Over the past six months, the men's college basketball landscape has dramatically changed. Zach Edey and other elite big men decided against turning pro and returned for another year. Some of the top stars changed locations (see: Hunter Dickinson to Kansas). Coaches, too. Ed Cooley is at Georgetown now. Micah Shrewsberry is at Notre Dame.
Reigning Big Ten player of the year Zach Edey could very well sweep the award again in 2023-24. Quinn Harris/Getty Images
All of that and we haven't even discussed the nearly 2,000 players who entered the transfer portal.
The change and volatility have made it even more difficult to project who will win conference player of the year honors in each of the 32 Division I men's leagues. But we'll give it a shot.
Some of the candidates were easy to pick. (The Big South could probably give Drew Pember his second consecutive player of the year honor today if it wanted to.) Others were more difficult to identify.
But we're excited to see how it all plays out and how accurate we are at the end of the season.
Here are our preseason predictions for player of the year in each league -- and the top competition they'll have to beat.
Image and words sourced from: ESPN.com