For the first time since 2022, a men’s college basketball player not named Zach Edey will have a shot at winning one of the sport’s most heralded individual awards, as the 2025 Naismith College Player of the Year field is wide open in the year ahead.
Edey became the first MBB player to win the award in successive seasons since Ralph Sampson did so in 1982-83 this spring, thanks to his larger-than-life efforts in the post for the national runner-up Purdue Boilermakers.
Now, with Edey off to play professionally, it’s time for someone else to assume the role of the nation’s best player, with a host of players from North Carolina and across the country stepping up to assume said role.
One such local player is R.J. Davis of UNC, who has averaged 15.1 points per game with 17.2 win shares across 138 games in Chapel Hill between 2020-21 and 2023-24, with the veteran guard likely taking advantage of a fifth “COVID” year to return to campus next season.
BetCarolina.com, always thinking with a North Carolina sports betting state of mind, stacked up the odds on where Davis and the rest of the nation’s best MBB players stand when it comes to winning the Naismith Award in the year ahead.
Naismith Player of the Year 2025 Odds
These odds come from BetCarolina.com and may not be available on North Carolina betting apps.
Who Has The Best Odds Of Winning 2025 Naismith Award?
Davis is our clubhouse leader to take home the Naismith out of the gate, coming in at +500 and beating out Kansas big man Hunter Dickinson (+700), Jamal Shead of Houston and Alabama’s Mark Spears (+900).
Throw in Duke freshman phenom Cooper Flagg (+1250), Ryan Calkbrenner of Creighton and Auburn’s Johni Broome (+1500 each) and you have the top end of our 2025 Naismith Award watch list.
Of the bunch, Davis was a consensus All-American and the ACC Player of the Year in 2024, while Dickinson was an All-Big 12 player and has already been a consensus All-American twice during his run with the Jayhawks and Michigan Wolverines.
Shead was the Big 12’s Player of the Year this season, while also being a consensus All-American for Kelvin Sampson’s squad in 2024, while Flagg is the top ranked recruit in America for the class of 2024, coming to Durham after dominating the New England prep scene out of Newport, Maine.
Among the players we have as longshots to win the Naismith this season are Tamin Lipsey of Iowa State (+1750), Walter Clayton Jr. of Florida and Graham Ike of Gonzaga (+2500 each) and Marquette’s Kam Jones (+3000), giving basketball fans plenty of names to keep an eye on as the 2024-25 MBB season approaches this fall.
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Author
Christopher Boan is a lead writer at BetCarolina.com specializing in covering state issues. He has covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
