The 2024-25 season has been full of excitement and intrigue. Decades after their first days as head coaches in college basketball, Rick Pitino and Tom Izzo are back at the top of the sport. And, surprise, surprise, Duke has a freshman everyone is talking about. Some of the programs that soared a year ago struggled this season, while others shocked the field with a rise no one saw coming.

But that’s the beauty of college basketball.

Jeff Borzello and Myron Medcalf acknowledge the highs and lows of this season with their picks for player of the year, coach of the year, All-America teams and other honors (or critiques).

Player of the year

Consensus:Cooper Flagg, Duke Blue Devils

Flagg could have attended his high school senior prom this year but might instead lead Duke to Jon Scheyer’s first national championship as a head coach. Still 17 years old a week before Christmas, Flagg’s maturity on the court helped him make an immediate impact on the national level. In his first few games, he committed a couple of crucial turnovers in losses to Kentucky and Kansas. But Scheyer sent a message early: Flagg was Duke’s leader and star. And Flagg hasn’t disappointed. The 6-foot-9 athlete has averaged 19.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.6 steals (entering Monday’s game). He has also connected on 37.5% of his 3-point attempts. His ability to guard all five positions on the court has also helped Duke enjoy a top-five mark in defensive efficiency this season. — Medcalf

Freshman of the year

Consensus:Cooper Flagg, Duke Blue Devils

While Flagg had legitimate competition for the player of the year award in Johni Broome, that wasn’t the case for freshman of the year. Rutgers’ Dylan Harper gave him a good run in the early weeks of the season, but Flagg pulled away as Duke ascended to the top of the rankings and Flagg cemented his standing as the probable No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. Flagg has been the ACC rookie of the week a record 11 times this season, sweeping the rookie and player of the week awards five times this season. In January, he set an ACC freshman single-game scoring record with 42 points in a win over Notre Dame. He’s an elite defender, he has been more productive and more consistent during conference play than he was in the nonconference portion of the season, and he has a legitimate chance to lead Duke to a national championship in just over a month. — Borzello

Transfer of the year

Consensus: John Tonje, Wisconsin Badgers

Tonje’s late surge over the past month gives him this award over the likes of Memphis’ PJ Haggerty, West Virginia’s Javon Small, Texas Tech’s JT Toppin and Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier. Before last Tuesday’s win over Washington, in which he scored “only” 13 points, Tonje had averaged 24.8 points and 5.0 rebounds in nine games, shooting 45.3% from 3-point range on more than eight attempts per game. He had lifted the Badgers into the Big Ten title race with a chance for a top-two seed on Selection Sunday. Tonje has had huge performances in big games all season, headlined by a 41-point outing against Arizona in November and 32 points in a road win at Purdue. For the season, he’s averaging 19.2 points, 4.9 rebounds and shooting 37.6% from 3. And to think, Tonje was limited by injuries to just 2.6 points in eight games at Missouri last season. — Borzello

Coach of the year

Medcalf: Dennis Gates, Missouri Tigers

After its 2023-24 season ended on a 19-game losing streak, Gates’ squad was picked to finish 13th out of 16 teams in the SEC’s 2024-25 preseason poll. Four months later, the Tigers are in the top-third of the SEC, one of the strongest conferences in recent college basketball history. Caleb Grill (14.3 PPG, 43.0% from beyond the arc) has been a catalyst. Duke transfer Mark Mitchell has been one of the league’s top contributors. Gates’ case is also strengthened by what he lost — John Tonje, who sat out last season at Missouri because of injury and could be a first-team All-American for Wisconsin. A 19-game losing streak? Picked to finish at the bottom of an historically good league? Losing a player who becomes a superstar elsewhere? None of it mattered to Gates, who should be national coach of the year. — Medcalf

Borzello: Bruce Pearl, Auburn Tigers

I agree Gates has been the architect of the biggest turnaround in the country this season. But the job Pearl has done at Auburn is remarkable. The Tigers were coming off a first-round NCAA tournament upset at the hands of Yale and weren’t picked in the preseason top 10 in October, yet have been one of the most dominant teams we’ve seen in college basketball in several years. Entering the weekend, Auburn had the best offensive rating in the history of the KenPom database, which dates to the 1996-97 season. The Tigers also have one of the five highest overall adjusted efficiency margins in the history of the database. And, they’ll win the best conference in the history of the sport by multiple games. They’ve lost only two games all season, at Duke and vs. Florida, two fellow top-five opponents. And Pearl is doing it with only one player projected to be drafted in June. — Borzello

Biggest surprise

Consensus: Missouri Tigers

After a Dec. 3, 2023, victory over Wichita State, the Tigers recorded only one more win (Central Arkansas, Dec. 30) the rest of the 2023-24 season. That 1-22 stretch also coincided with another big development in Missouri athletics: The school hired Laird Veatch as its athletic director. Between the transfer portal possibilities and administrative changes, it seemed at the time as if a team that finished 8-24 might again collapse, especially in one of the best versions of the SEC we’ve ever seen.

Instead, Dennis Gates has orchestrated one of the greatest turnarounds. The Tigers, who finished 145th on KenPom last season, are currently ranked fifth in adjusted offensive efficiency this season and have a defense that’s ranked sixth in SEC play. — Medcalf

Biggest disappointment

Borzello: North Carolina Tar Heels

There are actually plenty of candidates for this “award.” Gonzaga has struggled against NCAA tournament competition since the end of November, Baylor‘s seed is slipping further with every week. Kansas went from preseason No. 1 to out of the top 25. But there’s only one preseason top-10 team truly in danger of missing the NCAA tournament, and that’s the Tar Heels.

They were a massive disappointment two seasons ago, going from preseason No. 1 to out of the NCAA tournament, but Hubert Davis righted the ship last season by winning the ACC regular season and earning a 1-seed. And he returned ACC Player of the Year RJ Davis while adding two five-star recruits who are still projected to be selected in the first round of the NBA draft in June. The expectations had returned to Chapel Hill. But the Tar Heels struggled mightily against good teams in the nonconference and then lost five of seven in ACC play — including a home loss to Stanford. They’ve won five in a row entering the week, but their NCAA tournament hopes might rest on whether they can beat Duke, which won the first meeting by 17, in the regular-season finale. There’s too much talent on this roster for the postseason to even be at risk.

Medcalf: Rutgers Scarlet Knights

The last time a college basketball team had a pair of top-three draft picks on the roster, it won a national title. But Rutgers is not enjoying the season that 2011-12 Kentucky team had with Anthony Davis (No. 1 pick) and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (No. 2 pick). Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, both projected top-three draft picks, are talented young stars who will soon make millions as pros. But Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell hasn’t been able to even elevate this team into the bubble conversation. Pikiell’s Rutgers squads are typically strong on the defensive end, but this group has posted a sub-100 mark in efficiency. Teams led by young players are usually flawed, but few teams have been led by lottery picks and failed to earn NCAA tournament consideration. That’s unfortunately the reality at Rutgers this season.

Borzello’s All-America team

First team

Cooper Flagg, Duke
Johni Broome, Auburn
Braden Smith, Purdue
John Tonje, Wisconsin
Mark Sears, Alabama

Second team

Kam Jones, Marquette
Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee
Walter Clayton Jr., Florida
PJ Haggerty, Memphis
RJ Luis Jr., St. John’s

Third team

Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue
Hunter Dickinson, Kansas
JT Toppin, Texas Tech
Javon Small, West Virginia
Eric Dixon, Villanova

As you’ll see with Myron’s group (below), there’s minimal debate for the first team. Flagg and Broome are locks, given their head-to-head battle for Wooden Award honors. Smith has been the best guard in the country for the past two months, and Tonje has solidified himself as the best transfer in the country and deserves a spot on this team. The fifth spot could go a few different ways, but I opted for Sears over Kam Jones, mostly due to Sears’ superior numbers in conference play in a better conference and for a better team. He has had a couple of strange zero-point performances this season, but his overall season gives him the edge.

Jones leads the second team, and it’s a group laden with perimeter players. Zeigler established himself as Tennessee’s best player after Chaz Lanier’s hot start, while Clayton is one of the best scorers in the country and has been the catalyst for a Florida team pushing for a 1-seed and Final Four appearance. Haggerty was a clear first-team All-American at the midway point of the season, but Memphis has slipped up a few times since. He’s still one of the elite producers at the guard position. The last spot goes to Luis, who’s in the mix for Big East Player of the Year and is the leading scorer and second-leading rebounder for the best St. John’s team in a generation.

All the bigs left off the second team find themselves on the third team. Kaufman-Renn has done an admirable job replacing Zach Edey on the interior, and Dickinson is still putting up terrific numbers despite Kansas’ recent struggles — he’s also No. 3 in KenPom’s player of the year standings. Toppin has been putting up otherworldly numbers in recent weeks, including a combined 73 points and 27 rebounds in back-to-back games in February, and Small still deserves a place for carrying West Virginia into NCAA tournament contention. Dixon gets a spot as the nation’s leading scorer, edging out New Mexico‘s Donovan Dent and Creighton‘s Ryan Kalkbrenner. — Borzello

Medcalf’s All-America team

First team

Cooper Flagg, Duke
Johni Broome, Auburn
Braden Smith, Purdue
John Tonje, Wisconsin
Mark Sears, Alabama

Second team

Walter Clayton Jr., Florida
Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee
Eric Dixon, Villanova
Hunter Dickinson, Kansas
Kam Jones, Marquette

Third team

PJ Haggerty, Memphis
RJ Luis Jr., St. John’s
Javon Small, West Virginia
JT Toppin, Texas Tech
L.J. Cryer, Houston

Some of this was easy. Flagg and Broome are vying for national player of the year honors. And anyone who watched Purdue basketball this season knows Smith (16.0 PPG, 8.7 APG, 39.6% from beyond the arc) has been one of the best players in the country. Tonje turned Wisconsin into a national title contender after transferring from Missouri. And Sears (four games with 27 points or more) has overcome a few midseason blips to emerge as the leader who can deliver a title for the Crimson Tide. That’s the first All-America team and there are few arguments against it.

From here, it gets interesting. Clayton’s switch to point guard and massive improvement this season have positioned the Gators to win their first national title since 2007. Zeigler is the reason Tennessee lost an All-American (Dalton Knecht) but not its status as a contender. Even though he’s not the shooter he was a year ago, Jones (18.4 PPG, 6.2 APG, 4.3 RPG, 1.4 SPG) still has All-America numbers. And Dixon, the No. 1 scorer in the country at 23.6 points, and Dickinson (16.9 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 1.0 SPG) deserve spots for helping their respective squads salvage their seasons.

The third team was difficult to pick. Haggerty has led a Memphis team that could secure Penny Hardaway’s best postseason finish. Houston is a defensive juggernaut, but Cryer’s late-season surge in February has impressed. Small has carried West Virginia in a difficult season full of injuries. Toppin deserves more Big 12 Player of the Year buzz, and Luis is the cornerstone of Rick Pitino’s St. John’s squad. They’re all worthy of third-team recognition. — Medcalf

Borzello’s All-Freshman team

Cooper Flagg, Duke
Tre Johnson, Texas
Derik Queen, Maryland
Dylan Harper, Rutgers
Kasparas Jakucionis, Illinois

Flagg was an easy selection, as our pick for national player of the year and the clear-cut freshman of the year. Johnson is one of the most naturally gifted scorers in college basketball and has put himself in position to be selected in the top five come June. He’s the SEC’s leading scorer in conference play at 20.6 points and had at least 22 points in seven of his past 10 games, capped by a 39-point performance against Arkansas on Wednesday.

Harper hasn’t quite continued the heights he reached in November, when he went for 37 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists against Notre Dame and then 37 points against Alabama 24 hours later. But he’s still capable of huge performances. Queen has been consistently excellent, leading the Big Ten in rebounding in conference play and anchoring a Maryland team that is formidable at both ends. My final spot came down to Jakucionis or Oklahoma‘s Jeremiah Fears. Despite the struggles from both of their teams in recent weeks, I opted for Jakucionis, given he’s still been better in league play to go with some terrific performances early in the season. — Borzello

Medcalf’s All-Freshman team

Cooper Flagg, Duke
Derik Queen, Maryland
Kasparas Jakucionis, Illinois
Tre Johnson, Texas
Dylan Harper, Rutgers

Flagg is the obvious anchor of this squad. He’s projected to become only the fourth freshman — after Kevin Durant (2007), Anthony Davis (2012) and Zion Williamson (2019) — to win the Wooden Award. Queen (15.9 PPG, 9.0 RPG) is a throwback big man who would have thrived in the old Big East. He’s the reason Maryland will return to the NCAA tournament after missing the field last season. Jakucionis hasn’t been able to prevent Illinois’ recent slide, but imagine Brad Underwood’s squad without him. He’s averaging 15.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.8 assists. Harper (19.3 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 4.0 APG) could play in the NBA right now. Yes, he’s the star for a Rutgers team that has failed to earn NCAA tournament consideration this season, but anyone who has watched him knows he can play.

Confession time: I originally had Jeremiah Fears over Johnson. And … that was a mistake. Fears has been the young standout that has kept Oklahoma’s NCAA tournament hopes alive. But Johnson has been the most prolific scorer in America’s best league. — Medcalf