🏀 The 100 best players in men's college basketball right now — SkimNews
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- NCAA five-in-five rules excluded players who graduated high school in 2022, but the ranking counts them eligible despite legal uncertainty; MJ Collins Jr. awaits the outcome of the NCAA’s suit over the Ohio governor’s executive order granting the 2022 class another year.
- Tyran Stokes and Jordan Smith Jr. are named with a loaded freshman class as central to the 2026-27 story, while the list also tracks the best returners, rising stars and fifth-season players.
- Jeremy Fears Jr., Thomas Haugh and Milan Momcilovic collected significant NIL fees to return to college basketball, and the ranking treats those returns as essential to understanding the 2026-27 campaign.
- Miles Sadler arrives at West Virginia as a five-star, 6-foot point guard after a dominant Bella Vista Prep run to the Chipotle Nationals championship; he posted 29 points and 7 assists for the World team at the Nike Hoop Summit in April.
- Johann Grunloh started all 36 games for Virginia, ranked in the top 10 nationally in block rate and top 75 in offensive rebounding, and is no longer sharing time with Ugonna Onyenso; he shot 62% inside the arc and 35% from three.
- Trent Perry posted the highest Evan Miya overall-efficiency rating among UCLA’s three returning starters, averaging 12.6 points and making 42% of his three-point attempts in Big Ten play, and is described as the group’s steadying presence.
- Denzel Aberdeen averaged 13.5 points, 3.4 assists and 36.3% three-point shooting at Kentucky; if granted a fifth year, he is the starting shooting guard on Florida’s preseason No. 1 team.
Why it matters: The fifth-year fight has concrete lineup consequences: the ranking counts 2022 graduates as eligible, Denzel Aberdeen is Florida’s projected starting shooting guard on the preseason No. 1 team if granted another year, and MJ Collins Jr. awaits the Ohio governor-NCAA outcome. Their legal status affects both team personnel and the accuracy of the published order.
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