an 18-point double-double on the rebounds line towards Creighton and a 13-point double-double on the assists line towards Syracuse to guide his Cyclones to a 3-0 report in essentially the most aggressive November multi-team occasion in school basketball historical past.
Jefferson improved his season-long averages to 17.6 factors, 7.9 rebounds and 5 assists per sport. Not solely that, his 1.560 KenPom Participant of the Yr ranking (kPOY) ranks second nationwide, trailing solely Boozer’s exceptional 2.381.
Wilson is the one participant on this week’s listing who’s on a workforce that’s suffered a loss this season, however the stat traces the surefire top-five decide has been placing as much as begin the season all however forgive a single (albeit decisive) slip-up towards Tom Izzo’s always-prepared Michigan State Spartans.
For instance, Wilson put up 23 factors on 9-of-13 taking pictures and grabbed 12 rebounds in a 26-point win over Navy. That was simply 4 days after he went 7-for-8 from the sphere in a 21-point, 13-rebound efficiency towards North Carolina Central during which he additionally collected three blocks on the defensive finish.
Wilson’s lowest scoring output of the season is a 13-point sport on an environment friendly evening towards Radford, however he’s scored at the very least 18 factors within the Tar Heels’ six different video games this season. As soon as this workforce will get into ACC play and we begin seeing what Wilson can do towards some colleges value watching North Carolina play towards, he ought to preserve a daily presence on this listing.
There are few switch selections that made extra sense than Bennett Stirtz following his outdated Drake coach Ben McCollum to Des Moines this season. The duo that made these Bulldogs a preferred Cinderella decide on loads of brackets final March appears to be like to be as much as all their outdated methods once more this season. Simply in a black and gold Hawkeyes jersey.
Stirtz leads the Hawkeyes with averages of 18.7 factors per sport, 5.4 assists and 1.7 steals per sport. He additionally led Iowa to the Acrisure Basic crown in Palm Desert throughout Feast Week, catching eyes with a 29-point efficiency to guide the Hawkeyes to a 15-point win over an at all times powerful to beat Ole Miss squad coached by Chris Beard.
Stirtz goes to have his work minimize out for him in a Large 10 convention that’s trying much more harmful than common this season, however he will get the nod over Purdue’s Braden Smith and Houston’s Kingston Flemings this week on account of his carrying of the Hawkeyes this season.
