The 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 13. The first tournament was the

2K Sports Classic The Empire Classic, formerly known as the 2K Sports Classic, is an annual college basketball event played in November at the beginning of the season and televised by ESPN. Originally known as the Atlantic City Shootout and produced by the Gazel ...

and ended with the Final Four in

Houston Houston (; ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas, the Southern United States#Major cities, most populous city in the Southern United States, the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most pop ...

April 2–4. Practices officially began on October 2.

Rule changes

The following rule changes were proposed by the NCAA Men's Rules Committee for the 2015–16 season, and officially approved by the NCAA Men's Playing Rules Oversight Panel: * Reducing the shot clock from 35 to 30 seconds (same as the women's game). * Providing offensive players the same verticality protections as defensive players. * Extending the restricted-area arc from 3 feet to 4 feet from the basket. * Reducing the number of team timeouts from 5 to 4, with a limit of no more than 3 timeouts in the second half. * Ending the practice of coaches calling timeouts from the bench in live-ball situations. * Tightening the 10-second backcourt rule, under which the offensive team has 10 seconds to advance the ball from the backcourt to the frontcourt. The following situations, all of which resulted in a reset of the 10-second count under previous rules, no longer reset the count: ** The defense deflects the ball out of bounds. ** A held ball situation in the offensive backcourt in which the possession arrow favors the offense. ** A technical foul against the offensive team during possession in its own backcourt. * Eliminating the five-second "closely-guarded" rule while the ball is being dribbled. * Allowing for technical fouls to be called on players who are determined to have faked a foul while reviewing for a flagrant foul. * Allow video replay of shot-clock violations throughout the game. Previously, this type of review was limited to only the final 2:00 of the game and in overtime. * "Class B" technical fouls, such as hanging on the rim and delay of game, now result in one free throw by the non-violating team instead of the previous two. * Requiring that a timeout taken 30 seconds or less before a scheduled media timeout break (which are at 16:00, 12:00, 8:00, and 4:00 of each half) become the media timeout. This particular change had been made in NCAA women's basketball effective with the 2013–14 season. * Stricter enforcement of resumption of play after timeouts, and reducing from 20 seconds to 15 seconds the time allowed to replace a disqualified (fouled out) player. Teams will receive a delay-of-game warning after the first violation, and a Class B technical foul for each subsequent violation. * Dunking will be allowed during team warmups and halftime. * An experimental rule allowing players six personal fouls instead of five will be used in all national postseason tournaments except for the NCAA tournament.

Season headlines

* May 27 – The NCAA announced its Academic Progress Rate (APR) sanctions for the 2015–16 school year. A total of 21 programs in 9 sports were declared ineligible for postseason play due to failure to meet the required APR benchmark, including the following four Division I men's basketball teams: **

Alcorn State Alcorn State University (Alcorn State, ASU or Alcorn) is a public historically black land-grant university adjacent to Lorman, Mississippi. It was founded in 1871 and was the first black land grant college established in the United States. On ...

** Florida A&M ** Stetson ** Central Arkansas * June 29 –

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

head coach Bo Ryan announced he would retire at the end of the 2015–16 season. * August 13 – Ryan backed away from his previously announced retirement plans, saying that he was open to staying on beyond this season and that he would make his decision in the coming months. * September 29 – The NCAA announced penalties against SMU following an investigation into a wide array of violations: ** The Mustangs were banned from postseason play for 2015–16. ** Head coach Larry Brown was suspended for nine games. ** SMU lost nine men's basketball scholarships from 2016–17 through 2018–19. Since the team had only 11 scholarship players for 2015–16, two short of the NCAA limit of 13, the two unused scholarships counted toward the penalty. ** The men's basketball program was hit with three years' probation. * October 2 – Yahoo! Sports revealed that the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of ...

was investigating allegations made in a soon-to-be-published book whose author, a self-described madam, claimed that she had been paid thousands of dollars by former Louisville graduate assistant and director of basketball operations Andre McGee to provide women to dance for and have sex with Cardinals players and recruits. * November 10 – The

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...

preseason All-American team was released.

Gonzaga Gonzaga may refer to: Places * Gonzaga, Lombardy, commune in the province of Mantua, Italy * Gonzaga, Cagayan, municipality in the Philippines *Gonzaga, Minas Gerais, town in Brazil *Forte Gonzaga, fort in Messina, Sicily People with the surna ...

forward Kyle Wiltjer was the leading vote-getter (51 votes). Joining him on the team were Iowa State forward

Georges Niang Georges Niang (born June 17, 1993), nicknamed "The Minivan", is a Senegalese-American professional basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was an All-American college player for Iowa State Un ...

(46 votes), Providence guard Kris Dunn (43), Oklahoma guard Buddy Hield (40) and LSU forward Ben Simmons (28). * December 15 – Bo Ryan announced his retirement after a win against Texas A&M–Corpus Christi, effective immediately, with associate head coach

Greg Gard Gregory Glen Gard (born December 3, 1970) is an American college basketball coach for the Wisconsin Badgers . Gard took over on December 15, 2015, after Bo Ryan announced his retirement as head coach of the Badgers. Gard is a native of Cobb Wisco ...

assuming the title of interim head coach. * December 23 – The NCAA announced penalties against

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...

for significant violations of NCAA rules: ** Former head coach

Gib Arnold Gibson Kirk Arnold (born October 19, 1968) is an American college basketball player and coach. Early life and education Arnold was born in 1968, when his father Frank Arnold was an assistant coach at the University of Oregon. As Frank Arnold l ...

, who had been fired shortly before the 2014–15 season, received a three-year show-cause penalty. An assistant involved in the violations received a two-year show-cause. ** The Rainbow Warriors were banned from postseason play in 2016–17. ** The team lost two scholarships in both 2016–17 and 2017–18; it had previously announced a reduction of one scholarship for each of those seasons. * January 13 ** The NCAA Division I council approved the following changes to its rules regarding declaration for the NBA draft: *** Declaration for the draft no longer results in automatic loss of college eligibility. As long as a player does not sign a contract with a professional team outside the NBA, or sign with an agent, he will retain college eligibility as long as he makes a timely withdrawal from the draft. *** NCAA players now have until 10 days after the end of the NBA Draft Combine to withdraw from the draft. For 2016, the withdrawal date was May 25, about five weeks after the previous mid-April deadline. *** NCAA players may participate in the draft combine, and are also allowed to attend one tryout per year with each NBA team without losing college eligibility. *** NCAA players may now enter and withdraw from the draft multiple times without loss of eligibility. Previously, the NCAA treated a second declaration of draft eligibility as a permanent loss of college eligibility. **

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

admitted to major NCAA violations dating to 2011. While the NCAA had yet to announce its findings, Missouri voluntarily imposed the following sanctions: *** The Tigers would not participate in any postseason play this season, including the SEC tournament. *** All 23 of the Tigers' wins in the 2013–14 season were vacated. *** The Tigers lost one scholarship in each of the next two seasons, and restrict recruiting in 2016–17. * February 6 ** Louisville self-imposed a 2016 postseason ban. * March 10 ** The

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schoo ...

announced that it would institute men's and women's conference tournaments effective with the 2016–17 season. The top four teams in the regular-season standings qualify for each tournament. While the tournament winners receive automatic bids to the NCAA men's and women's tournaments, the official conference champions continue to be determined solely by regular-season results. The inaugural editions were held March 11–12, 2017 at the Palestra in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. * April 8 – The NCAA announced penalties against Southern Miss for a wide array of violations occurring during the tenure of former head coach

Donnie Tyndall Donald Joseph Tyndall (born June 14, 1970) is an American basketball coach currently working as the head coach for Chipola College of the NJCAA. Tyndall played college basketball at Iowa Central Community College and Morehead State and has been ...

. The NCAA's findings indicated that mere weeks after Tyndall became head coach, he directed program staffers to complete fraudulent coursework so that several recruits would ostensibly be eligible to play. It was also found that Tyndall had arranged for cash payments to recruits, fabricated documents in an attempt to cover up the payments, and deleted emails relevant to the investigation. ** Tyndall received a 10-year show-cause, and even after it expires in 2026, he will be suspended for 50% of his next full season as an NCAA coach. Three of his assistants receive 8-year, 7-year, and 6-year penalties. At the time, Tyndall planned to appeal his penalty. ** The NCAA accepted the school's self-imposed two-year postseason ban, but placed the Golden Eagles on three years' probation. All wins in which ineligible players participated were vacated, and the Golden Eagles lost four scholarships over the next three seasons.

Milestones and records

*During the season, the following players reached the 2000 career point milestone –

Evansville Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city i ...

guard D. J. Balentine, High Point forward John Brown, Hofstra guard

Juan'ya Green Juan'ya Green (born February 8, 1992) is an American basketball player, most recently as a member of Al Sadd in the Qatari Basketball League. He completed his college career in 2016 after having split his career playing for Niagara University and ...

, Louisiana–Lafayette forward Shawn Long, Iowa State forward

, Old Dominion guard Trey Freeman, Oklahoma guard Buddy Hield, Stony Brook forward Jameel Warney, Louisville guard Damion Lee,

Fresno State California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bachelo ...

guard Marvelle Harris,

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

swingman Kyle Wilson. and

Iona Iona (; gd, Ì Chaluim Chille (IPA: �iːˈxaɫ̪ɯimˈçiʎə, sometimes simply ''Ì''; sco, Iona) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides, off the Ross of Mull on the western coast of Scotland. It is mainly known for Iona Abbey, though the ...

guard

A. J. English Albert Jay "A. J." English (born July 11, 1967) is an American former professional basketball player who played two seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is also the father of current player A. J. English III. College Englis ...

. *November 26 –

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It ...

head coach

Tom Izzo Tom Izzo (, ); born January 30, 1955) is an American college basketball coach who has been the head coach at Michigan State University since 1995. On April 4, 2016, Izzo was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Izzo has led the Spar ...

wins his 500th game. *November 28 –

Davidson Davidson may refer to: * Davidson (name) * Clan Davidson, a Highland Scottish clan * Davidson Media Group * Davidson Seamount, undersea mountain southwest of Monterey, California, USA * Tyler Davidson Fountain, monument in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA ...

head coach Bob McKillop wins his 500th game. *November 28 – BYU's Kyle Collinsworth records his seventh career

triple-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the term ...

, giving him sole possession of the NCAA record. * January 26 –

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...

beats Wake Forest on a 9–1 run in the final fifteen seconds, including a

buzzer beater In basketball and other such timed sports, a buzzer beater is a shot that is taken before the game clock of a quarter, a half (if the half is the second one, then, a game), or an overtime period expires but does not go in the basket until after t ...

three-point bank shot from Darius Thompson, in a comeback highly noted for its statistical improbability. *February 1 –

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, t ...

's streak of 167 appearances in the

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broa ...

ended as the 5th longest streak of all time. * February 5 – Yale's Brandon Sherrod, who entered the Bulldogs' game against

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

one shy of the Division I record of 26 consecutive field goals made, makes his first five field goal attempts in Yale's 86–72 win to set a new record of 30. * February 8 – The 2015–16 Villanova Wildcats became the program's first team to reach number one in the AP Poll by climbing to the top of the

2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings Two human polls make up the 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings, the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll, in addition to various publications' preseason polls. Legend AP Poll USA Today Coaches Poll The Coaches Poll is the second ...

. *March 16 – In BYU's 97–79 victory over UAB in the first round of the NIT, Collinsworth posts his sixth triple-double of the season, tying his own single-season record from last season and extending his NCAA career record to 12.

Conference membership changes

After a tumultuous four years in which over 80 Division I schools moved to new conferences—some more than once—only two schools joined new conferences as full members for 2015–16: Another change in membership involved the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Texas. Due to most of ...

(WAC). This did not involve a school moving to a new league, but rather a change in identity of a Division I school. During the summer of 2015, the

University of Texas–Pan American , mottoeng = Education, the Guardian of Society , established = , closed = , type = Public university , endowment = $65 million , president = Dr. Havidan Rodriguez ...

(UTPA) and the University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) merged to form the new

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) is a public research university with multiple campuses throughout the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas and is the southernmost member of the University of Texas System. The University of Texas ...

(UTRGV). The UTPA athletic program was inherited by UTRGV, which retained UTPA's WAC membership. Following UAB's decision to drop football at the end of the 2014 season, its future membership in

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are ...

(C-USA) beyond 2014–15 was initially uncertain, as league bylaws require all member schools to either sponsor FBS football or be committed to establishing an FBS program. Due to ongoing efforts by boosters and other supporters to raise funds to bring UAB football back, C-USA indicated that UAB would be allowed to remain in the league for the 2015–16 season, but not beyond that time unless football was reinstated. On June 1, 2015, UAB initially announced that the football program would be reinstated in 2016, later pushing back the return of football to 2017; this was sufficient to satisfy C-USA, which announced that it would keep UAB as a member. The 2015–16 season was the last for Coastal Carolina in the

Big South Conference The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non- football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). ...

. On September 1, 2015, the university and the

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams partici ...

jointly announced that the Chanticleers would join the Sun Belt in July 2016, initially as a non-football member. The

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an all-s ...

will join the Sun Belt in 2017, the second year of its transition from FCS to FBS football.

New arenas

* The

Omaha Mavericks The Omaha Mavericks are the sports teams of the University of Nebraska Omaha The University of Nebraska Omaha (Omaha or UNO) is a public research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1908 by faculty from the Omaha Presbyterian Theologica ...

left their home since 2012, the off-campus

Ralston Arena The Liberty First Credit Union Arena, formerly known as Ralston Arena and sometimes as Ralston Sports and Event Center, is an arena located in Ralston, Nebraska, a suburb of Omaha. It serves as the home of the Omaha Lancers of the United States ...

, for the new on-campus

Baxter Arena Baxter Arena (previously known under the working name UNO Community Arena) is the sports arena owned and operated by the University of Nebraska Omaha located in Omaha, Nebraska. Completed in 2015, Baxter Arena serves as the home of several of the ...

. The Mavericks' first game in the new arena was on November 13 against the

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos are the intercollegiate athletic teams who represent the University of California, Santa Barbara. Referred to in athletic competition as ''UC Santa Barbara'' or ''UCSB'', the Gauchos participate in 19 NCAA Division I ...

, with the Mavericks losing 60–59. * The

Ole Miss Rebels The Ole Miss Rebels are the 18 men's and women's intercollegiate athletic teams that are funded by and represent the University of Mississippi, located in Oxford. The first was the football team, which began play in 1893. Originally known as th ...

also opened a new arena, but unlike Omaha, the move was from one campus venue to another. Tad Smith Coliseum, home to the Rebels since 1966, was replaced by The Pavilion at Ole Miss. The new arena, with a capacity of 9,500, opened on January 7, with the Rebels defeating

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

74–66.

Season outlook

Pre–season polls

The top 25 from the AP and USA Today Coaches Polls.

Regular season

Early season tournaments

Conference winners and tournaments

Thirty-one

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Con ...

s each end their

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability ...

s with a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final mat ...

. The team with the best regular-season record in each conference is given the number one seed in each tournament, with tiebreakers used as needed in the case of ties for the top seeding. All conferences also recognize regular-season champions, with co-championships being awarded in the case of ties. The winners of these tournaments receive automatic invitations to the

2016 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament The 2016 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the men's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college basketball national champion for the 20 ...

. For the final time, the

did not hold a conference tournament, instead giving its automatic invitation to its regular season champion.

Statistical leaders

Postseason

NCAA tournament

Tournament upsets

For this list, a "major upset" is defined as a win by a team seeded 7 or more spots below its defeated opponent. Final Four –

NRG Stadium NRG Stadium, formerly Reliant Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Houston, Texas, United States. Construction was completed in 2002, at a cost of $352 million and has a seating capacity of 72,220. It was the first NFL facility to have a retrac ...

, Houston, Texas

National Invitation tournament

After the NCAA tournament field was announced, the NCAA invited 32 teams to participate in the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

. The tournament began on March 15, 2016 with all games prior to the semifinals were played on campus sites.

NIT Semifinals and Final

Played at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsyl ...

in New York City on March 29 and 31 The semifinals and final were held on March 29 and March 31 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Vegas 16 tournament

After the NCAA tournament field was announced, 8 teams were invited to participate in the first ever Vegas 16 Tournament. The tournament began on March 28, 2016 with all 8 teams playing in the opening round. The semifinals was played on March 29, and the Championship game on March 30. All games were played at

Mandalay Bay Events Center The Michelob Ultra Arena, formerly the Mandalay Bay Events Center, is a 12,000-seat multi-purpose indoor arena at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned and operated by MGM Resorts In ...

in Las Vegas.

College Basketball Invitational

The ninth

College Basketball Invitational The College Basketball Invitational (CBI) is a men's college basketball tournament created in 2007 by The Gazelle Group. The inaugural tournament occurred after the conclusion of the 2007-08 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, 2007–08 men ...

(CBI) Tournament began on March 15, 2016. This tournament featured 16 teams who were left out of the NCAA tournament and NIT.

CollegeInsider.com Postseason tournament

The eighth CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament began on March 14 and ended with that championship game on March 29. This tournament places an emphasis on selecting successful teams from "mid-major" conferences who were left out of the NCAA tournament and NIT. 26 teams participated in this tournament.

Conference standings

Award winners

Consensus All-American teams

The following players are recognized as the 2016 Consensus All-Americans:

Major player of the year awards

* Wooden Award: Buddy Hield, Oklahoma * Naismith Award: Buddy Hield, Oklahoma * Associated Press Player of the Year: Denzel Valentine,

NABC Player of the Year The NABC Player of the Year is an award given annually by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) to recognize the top player in men's college basketball. The award has been given since the 1974–75 season to National Collegiate Athl ...

: Denzel Valentine, Michigan State *

Oscar Robertson Trophy The Oscar Robertson Trophy is given out annually to the outstanding men's college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the ...

(

USBWA The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) was founded in 1956 by National Collegiate Athletic Association director Walter Byers to serve the interests of journalists who cover college basketball. Scholarships The USBWA annually awar ...

): Buddy Hield, Oklahoma * ''Sporting News'' Player of the Year: Buddy Hield, Oklahoma

Major freshman of the year awards

* Wayman Tisdale Award (

): Ben Simmons, LSU

Major coach of the year awards

* Associated Press Coach of the Year:

Bill Self Billy Eugene Self Jr. (born December 27, 1962) is an American basketball coach. He is the head men's basketball coach at the University of Kansas, a position he has held since 2003. During his 19 seasons as head coach, he has led the Jayhawks to ...

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to ...

Henry Iba Award The Henry Iba Award was established in 1959 to recognize the best college basketball coach of the year by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA). Five nominees are presented and the individual with the most votes receives the a ...

(

): Chris Mack, Xavier *

NABC Coach of the Year The NABC Coach of the Year Award has been presented by the National Association of Basketball Coaches since . A longtime sponsor of the award was Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company th ...

: Bill Self, Kansas *

Naismith College Coach of the Year Naismith College Coach of the Year Award is an award given by the Atlanta Tipoff Club to one men's and one women's NCAA Division I collegiate coach each season since 1987. The award was originally given to the two winning coaches of the NCAA Divisi ...

: Jay Wright, Villanova * ''Sporting News'' Coach of the Year:

Tubby Smith Orlando Henry "Tubby" Smith (born June 30, 1951) is an American college basketball coach. He was the men's basketball coach at High Point University, his alma mater. Smith previously served in the same role at the University of Tulsa, the Unive ...

, Texas Tech

Other major awards

Bob Cousy Award The Bob Cousy Award presented by The College of the Holy Cross (or Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award) is an annual basketball award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the top men's collegiate point guard ...

(Best point guard):

Tyler Ulis Tyler Ulis (born January 5, 1996) is an American professional basketball coach who is an assistant coach for the Kentucky Wildcats of the SEC. He played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats. At Kentucky in 2015, he led his team in as ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...

* Jerry West Award (Best shooting guard): Buddy Hield, Oklahoma *

Julius Erving Award The Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award is an annual basketball award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the top men's collegiate small forward. Following the success of the Bob Cousy Award which had been awarde ...

(Best small forward): Denzel Valentine, Michigan State * Karl Malone Award (Best power forward):

, Iowa State *

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award The Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award is an annual basketball award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the top men's collegiate center. Following the success of the Bob Cousy Award which had been awarded sinc ...

(Best center): Jakob Pöltl,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

Pete Newell Big Man Award The Pete Newell Big Man Award has been awarded by the National Association of Basketball Coaches since 2000. It is presented to the top low-post player each season. The award is named after Pete Newell, the coach who ran the Pete Newell Big Man C ...

(Best big man): Jakob Pöltl, Utah * NABC Defensive Player of the Year: Malcolm Brogdon,

* Senior CLASS Award (top senior): Denzel Valentine, Michigan State *

Robert V. Geasey Trophy The Robert V. Geasey Trophy is awarded to the most outstanding men's basketball player in the Philadelphia Big 5, an informal association of college athletic programs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The trophy does not represent the e ...

(Top player in

Philadelphia Big 5 The Big 5 is an informal association of college athletic programs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is not a conference, but rather a group of NCAA Division I basketball schools who compete for the city’s collegiate championship. The Big 5 c ...

): DeAndre' Bembry, Saint Joseph's *

Haggerty Award __NOTOC__ The Lt. Frank J. Haggerty Award is given to the All-New York Metropolitan NCAA Division I men's college basketball player of the year, presented by the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and the Met Basketball Writers Association (MBWA) ...

(Top player in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

metro area): Isaiah Whitehead, Seton Hall * Ben Jobe Award (Top minority coach): Dana Ford, Tennessee State * Hugh Durham Award (Top mid-major coach): James Jones,

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

* Jim Phelan Award (Top head coach):

* Lefty Driesell Award (Top defensive player): Vashil Fernandez, Valparaiso * Lou Henson Award (Top mid-major player): Thomas Walkup, Stephen F. Austin *

Lute Olson Award The Lute Olson Award is an award given annually to the most outstanding men's college basketball player in NCAA Division I competition. The award was established in 2010 and is named for former Arizona Wildcats The Arizona Wildcats are the s ...

(Top non-freshman or transfer player): Denzel Valentine, Michigan State *

Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award The Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award is an award given annually to the nation's men's head basketball coach in NCAA Division I competition who also exhibits strong moral character. The award was established in 2008 and is named for head coach S ...

(Coach with moral character):

Zach Spiker Zachary John Spiker (born September 30, 1976) is an American college basketball coach and the current head basketball coach for the Drexel Dragons. A native of Morgantown, West Virginia, Spiker played college basketball at Ithaca College. He was ...

Academic All-American of the Year List of Academic All-America Team Members of the Year is a list of the annual selection by the College Sports Information Directors of America and its Academic All-America sponsor of the individual athlete selected as the most outstanding of the ...

(Top scholar-athlete): Jarrod Uthoff,

Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

* Elite 90 Award (Top GPA among upperclass players at Final Four): C. J. Cole, Oklahoma