National and Conference MVPs and Best Players

If I had to vote today for National Player of the Year, it would be a choice between the Most Valuable Player in the Country, Iowa's Keegan Murray, and the best player in the country, Gonzaga's Chet Holmgren. 

MVP and POY are not the same thing. A freshman heading into March Madness on the way to the NBA Draft is often the best player in time for the tournament. However, the most valuable player over the course of the season is rarely a freshmen - but an upper classman who does not take all the bad shots or force turnovers trying to wedge between two defenders like even the greatest freshman do for much of the season.

That is why Murray has improved Iowa by 12.49 points per game at www.valueaddbasketball.com to make him the most valuable player in the season, while Holmgren is the top freshman at 11th (9.89).

The following is the list of the Most Valuable Player and Best Freshman in each conference, with a link to the 25 MVPs and top freshmen in each conference at www.valueaddbasketball.com, the a list of the best in the nation.

6 Top Rated Conferences (alphabetical order)

• Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Armando Bacot (North Carolina), Freshman: Paolo Banchero (Duke)
• Big 12 Conference (B12) Ochai Agbaji (Kansas), Freshman: Kendall Brown (Baylor)
• Big East Conference (BE) Collin Gillespie (Villanova), Freshman: Justin Lewis (Marquette)
• Big Ten Conference (B10) Keegan Murray (Iowa), Freshman: Malaki Branham (Ohio St.)
• Pac 12 Conference (P12) Terrell Brown (Washington), Freshman: Bennedict Mathurin (Arizona)
• Southeastern Conference (SEC) Oscar Tshiebwe (Kentucky), Freshman: Jabari Smith (Auburn)

 Other 22 Conferences (alphabetical order)

• America East Conference (AE) Ben Shungu (Vermont), Freshman: Justin Neely (Albany)
• American Athletic Conference (Amer) Kendric Davis (SMU), Freshman: Ricky Council (Wichita St.)
• ASUN Conference (ASun) Darius McGhee (Liberty), Freshman: Will Pruitt (Lipscomb)
• Atlantic 10 Conference (A10) Osun Osunniyi (St. Bonaventure), Freshman: Gibson Jimerson (Saint Louis)
• Big Sky Conference (BSky) Daylen Kountz (Northern Colorado), Freshman: Steele Venters (Eastern Washington)
• Big South Conference (BSth) Ricky Clemons (Campbell), Freshman: Jordan Gainey (USC Upstate)
• Big West Conference (BW) Collin Welp (UC Irvine), Freshman: Jadon Jones (Long Beach St.)
• Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Aaron Estrada (Hofstra), Freshman: Reyne Smith (Charleston)
• Conference USA (CUSA) Tylor Perry (North Texas), Freshman: Kenneth Lofton (Louisiana Tech)
• Horizon League (Horz) Tanner Holden (Wright St.), Freshman: Trey Townsend (Oakland)
• Ivy League (Ivy) Ethan Wright (Princeton), Freshman: Kino Lilly (Brown)
• Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) George Papas (Monmouth), Freshman: Jao Ituka (Marist)
• Mid American Conference (MAC) Sincere Carry (Kent St.), Freshman: Ra'Heim Moss (Toledo)
• Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Joe Bryant (Norfolk St.), Freshman: Nendah Tarke (Coppin St.)
• Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Lucas Williamson (Loyola Chicago), Freshman: Tucker DeVries (Drake)
• Mountain West Conference (MWC) Justin Bean (Utah St.), Freshman: Tyson Degenhart (Boise St.)
• Northeast Conference (NEC) Alex Morales (Wagner), Freshman: Zaire Williams (Wagner)
• Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) Tevin Brown (Murray St.), Freshman: Johni Broome (Morehead St.)
• Patriot League (Pat) Sukhmail Mathon (Boston University), Freshman: CJ Fulton (Lafayette)
• Southern Conference (SC) Malachi Smith (Chattanooga), Freshman: Jason Roche (The Citadel)
• Southland Conference (Slnd) Isaac Mushila (Texas A&M Corpus Chris), Freshman: Kendal Coleman (Northwestern St.)
• Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Jayveous McKinnis (Jackson St.), Freshman: Keondre Montgomery (Alcorn St.)
• Summit League (Sum) Baylor Scheierman (South Dakota St.), Freshman: Zeke Mayo (South Dakota St.)
• Sun Belt Conference (SB) Norchad Omier (Arkansas St.), only conference where freshman is MVP
• West Coast Conference (WCC) Alex Barcello (BYU), Freshman: Chet Holmgren (Gonzaga)
• Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Teddy Allen (New Mexico St.), Freshman: Kobe Williamson (Seattle)

And here is the list of the top players and freshman in the country in the same form you will see for each conference listed above.