Everybody's All-Americans

Morning. Just a few more sleeps until actual, meaningful college hoops.

Let’s get to Wednesday’s news.

1. Start the All-American debate

It’s be easy to point to the Field of 68’s preseason All-America teams as the definitive list ahead of the 2025-26 season.

It’s got two names everyone agrees on — Purdue senior guard Braden Smith and Texas Tech junior forward JT Toppin — and the three freshmen who look like they’re ready to dominate the sport in Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, Duke forward Cam Boozer and BYU wing AJ Dybantsa. It seems oddsmakers agree on those five as the best in the game.

At least, that’s the Field of 68 first team. Here’s the rest:

Second-team preseason picks:

• Donovan Dent, UCLA senior guard

• Bennett Stirtz, Iowa senior guard

• Darrion Williams, NC State senior wing

• Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan senior forward

• Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue senior forward

Third-team preseason picks:

• Mikel Brown, Louisville freshman guard

• Otega Oweh, Kentucky senior guard

• Milos Uzan, Houston senior guard

• PJ Haggerty, Kansas State junior guard

• Zuby Ejiofor, St. John’s senior forward

That’s a ton of seniors (9) and freshmen (4).

Most of those names are ones you’ve seen from other media outlets. CBS Sports had Lendeborg, Kaufman-Renn and Dent on its first team. Alex Condon had a spot on the AP first team, while Tennessee freshman forward Nate Ament was a second-team pick for Jay Bilas.

Anyway, the point is it’s a group of about 20 players that most analysts and reporters agree will be the best in the game. So where’s the dissenting views? For that, we need to turn to Evan Miyakawa and his Bayesian Performance Rating. (You can read more about how that ratings system and why he thinks it’s the best measure of a player’s value.)

It’s interesting how highly that ratings system values Auburn guard Tahaad Pettiford (4th), Alabama guard Labaron Philon (5th), Ohio State guard Bruce Thornton (6th, and all because of his offense) and Houston big man Joseph Tugler (10th, all because of his defense).

You can see his full ratings here, which also elevates Florida forward Thomas Haugh above Condon, places Kaufman-Renn well below Oregon big Nate Bittle, and doesn’t even have Haggerty or Brown in the top 50. (Haggerty’s 63rd and Brown is 72nd. I get the Brown aspect because he’s a freshman, but the Haggerty placement is wild.)

So maybe the only real consensus is that everyone truly loves Braden Smith?

2. Carolina cruises, but no Bogavac + more exhibition results

Did North Carolina need freshman Luka Bogavac for its 95-53 exhibition win on Wednesday against Winston Salem-State? Nah. But it would’ve been nice to see him before the regular season began.

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