The 100 best players in college basketball right now — SkimNews
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- The 2026-27 top-100 ranking includes top-tier freshmen, leading returners and rising stars, while flagging judicial blocks as a factor for some players and singling out Tyran Stokes and Jordan Smith Jr. as central figures.
- NCAA five-in-five rules excluded 2022 graduates, but the ranking treats those players as eligible despite legal uncertainty and says it will adjust if developments invalidate that interpretation.
- Jeremy Fears Jr. returned to college basketball after collecting significant NIL fees, alongside Thomas Haugh and Milan Momcilovic, adding a financial-retention dimension to the 2026-27 player pool.
- Miles Sadler is ranked No. 100 as an incoming five-star, 6-foot point guard whose Bella Vista Prep team reached the Chipotle Nationals championship; he also posted 29 points and seven assists for the World team at the Nike Hoop Summit in April.
- Johann Grunloh, ranked No. 99, started all 36 games for Virginia in 2025-26, ranked in the national top 10 in block rate and top 75 in offensive rebounding rate, and shot 62% inside the arc and 35% from three.
- Denzel Aberdeen averaged 13.5 points, 3.4 assists and shot 36.3% from three at Kentucky in 2025-26 before returning to Florida; the source ties his preseason No. 1 starting-shooting-guard role to obtaining a fifth year.
- MJ Collins Jr., who averaged 17.5 points and earned All-Mountain West second-team honors at Utah State, awaits the Ohio governor-NCAA fight after the NCAA sued the governor over an executive order giving all class-of-2022 athletes in Ohio a fifth year.
Why it matters: For fifth-year candidates such as MJ Collins Jr., who averaged 17.5 points at Utah State, eligibility is not a footnote: the Ohio governor-NCAA fight concerns rights for the class of 2022. The outlet says it will adjust the rankings if legal developments contradict its stance, making the listed order provisional for that cohort.
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