A fabulous 2024-25 college basketball season wraps this weekend with a rarity: four top seeds squaring off on the biggest and best stage the sport has to offer. We can’t wait to get to Saturday night, but before that, it’s time to honor the standouts in this sport and recognize greatness on an individual level from the past five months.
As we always do prior to the Final Four — but after the Elite Eight — it is time to announce the winners of our individual awards for the season: National Player of the Year, Coach of the Year and Freshman of the Year. (We’ve also added a Transfer of the Year to our annual inventory, and that winner will be publishing soon.)
As I wrote back in February, this year’s NPOY race is one of the best ever. It was true then, and it only got closer and more interesting over the past few weeks. You can look back over the past 40 years and find maybe two or three races that were as good as Cooper Flagg vs. Johni Broome. Here’s where they stand, statistically, heading into the Final Four.
| Cooper Flagg | Johni Broome | |
|---|---|---|
| 18.9 | Points per game | 18.7 |
| 7.5 | Rebounds per game | 10.9 |
| 4.2 | Assists per game | 2.9 |
| 1.3 | Blocks per game | 2.1 |
| 1.4 | Steals per game | 0.9 |
| 53.5% | Effective FG% | 53.7% |
| 37.4% | 3-point FG% | 28.4% |
| 83.4% | FT% | 59.3% |
And it’s the fact that both of these players are the centerpieces on No. 1 seeds that are still vying to win a national title that makes it even more special. Though it was true of Zach Edey last season, the National Player of the Year is not a common sight to see on a Final Four stage. For the clear-cut top two to make it this far into the Big Dance is even more incredible. This has been a special season.
As for Freshman of the Year, you already know who it is. This has been Flagg’s award to lose since the first two weeks of the season — and it was never threatened. He’s put up easily one of the five best one-and-done seasons ever, lifting himself alongside the likes of Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis and Zion Williamson, with the former three having won NPOY honors. Anthony Davis is the only person to ever win Freshman of the Year, Player of the Year and a national championship. Flagg will try to join him over the next two games (if Duke can get past Houston).
On the coaching front, every coach who is in the Final Four (Todd Golden, Bruce Pearl, Kelvin Sampson, Jon Scheyer) all were under consideration, of course, as was Rick Pitino, who got St. John’s to a No. 2 seed, a double sweep of the Big East and guided the Red Storm to a 31-5 season. Rare is the year with this many viable candidates to win coaching’s top honor. Our reveal is below.
2024-25 CBS Sports All-America teams: College basketball’s best and most talented players
Gary Parrish
Let’s get to the awards. And then, on Saturday, we find out who gets to move on to Monday night, regardless of who’s earned honors here. These are CBS Sports’ 2024-25 biggest recipients for the season:
2024-25 CBS Sports Player of the Year
Cooper Flagg, Duke
Flagg played the first 11 games of his freshman season as a 17-year old against foes like Kentucky, Arizona, Kansas, Auburn and Louisville. He was great then and only got better as the season progressed. The future No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft earned ACC Player of the Year, consensus All-American honors and is now the CBS Sports Player of the Year.
Any questions over whether he’d be ready to go at the highest level of college basketball after reclassifying to graduate high school early were put to rest before he was even a legal adult. But once he hit 18, Flagg put it in overdrive against ACC competition. During conference action, he averaged 21.2 points, 7.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks. He also shot 44% from 3-point range while leading the Blue Devils to a 19-1 league mark.
Flagg also emerged from an injury scare in the ACC Tournament to deliver one of his best games yet in the Sweet 16. With his team receiving a strong challenge from Arizona, Flagg went for 30 points, seven assists, six rebounds and three blocks as the Blue Devils held on for a 100-93 victory. After a season filled with blowout wins, Flagg needed to show he could deliver under the bright lights, and he did. — David Cobb
2024-25 CBS Sports Coach of the Year
Kelvin Sampson, Houston
For the second time in four seasons, Sampson has won this honor here at CBS Sports. And he did it after guiding Houston to a second straight Big 12 title. Now Sampson has the Cougars in the Final Four for a second time in five seasons. The Cougars set a new program record for wins in a season with 34 in 2024-25 and won 30 of their last 31 games entering the Final Four after a 4-3 start to the year.
That’s coaching and that’s culture. That’s Kelvin Sampson.
Sampson’s team is both balanced and brutally physical, a combination that reflects his values he hammers home each and every day. The team is top 10 in offensive and defensive efficiency and among the best both at shooting and defending 3-pointers while playing at a slower pace than any major team in college basketball. The Cougars execute with relentlessness and play a selfless style that embodies both Sampson and the program he’s built.
No coach has done more with less this season and stretched talent further than Sampson. They are Big 12 regular season and Big 12 Tournament champs, dancing into the final weekend of the NCAA Tournament and challenging with a roster Sampson almost entirely recruited and developed in-house. He’s proof positive that you can win in the modern era with staples of throwback principles and beliefs. — Kyle Boone
2024-25 CBS Sports Freshman of the Year
Cooper Flagg, Duke
Flagg entered this season as one of the most hyped-up recruits in college basketball history. Somehow, Flagg exceeded that hype around his name and now has a chance to go down as the best one-and-done prospect in the modern era with a national title on his resume.
Flagg was a unanimous choice by our panel of voters after he averaged 18.9 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.3 blocks for the Final Four-bound Blue Devils. Flagg shot 48.5% from the floor, 37% from the 3-point line and 83.6% from the charity stripe. Flagg projects as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft this summer, and the team that wins the lottery will have a transformational two-way talent on their respective roster for the next decade. — Cameron Salerno
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