It feels super early in the season to be talking about National Player of the Year for men's college basketball, but most teams have already played at least 25 percent of the games they'll play this season.

It hasn't even been six weeks, but there's already more than enough data for a good baseline of the legitimate candidates.

Save for one Andrew Bogut exception back in 2005, the Wooden Award winner always comes from a team that ends up getting a No. 4 seed or better in the NCAA tournament. (Even Utah got a No. 6 seed that year.)

It's not just the NPOY winner, either. Last year's consensus first-team All-Americans—Zach Edey, RJ Davis, Tristen Newton, Jamal Shead and Dalton Knecht—played for the top five overall seeds in the NCAA tournament.

As such, team success was the biggest determining factor in this early-in-the-year exercise, in which our top 16 is simply the top candidate from each of the teams who opened play on Tuesday ranked top 16 on KenPom.

Once the pool of 16 players was selected, individual rankings were crafted independent of team rankings—though we did end up with the No. 1 player coming from the No. 1 team.

Admittedly, this approach omitted quite a few deserving candidates, so we're including 16 honorable mentions in addition to our 16 ranked players. But with apologies to the likes of Rutgers' Dylan Harper and Stanford's Maxime Raynaud, we might institute a rule for this season that a player cannot rank top-10 for NPOY unless his team ranks top-20 on KenPom.

Statistics current through start of play on Wednesday, Dec. 11.

16 Words on 16 Honorable Mentions

Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee
Graham Ike, Gonzaga
Khalif Battle, Gonzaga
Curtis Jones, Iowa State
Liam McNeeley, Connecticut
Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue

Excellent candidates from KenPom Top-16 teams, but for each, a teammate's more likely to win.

Egor Demin, BYU
Dylan Harper, Rutgers
Tre Johnson, Texas

Teams might not be good enough to win, but these lottery-bound freshmen will get plenty attention.

RJ Davis, North Carolina
Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton

Strong preseason candidates who should re-emerge as NPOY threats if their teams recover from rough starts.

Adou Thiero, Arkansas
PJ Haggerty, Memphis

Transfers putting up massive numbers in new home, hoping to lead bubble team to good seed.

Maxime Raynaud, Stanford
Eric Dixon, Villanova

Legitimate threats to lead the nation in scoring, albeit for teams projected to suffer 13 losses.

Josh Hubbard, Mississippi State

Big scoring lead guard who could win this thing if Mississippi State is the real deal.

Nos. 16-15: Tyler Bilodeau and Walter Clayton Jr.

16. Tyler Bilodeau, UCLA (KenPom: 15)

Season Stats: 13.3 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 10-26 3PT

The Bruins are still figuring out who fills which roles within their 10-man rotation. With 31 more field-goal attempts than his closest teammate, though, it's clear that this transfer from Oregon State is their No. 1 option.

Bilodeau went for 23 points and 15 rebounds in UCLA's early loss to New Mexico. He was also the MVP of their first conference win as a member of the Big Ten.

15. Walter Clayton Jr., Florida (KenPom: 8)

Season Stats: 18.4 PPG, 3.8 APG, 3.2 RPG, 1.2 SPG, 0.9 BPG, 28-75 3PT

Clayton has the same permanent green light that led to his attempting 255 three-pointers last season, but he has become a more willing passer for a Gators team that might be a whole lot better.

He has scored at least 19 points in each of their five games against KenPom top-150 opponents and could become a top 10 NPOY candidate in a hurry if that continues in wins over Arizona State and North Carolina in the next seven days.

Nos. 14-13: Kasparas Jakucionis and Otega Oweh

14. Kasparas Jakucionis, Illinois (KenPom: 16)

15.4 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 6.0 APG, 1.4 SPG, 19-43 3PT

It's only a matter of time before this freshman point guard gets a triple-double or three. He had a 13-12-8 line against SIU-Edwardsville before going for 20-10-7 in the Illini's Big Ten opener against Northwestern.

They lost that game in overtime, but Jakucionis stepped up time and again with big-time three-point buckets in crunch time. (He also had a combined 47 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists in the wins over Arkansas and Wisconsin.)

13. Otega Oweh, Kentucky (KenPom: 9)

15.7 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 1.4 APG, 1.3 SPG, 9-25 3PT

If Kentucky is legitimately 'No. 1 seed' good this season, this suggested ranking of its top player as not even a second-team All-American will look all sorts of ridiculous in hindsight.

With six players averaging at least 10 points per game, though, are we even sure Oweh is the pick?

This could end up being reminiscent of the 2014-15 season, when it wasn't until late in the year that Willie Cauley-Stein emerged as the MVP of an excellent Kentucky team.

Nos. 12-11: Kadary Richmond and LJ Cryer

12. Kadary Richmond, St. John's (KenPom: 14)

Season Stats: 10.6 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 4.9 APG, 1.3 SPG, 1.1 BPG

Richmond's production hasn't quite matched what he did last year at Seton Hall, which might make RJ Luis or Zuby Ejiofor the Johnnies' better NPOY candidate.

He hasn't been disappointing, though. Just less assertive on a roster where he doesn't have to do it all by himself on a nightly basis.

The fact that he was at the top of everyone's list of this year's most noteworthy transfers will help his case if St. John's continues to look like a Sweet 16 threat.

11. LJ Cryer, Houston (KenPom: 5)

Season Stats: 16.0 PPG, 1.9 APG, 1.4 RPG, 1.2 SPG, 26-62 3PT

If Houston was expecting Cryer to make somewhat of a leap after losing Jamal Shead to the NBA, it hasn't happened yet.

After averaging 15 PPG in his final season at Baylor (2022-23) and 15.5 PPG last year with the Cougars, he's in that same vicinity this year.

He did go off for 30 points in the loss at Alabama in Las Vegas, It's going to take more of those types of Herculean efforts for him to become a real NPOY candidate, given his minimal statistical contributions outside of buckets.

Nos. 10-9: Braden Smith and Keshon Gilbert

10. Braden Smith, Purdue (KenPom: 13)

Season Stats: 13.2 PPG, 8.8 APG, 4.8 RPG, 1.8 SPG, 21-50 3PT

It's not production that's keeping Smith from ranking any higher than this. With four points-assists double-doubles already this season, he has lived up to the hype as the preseason Big Ten POY, looking like the relatively clear favorite to win that award. He had a combined total of 64 points, 31 assists and four turnovers in Purdue's wins over Alabama, Maryland and Ole Miss.

Is Purdue going to be good enough, though?

And will voters (whether consciously or subconsciously) be reluctant to name a Boilermaker the NPOY for a third straight season?

9. Keshon Gilbert, Iowa State (KenPom: 6)

Season Stats: 17.4 PPG, 5.5 APG, 2.6 RPG, 1.4 SPG

Showing up in the biggest games is such a big part of NPOY discussions, and Gilbert has certainly done that, scoring 23 against Auburn and 24 in each of the wins over Dayton and Marquette.

Quite efficiently, too, with a combined total of 33 field-goal attempts in those games, as well as seven assists against the Golden Eagles.

His junior-to-senior year improvement has been a colossal factor in the Cyclones finally having enough offensive firepower to potentially make a deep run in the NCAA tournament.

Nos. 8-7: Ryan Nembhard and Alex Karaban

8. Ryan Nembhard, Gonzaga (KenPom: 4)

Season Stats: 10.9 PPG, 10.7 APG, 2.9 RPG, 1.8 SPG, 10-25 3PT

Nembhard's assists average is ludicrous.

Ja Morant landed at 10.03 APG in his second season at Murray State, but there hasn't been a player that ended a season at 10.2 or better since Avery Johnson and Anthony Manuel in 1987-88.

It's not like Gonzaga's schedule gets tougher once conference play begins, either, so Nembhard might pull it off. If he does, the big question becomes whether he is far enough ahead of teammates Graham Ike and Khalif Battle to really stake a claim in this race.

7. Alex Karaban, Connecticut (KenPom: 12)

Season Stats: 16.5 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 3.4 APG, 2.0 BPG, 25-52 3PT

UConn defeated Baylor sans Karaban (concussion), but he was back in a major way for the Huskies' road win over Texas, going for 21 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, two blocks and two steals.

He/they may have dropped a bit off the radar after the rough showing in Maui, but Karaban is bound to generate plenty of NPOY buzz if Connecticut enters the dance as a serious threat to three-peat.

Nos. 6-5: Chaz Lanier and Mark Sears

6. Chaz Lanier, Tennessee (KenPom: 2)

Season Stats: 19.1 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 1.3 APG, 0.9 SPG, 35-72 3PT

Zakai Zeigler is having another phenomenal year of running both Tennessee's offense and defense.

However, Zeigler's presence didn't stop Dalton Knecht from becoming a first-team All-American last season, nor would it stop this bucket-getting up-transfer from soaking up all of the Volunteers' national spotlight.

Lanier has already gone for at least 25 points three times against major-conference opponents.

5. Mark Sears, Alabama (KenPom: 7)

Season Stats: 16.4 PPG, 4.0 APG, 3.1 RPG, 1.1 SPG, 17-59 3PT

Sears was shockingly held scoreless in Alabama's Nov. 20 win over Illinois, but he went for 24 in each of the next two games against Houston's elite defense and Rutgers' elite duo of freshmen.

He also had 20 points and seven dimes in the convincing road win over North Carolina in the ACC-SEC Challenge.

His shooting percentages are way down from what they were a year ago, but he's still one of the biggest threats to win the Wooden Award.

Nos. 4-3: Hunter Dickinson and Cooper Flagg

4. Hunter Dickinson, Kansas (KenPom: 11)

Season Stats: 15.0 PPG, 9.6 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1.6 SPG, 1.4 BPG

Dickinson was on the short list of top candidates to win the Wooden Award heading into the season, but are we actually a bit too high on him at No. 4?

The early returns against North Carolina and Michigan State were great, but he hasn't been that same force in the paint in recent weeks.

It started with the game against Duke in which he was clearly flustered from the outset before eventually getting ejected. He proceeded to average eight points and seven rebounds in the next two games, completely outplayed by Ryan Kalkbrenner in the loss at Creighton.

He's still averaging 15 points, nearly 10 rebounds and plenty of supplementary stats for what was one of the top title threats until eight days ago. Still a strong candidate.

3. Cooper Flagg, Duke (KenPom: 3)

Season Stats: 15.9 PPG, 9.0 RPG, 3.6 APG, 1.6 SPG, 1.4 BPG

Might be a tad high on Dickinson and maybe a tad low on Flagg.

His stat line is plenty impressive as is, but the scoring average doesn't do justice to how impactful this 17-year-old freshman has been, as he has taken it easy on Duke's lesser foes.

In the five games against KenPom top-100 competition, Flagg averaged 21 points, only held below 20 in the loss to Kansas. And after all the early talk of turnover woes, Flagg had zero giveaways in the recent wins over Auburn and Louisville, already showing remarkable improvement upon what was already a great November.

Nos. 2-1: Kam Jones and Johni Broome

2. Kam Jones, Marquette (KenPom: 10)

Season Stats: 20.3 PPG, 6.6 APG, 4.7 RPG, 1.8 SPG, 19-46 3PT

Jones recorded just the third triple-double in Marquette history, going for 17 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists in a mid-November win over Purdue.

That was the game that resulted in seemingly the entirety of college basketball's national media rushing to insist that Jones is the early favorite for NPOY.

It was also nowhere near his best performance, not even getting a KenPom game MVP for that one.

Lighting up Maryland for 28 points in that narrow road win was arguably more impressive. So was going off for 32 points, six assists and four steals with no turnovers in the rivalry win over Wisconsin this past weekend.

That almost pushed Jones into the top spot, definitely cementing him among the top three candidates.

1. Johni Broome, Auburn (KenPom: 1)

Season Stats: 19.6 PPG, 11.9 RPG, 3.6 APG, 2.8 BPG

In going through Iowa State, North Carolina and Memphis to win the Maui Invitational, Broome racked up 65 points, 45 rebounds, 13 assists and nine blocks, and shot 6-of-13 from three-point range on those soft rims in the Lahaina Civic Center.

This after he put up 20 points with nine rebounds and five blocks in the win at Houston, and before he went for 20 points, 12 rebounds and three dimes in the close loss at Duke.

In all five games, Broome played at least 32 minutes, which might be the biggest development of all.

His per-40 averages aren't markedly different from last year—points and blocks are almost identical; moderate increases in rebounds and assists—but he's playing considerably more minutes for a considerably bigger threat to win the national championship. That's a pretty fantastic combination of factors for a guy who was already a consensus third-team All-American last season.

If Broome continues to average anything close to 19/12/4/3 for one of the top title contenders, playing in the best league in the country, this could turn into as much of a race as Zach Edey running away with his second title last year.