Annual men's basketball award
Associated Press Men’s Player of the Year Awarded for the most outstanding NCAA men's basketball players in all levels of competition Country United States First award 1961 Most recent Zach Edey , Purdue Website Website
The Associated Press College Basketball Player of the Year award was established in 1961 to recognize the best men's college basketball player of the year, as voted upon by the Associated Press (AP).
The only three-time winner is Ralph Sampson of the Virginia Cavaliers program. Lew Alcindor , Zach Edey , Jerry Lucas , David Thompson , and Bill Walton each won the award twice.
Jerry Lucas won the first two awards in 1960 and 1961
David Thompson won the award in 1974 and 1975
Larry Bird won the 1979 award while leading Indiana State to an undefeated regular season
Sean Elliott won in 1989
2007 winner Kevin Durant was the first freshman named
Obi Toppin became Dayton ’s first winner in 2020
†
Co-Players of the Year
Player (X)
Denotes the number of times the player has been awarded at that point
School
Winners
Years
Duke
7
1963, 1992, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2019
UCLA
5
1967, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1977
Ohio State
4
1961, 1962, 1964, 2010
North Carolina
3
1984, 1998, 2008
Purdue
3
1994, 2023, 2024
Virginia
3
1981, 1982, 1983
Indiana
2
1976, 1993
Kentucky
2
2012, 2022
LSU
2
1970, 1991
Michigan
2
1966, 2013
NC State
2
1974, 1975
Arizona
1
1989
Bradley
1
1988
Brigham Young
1
2011
Cincinnati
1
2000
Creighton
1
2014
Dayton
1
2020
DePaul
1
1980
Georgetown
1
1985
Houston
1
1968
Indiana State
1
1979
Iowa
1
2021
Kansas
1
2017
La Salle
1
1990
Marquette
1
1978
Maryland
1
1995
Massachusetts
1
1996
Michigan State
1
2016
Navy
1
1987
Notre Dame
1
1971
Oklahoma
1
2009
Princeton
1
1965
Saint Joseph's
1
2004
St. John's
1
1986
Texas
1
2007
Utah
1
2005
Villanova
1
2018
Wake Forest
1
1997
Wisconsin
1
2015
Xavier
1
2003
a Lew Alcindor changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1971 after converting to Islam .[ 1] [ 2]
U.S. men's college basketball awards
Player awards
Head coach awards
National coaches of the year Conference coaches of the year
Division awards Other awards