Fears, Haugh Top AP 2026-27 Preseason All-America Team — SkimNews
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Jeremy Fears Jr. earned 57 first-place votes to lead the AP's 2026-27 preseason All-America team, falling one vote shy of unanimous honors after averaging 15.2 points and a nation-leading 9.4 assists per game last season.
- Thomas Haugh received the second-most votes (56) in his return to Florida for his senior season after bypassing the 2026 NBA Draft, with the Gators opening the year ranked No. 1 in the AP preseason Top 25.
- Vanderbilt guard Tyler Tanner, Illinois forward David Mirkovic and Arizona center Motiejus Krivas rounded out the five-man team, with Krivas (17 votes) edging Louisville's Flory Bidunga, UConn's Braylon Mullins and Duke's John Blackwell for the final spot.
- All five All-Americans are returning to their previous programs — a rarity the AP flagged as an indicator of retention's growing value in roster-building amid the transfer era, with Mirkovic and Krivas having helped their teams snap Final Four droughts last season.
- Mirkovic's Illinois (No. 3), Krivas's Arizona (No. 5) and Tanner's Vanderbilt (No. 24) all enter the season ranked in the AP preseason poll after the Commodores reached the SEC title game and won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time since 2012.
- Fears was also named preseason Player of the Year by CBS Sports, cementing his status as one of the faces of college basketball entering the new campaign.
Why it matters: With all five preseason All-Americans returning to their same programs, this team reads as a referendum on roster continuity paying off in the transfer era — four of the five lead AP-ranked teams (including No. 1 Florida), and the lone unranked program (Vanderbilt) just ended a decade-plus NCAA Tournament drought.
Ask SkimNews
