Ranking 25 best college basketball players for 2024-25 season

College basketball is back, and everyone is trying to take down Gonzaga. The Bulldogs became national champions for the second straight year last season. However, a lot of their best players left for the NBA. Speaking of the NBA, the 2024 Draft class was considered one of the weakest ever, and that was largely due to the fact that the freshman class in college wasn't great last season.

That won't be the case this season, as a great freshman recruiting class joins plenty of star returning players in college basketball, and it should lead to a great season.

The freshman class in college basketball was one of the weakest we have ever seen last season, so fans can breathe a sigh of relief because this year will feature a much better crop of first-year players. The freshman class is, of course, headlined by Cooper Flagg. The number one recruit in the nation is as close to a shoe-in to be the number one pick in the 2025 NBA Draft as you can get.

Flagg is one of the most anticipated young players in recent memory and has been mentioned in the same conversations as greats such as Anthony Davis and Zion Williamson when it comes to generational prospects. The power forward obviously has a lot to prove to live up to the hype, but his potential is sky-high, and we think he will be the best player in college basketball right away.

Flagg does it all. He can shoot, he is explosive getting to and finishing above the rim, he is an advanced playmaker for a forward, and he plays lockdown defense. Flagg has been in the public eye for a while now, and now he will have a chance to shine under the bright lights that come with playing at Duke. Flagg seems destined to be mentioned with Duke legends like Williamson, Christian Laettner, Jay Williams, Grant Hill, Bobby Hurley, Shane Battier, JJ Reddick, and Grayson Allen. That means he will probably play the villain role in college basketball this season, but if he plays at an elite level on the hardwood, he can go down as an icon.

There is a case to be made that a freshman doesn't deserve the title of best player in college basketball because they haven't proven anything at the college stage yet, regardless of how impressive they are as a prospect. If you are of that mindset, then you probably believe that Mark Sears is the best player in the nation.

Sears shot 43.6% from deep last year en route to scoring 21.5 points per game and becoming a Second-Team All American. The guard particularly thrived in the bright lights of March Madness, too. Sears led Alabama to the Final Four last year, and now he is on a mission to prove that Alabama is more than just a football school.

College basketball is known for dominant veteran bigs, and Hunter Dickinson certainly fits the description. The former Michigan Wolverine became one of the biggest names on the transfer portal ever in this era of basketball, and he continued his dominance last season for the Kansas Jayhawks.

Dickinson is dominant in the painted area. He is a great post scorer, and his 10.9 rebounds per game last season were near the top in the entire nation. Dickinson can also step outside and knock down a jump shot, too. The center returning to Lawrence is the biggest reason why the Jayhawks are currently ranked as the top team in the nation.

RJ Davis, who will be playing at a high level in Chapel Hill for a fifth season, is one of the favorites to win the College National Basketball of the Year award at season's end. The UNC guard is coming off of a 21.2 point-per-game season where he shot 40% from deep.

Davis was the ACC Player of the Year and a First-Team All-American last season. There have been a lot of great Tar Heels throughout the years, and Davis currently ranks fifth all-time in scoring (2,112). First on that list is Tyler Hansbrough, who is arguably the best college basketball player of the 21st century , and Davis has a chance to surpass him on UNC's scoring list this season.

Ryan Kalkbrenner has won the Big East Defensive Player of the Year award in three straight years, and he is certainly the frontrunner to win that award again this season. The defensive monster is arguably the best player on the dirty end of basketball in the nation. He blocked 107 shots last season.

Now, the big man is proving his worth on the offensive end. Kalkbrenner dropped an astonishing 49 points in his first game of the 2024-25 season. With Baylor Scheierman in the NBA, you can expect even more offensive masterclasses from Kalkbrenner going forward.

While we claimed that Cooper Flagg is near a lock for the number one pick, Ace Bailey isn't completely out of the running. Bailey has the makings of a superstar. He is 6-foot-10 and can create his own shots. If Bailey puts up big numbers while simultaneously putting Rutgers on the map, as everyone expects he will, then watch out for him to be in discussions with Flagg come draft season.

Wade Taylor IV gets buckets, and he gets a lot of them. Taylor averaged 19.1 points per game last season, but he is arguably the most likely player in the country to go for 30-plus. Taylor had the green light last season, and his iffy efficiency was masked by an elite offensive rebounding team around him. Texas A&M will need Taylor to continue to score at a high volume, but they'd like him to take the next step and improve on his efficiency this year.

A good chunk of the players who won the national championship with Uconn last season are gone, but that same argument was made the season prior, and now the Huskies are one of the rare teams to be back-to-back champions. You can't doubt this team, and this year, they will be led by Alex Karaban.

Karaban was third in scoring for the Huskies last year, only trailing team leader Tristen Newton by less than two points per game and even outscoring NBA players Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle. Karaban will have a chance to showcase his star power while trying to lead UConn to the first three-peat in college basketball since John Wooden's UCLA teams.

Once a five-star recruit and projected one-and-done lottery pick, Caleb Love has since become a college legend. The guard who started his career at UNC is now a fifth-year playing at Arizona. Love has averaged double-digit scoring figures every season of his career. Seemingly every game he plays in revolves around him because he can push the pace in transition or settle into a role as a dominant half-court scorer.

Johni Broome has become somewhat underappreciated, unheralded, and underrated during his time at Auburn (and Morehead State before that). After all, Broome was a Third-Team All-American last year, which makes him far and away one of the best returning players.

Broome is an elite rim protector, as evidenced by his 345 career blocks. He has also improved every season on the offensive end, too, especially as a shooter. Broome put up 79 three-pointers last year and knocked them down at a 35.4% clip. That isn't bad for a 6-foot-10 big man, especially considering he only had nine three-point makes in his career before that.

Rutgers might not be known as a hotspot for the nation's best recruits, but they got two of the very best this year. Ace Bailey will be joined by Dylan Harper as the young stars suiting up for the Scarlet Knights this season. Like Bailey, Harper was a five-star recruit and is a projected top-five NBA Draft pick.

Harper is the younger brother of one of the best players who attended Rutgers in recent memory: Ron Harper Jr. That obviously makes Dylan the son of former NBA player Ron Harper. The bloodlines are obvious in the Harper family, and Dylan could become the best of them all.

Rutgers has only finished above .500 in league play twice in the last 29 years, which made Bailey and Harper's decisions to join the program somewhat of a surprise. The young star duo has the potential to turn the program around and announce Rutgers' presence to the entire basketball world, so expect the both of them to put up big numbers in their first collegiate seasons.

The John Calipari-Arkansas era is here, and Johnell Davis will be leading the way on the hardwood for the new coach in his new home. Arkansas is also a new home for Davis. The guard is a former March Madness hero who led Florida Atlantic to the Final Four back in 2023. Davis is one of the best shooters in college basketball.

Tamin Lipsey is a great assist man who forces turnovers on the defensive end. In his sophomore campaign, he added a three-point shot to his arsenal. Expect Lipsey to continue to improve even more in his third season with Iowa State.

After transferring from Gonzaga to Wake Forest, Hunter Sallis went from bench player to superstar. He averaged 18 points per game last season, up from 4.5 the year before at Gonzaga. Wake Forest has had some great players throughout their history, but they've struggled as a team over the last decade-plus. Sallis could be the player who leads them back into the big dance.

Tyler Kolek was the most talked-about star on Marquette's roster last season, but Kam Jones was the Golden Eagles' go-to scoring option. Jones averaged 17.2 points per game last year, but he was even more dominant when Kolek was sidelined, and now the point guard is in the NBA. Jones will be in the running to win the scoring title in all of college basketball this season.

Bryce Hopkins is a man amongst boys in college basketball. The Providence star is 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds. He is a menace getting to the rim, and as a Providence player, he plays well on the less glamorous side of the floor. The thing holding Hopkins back in these rankings is he is still recovering from a torn ACL, and it is unclear when he will return to action.

VJ Edgecomb is another one of the elite freshman players who will take over college basketball this season. Edgecomb looked like a pro-level player while playing for the Bahamian National Team over the summer, so he will certainly be ready for college basketball. The youngster will share a backcourt with a veteran in Jeremy Roach for the Bears.

L.J. Cryer is undoubtedly one of the best three-point specialists in college basketball. Houston will need him to find even more ways to put the ball in the basket this season. Cryer can shoot over 40% from deep on high volume, and he is also a former national champion from his freshman season at Baylor. This is Cryer's fifth season in college basketball.

After two seasons at Wyoming, Graham Ike's Gonzaga debut was delayed a season because of a foot injury. Ike showed why the wait was worth it last season, though. Ike averaged 16.5 points and 7.4 rebounds per game last season, and those numbers should go up this year, considering Ike got better as the season went on.

JT Toppin was somewhat of an unknown coming into the season last year, but he certainly made a name for himself for the New Mexico Lobos en route to becoming the Mountain West Freshman of the Year. Now Toppin will be suiting up for Texas Tech. Toppin is a double-double machine, and he should make a big impact in Lubbock, Texas.

Purdue took a big hit with Zach Edey's departure to the NBA. The team operated around their 7-foot-4 monster who won his second straight National Player of the Year award last season (and became one of the best collegiate players of all time in the process). The team is destined for regression, but we shouldn't completely write off the Boilermakers, considering they made the championship game last season.

The next best player on Purdue's roster was Braden Smith, and now he will be asked to play like one of the best players in the nation. Braden Smith plays like a typical point guard, making smart decisions and playing efficient basketball. He is arguably the best playmaking guard returning to college basketball this season.

Grant Nelson, who served as a superstar at NDSU, took a reduced role for the betterment of Alabama's success last season. He will be asked to return to form as more of a top option this year, though, even with the Crimson Tide looking like a championship-caliber team. Nelson already showed off his star power, even at a Power-Five program, when he put up big numbers in the March Madness tournament last season.

Nelson has the athleticism to land on SportsCenter with highlight reel dunks, but he can also step outside and knock down shots from beyond the arc.

Although his team lost to Colorado in the last game of their season (first-round of March Madness), Walter Clayton ended his season on a high note by scoring 33 points against an elite defensive team. The guard will take that momentum and run with it. Clayton can score inside, from the mid-range, or from downtown.

Tyon Grant-Foster is a fan-favorite for all college basketball fans because of his incredible story. The former junior college player missed extended time because of multiple heart surgeries, but now he is one of the best mid-major players in the nation.

His team, Grand Canyon University, just so happens to be an electric program with a loyal fan base, and they've been playing in March consistently for years now. Grant-Foster is a poster dunk waiting to happen, but he can score in a variety of other ways, evidenced by the 20.1 points per game he put up last season.

Tucker DeVries is following his dad, Darian DeVries, to West Virginia. The two were an excellent duo at Drake, and that shouldn't change at West Virginia. Of course, the jump from mid-major to Power-Five is never easy, but Tucker has all of the traits to shine at this level. DeVries averaged 21.6 points per game last season, and a Dalton Knecht-esque increase in production and fame when moving on to a bigger program can be expected from the guard.