Every collegiate player dreams of seeing their name on an All-American team. Although players are remembered for their performances in March, the regular season provides a much greater sample size of games for these selections. Before teams head into postseason play next week, I assembled what I think should be the All-American First Team.
Who Deserves a First-Team All-American Nod?
Braden Smith
Purdue point guard Braden Smith is simply an exceptional basketball player. He is not an elite athlete, shooter, or defender, but he is the conductor of the Boilermaker train. He is second in the nation in assists at 8.7 per game. Not to mention that he averages a very solid 16 points per game. Yet, beyond his stats, Smith is the consummate point guard; he elevates the play of everyone around him.
Outside of their top three players, this Purdue team lacks significant talent and depth, but Smith has led this team to 20-9 overall and 18th in the country. He plays nearly every minute of every game, and has repeatedly made timely winning plays in the clutch. While the point guard position is stacked in college basketball, no guard means more to his team than Smith.
Kam Jones
A close second to Smith in guards that do everything for their team is Marquette’s Kam Jones. He puts up a ridiculous 18.4 points, 6.2 assists, and 4.3 rebounds game. Earlier this year, he even notched the third Marquette triple-double ever, and first since Dwayne Wade, in a win over Smith and Purdue. The lefty is one of the craftiest scorers in the country, always finding a way to get back to his preferred hand. This Marquette team is less talented than the previous two years, but Jones has kept them humming along in the AP top 25 by taking on a larger play-making role this year.
Cooper Flagg
Duke’s Cooper Flagg has wowed everyone all season long. At the beginning of the season, Flagg was 17 years old! Now 18, he leads the stacked Blue Devils team in points, assists, rebounds, steals, and blocks. Yes, that fact is as impressive as it sounds, but it also accurately reflects the type of player that Flagg is: an all-around talent. He never takes a play off and impacts the game in a handful of ways.
Although he may not be the same isolation scorer as some of the other highly touted freshmen, he sure can score if he wants to, as seen in his 42-point outburst earlier in the year against Notre Dame, on only 14 shots. Flagg is a Player of the Year candidate thanks to his remarkably high basketball IQ and uncanny skillset that most 6’9” players lack.
Johni Broome
The other Player of the Year frontrunner is Auburn’s Johni Broome. The former Third-Team All-American puts up 18.4 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks per game for the top team in the country. The Tigers boast one of the nation’s best offenses and defenses, largely thanks to Broome’s prowess on both sides of the ball. He is a lethal post scorer, but also added a reliable three-point shot to his arsenal this season. Broome and Auburn have rolled through just about every team they have faced this season and they are poised to make a championship run this March.
Ryan Kalkbrenner
As far as stars go, Ryan Kalkbrenner of Creighton is one of the most unassuming superstars in the collegiate game. He is a whopping three-time defending Big East Defensive Player of the Year and will likely capture that award again this season. If he does, only Patrick Ewing will have won the award the same number of times.
Despite averaging an impressive 19.1 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks per game, his most notable statistic may be that he only commits 1.3 fouls per game, which is mind-blowing for a player that is fourth in the country in blocks. After teammate Pop Isaacs went down for the season, many onlookers thought the Blue Jays’ season was finished, but they sit at third in the Big East, largely thanks to Kalkbrenner.
Main Image: © Matt Stone/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
