The finalists for college basketball's National Player of the Year awards are out, with this year likely marking the most open race in years.

But not all candidates were created equal. So we placed odds on which players are most likely to head home with the sport's biggest individual prizes.

Jalen Brunson, Villanova — 5/2 odds

Relevant Stats: 19.0 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 4.8 APG

When we did a 247Sports Roundtable earlier this year asking for each person’s National Player of the Year choice, it was amazing how spread out the voting was. Five voters picked four different players. The player to collect two votes? That’s this guy. Others on this list may have better numbers — of the top five candidates, Brunson is fourth in scoring, fifth in rebounding and sits behind both other guards in both assists and steals. But Brunson is hyper-efficient. Despite ranking as Villanova’s primary ball-handler, he averages just 1.7 turnovers per game. And his 129.5 offensive rating isn’t just the best among this group, it’s the best in college basketball for any player who uses at least 24 percent of his team’s possessions. He makes 60.7 percent of his two-point shots, 40.5 percent of his three-point shots and 80.6 percent of his free throws. And the reason why efficiency matters? It helps your team win. And there’s a reason Villanova has been a top five team and a lock for a No. 1 seed for seemingly forever.

It’s pretty tough to blame him for Villanova’s defeats as well. When the Wildcats have lost, he’s averaged almost 24 points and 4.5 assists per game. But perhaps his greatest strength is his ability to gauge, mid-game in some cases, what exactly the Wildcats need to win. In Villanova’s second game against Butler, Brunson scored 27 points and shot 10-of-18, an 86-75 win over a team that beat the Wildcats earlier in the year. Two games later, in a huge contest at Xavier, Brunson took 12 shots, but dished out eight assists as the Wildcats rolled to a 95-79 win.

Brunson might not be the favorite by much — this is a relatively wide-open race — but he’s probably still the slight favorite.

Villanova's Jalen Brunson, Duke's Marvin Bagley and Oklahoma's Trae Young are three of the top candidates for the Wooden and Naismith awards.

Marvin Bagley III, Duke — 6/1

Relevant Stats: 20.7 PPG, 11.2 RPG, 1.6 APG, 1.0 BPG

Player of the Year seasons are equal parts numbers and moments. And on the “moments” front, Bagley may be even better equipped than Brunson. Those of us who tuned into the PK80 early in the season saw Bagley twice rescue Duke when it appeared the then-No. 1 Blue Devils were going down, once with 34 points and 15 rebounds in an overtime win against Texas (and fellow lottery-bound big man Mohamed Bamba) and then again with 30 points and 15 rebounds in the PK80 title game against Florida. When Duke lost to Virginia 65-63, Bagley shone through, scoring 30 of Duke’s 63 points and grabbing 14 rebounds against a defense that often strangles out opposing post players. And last, but maybe best for Bagley’s candidacy, he had 21 points and 15 rebounds and was generally unguardable down the stretch in Duke’s Senior Night win over North Carolina in prime time. Bagley has the numbers, sure. But if he finds a way to knock off Brunson and win either the Wooden Award or the Naismith Award, you can bet that those moments led him there.

On the negative side, while Villanova has seemingly had a No. 1 seed locked up for a long time, Duke hasn’t been quite as successful, despite a perceived bushel-full of talent. And those voters who prefer to give awards to the most valuable players, as opposed to the best, might be slightly turned off by the fact that Duke continued to win in Bagley’s absence, going 4-0 and winning each game by at least nine points while he sat out.

Deandre Ayton, Arizona — 8/1

Relevant Stats: 19.9 PPG, 11.4 RPG, 1.6 APG, 1.9 BPG

Ayton probably has just as good a case as Bagley, but doesn’t quite get the eyeballs. This is more than just a reference to so-called “east coast bias.” Consider this: In the last 22 years, only two players west of the central time zone have won the Wooden Award. Two. Those are Utah’s Andrew Bogut in 2004-05 and BYU’s Jimmer Fredette in 2010-11. Know how many Wooden Awards Duke has during that time? Four. So Duke has twice as many Wooden Awards as the entire western half of the United States over that time period. But let’s take it a step further. Both Bogut and Fredette were guys putting up big numbers in an inferior conference that gave them a unique spotlight. The last Pac-12 player to win the Wooden Award was Ed O’Bannon in 1994-95.

Things look even worse when looking at the Naismith Award, where the last Pac-12 winner was Marques Johnson in 1976-77. Marquette, DePaul, Navy, La Salle, UMass, St. Joseph’s and Creighton have had Naismith Award winners since then.

Everyone in college basketball was watching when Bagley dominated North Carolina last weekend. Does Ayton have a comparable moment? A moment when not only did Ayton destroy a top team, but do so in front of a similarly huge audience? Considering Arizona only played one game all season against a team currently in KenPom’s Top 25 — a 25-point loss to Purdue in the Bahamas — that’s probably a no. And that’s a shame. Because those who watched Ayton against Arizona State saw him drop a 23-19 and 25-16 in the two matchups. And even in Arizona’s last game, when the Wildcats were hardly inspiring, Ayton had 26 points and 20 rebounds to save his team. Brilliant player. Unique talent. Maybe the best player in college basketball. But he’s fighting an uphill battle.

Devonte' Graham, Kansas — 10/1

Relevant Stats: 17.6 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 7.2 APG, 1.6 SPG

Only two players in the country — Graham and the next player on this list — averaged at least 17 points and seven assists per game. That makes Graham the only player in the country to do so while also averaging fewer than three turnovers per game (2.7). Graham was the floor leader Kansas absolutely had to have to win the Big 12 this year, logging an inhuman 39.1 minutes per game in league play because the Jayhawks didn’t have a backup point guard. That included a stretch where he played all 40 minutes in 12-of-14 games. He played 39 in another and was able to get some “rest” in a 35-minute effort where he dropped a 23-5-7 in a 30-point destruction of Oklahoma. Perhaps most importantly, with the Big 12 title on the line, Graham played all 40 minutes and scored 26 points to lead Kansas past Texas Tech. For that effort, Graham was named Big 12 Player of the Year, and he’s made each All-America team since. Helping his case is that performance against Texas Tech. Hurting him is that he came on relatively late to the discussion — people didn’t really start discussing him for Big 12 Player of the Year until the last couple weeks of the season — and that this isn’t a vintage Kansas team.

Trae Young, Oklahoma — 20/1

Relevant Stats: 27.5 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 8.9 APG, 1.7 SPG

How does the player, at one point considered a lock for the National Player of the Year award, wind up here, in fifth and with not-so-hot odds? Sure, some of it is that Young, and Oklahoma, faltered somewhat down the stretch. A bigger part? The Big 12 Player of the Year voting. Because not only did Graham win the award over Young, he won it unanimously. That’s right: Young didn’t collect a single vote for his own conference player of the year from the leagues’ coaches. And that makes it hard to believe that, even with his terrific start to the season, he would be in serious competition for the National Player of the Year, whether that’s the Wooden Award or the Naismith. Yes, Young still leads the nation in points per game and assists per game. But he also committed 5.2 turnovers per game. That hurts. The lack of defense, both from and individual and team standpoint? That stings. But the Sooners hitting a skid so bad that the Sooners finished as the No. 9 seed out of 10 Big 12 teams? That’s killer.

The rest of the field — 50/1

The All-America teams that have been released so far have been pretty clear: The players above are almost unanimously the first-team choices. That doesn’t mean there aren’t other good options out there. Saint Mary’s Jock Landale is No. 2 for KenPom’s National Player of the Year, while Ohio State’s Keita Bates-Diop is fourth. And players like Xavier’s Trevon Bluiett, North Carolina’s Luke Maye, Texas Tech’s Keenan Evans and Purdue’s Carsen Edwards, among others, deserve their fair share of credit as well.

Landale would have had a better shot if Saint Mary’s had won either the West Coast Conference or the league tournament. Bates-Diop led Ohio State to a much better season than expected, though the Buckeyes lost three of their last five to fall out of the Big Ten Conference lead, and to trip up in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals. Bluiett might have the best shot of this group after leading Xavier to a potential No. 1 seed, but does Xavier truly get the credit it deserves for that feat?

Maye had a chance to make a statement in the finale against Duke, but scored just 13 points on 15 shots and was upstaged by Bagley. And Evans’ toe injury kept him from leading Texas Tech to the Big 12 title and potentially all the attention that Graham’s getting. And if Purdue had held onto its earlier spot as a top three or so team and won the Big Ten, you’d bet Edwards would have had a shot.

But as it is, it’s just really hard at this point to see one of those players competing with the five players above.