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The popular pick for National Player of the Year in the preseason was Duke’s Grayson Allen.

Allen is on this list, but well below what anyone would have anticipated after his up-and-down junior season. He’s also an example of how difficult it is to rank the top 25 players in the NCAA tournament since the tourney is kind of a reset.

This is not a list of who had the 25 best seasons this year, although that was strongly taken into consideration. The top two, for instance, are the two favorites for National Player of the Year, Villanova’s Josh Hart and Kansas' Frank Mason.

Also taken into consideration was overall talent and ability to dominate the college game. This is not an NBA mock draft.

The top freshmen, who will make up most of the NBA draft lottery, are represented, but only because those included have been dominant on the college level.

Last thing before we get to the list…

This. Was. Hard.

There were a lot of candidates left off the list who had legitimate cases for inclusion.