National Player of the Year: Mark Sears, Alabama

The 5th year Alabama guard is our player of the year choice, and he projects to have a monster year. Sears is coming off a season where he averaged 21.5 ppg and 4.1 apg for the Crimson Tide, and he may need to play an even bigger role this season, especially with South Florida transfer Chris Youngblood out until conference play. Sears will have the ball in his hands much more, leading to even more gaudy numbers than he had a year ago. Add in the much improved defense on paper from the Tide, and all of the signs point to Sears winning national player of the year. RJ Davis and Hunter Dickinson obviously have a great chance at winning this honor, but we believe there may be some underlying issues with North Carolina, and Dickinson’s numbers may not be great enough to keep up with Sears.