USBWA unveils 2023-24 Men's All-America Team

INDIANAPOLIS (USBWA) – Last season’s Oscar Robertson Trophy winner and the nation's leading scorer, three repeat selections, a pair of North Carolina teammates and four SEC stars headline the 2023-24 U.S. Basketball Writers Association's Men's All-America Team. The 15-man team includes a player from each of the NCAA Tournament’s four No. 1 seeds and six players who were their conference players of the year.

The USBWA has named a men's All-America team since its inaugural season of 1956-57. Since the 2017-18 season, the USBWA has expanded the team to honor 15 players on three teams, regardless of position. For the third time, the USBWA also recognized players with honorable mention. The team is selected by the USBWA board, regardless of position, after voting from the entire membership and the honor is based on performance during the regular season.

The first team is topped by Purdue center Zach Edey, last season’s Oscar Robertson Trophy as the USBWA's national player of the year and a leading candidate to repeat this season. Edey is averaging 24.4 points per game to lead the nation, 11.7 rebounds (third nationally) and 2.2 blocks and is now Purdue’s first two-time USBWA All-American since Glenn Robinson in 1993-94. He is Purdue’s fourth player to be a two-time All-American and is the reigning two-time Big Ten Player of the Year.

No player has repeated as the Oscar Robertson Trophy winner since Virginia's Ralph Sampson won it in three straight seasons (1981-83). Sampson, UCLA's Bill Walton (3), LSU's Pete Maravich (2), UCLA's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (2), Ohio State's Jerry Lucas (2) and Oscar Robertson (2) of Cincinnati himself round out the small fraternity to repeat as the USBWA National Player of the Year. This season's winner will announced at the Men's Final Four on Friday, April 5 in Glendale, Ariz.

Purdue, North Carolina, Houston and UConn, the top seeds in the NCAA Tournament, each have a player on the first or second team.

RJ Davis, North Carolina’s senior guard and the ACC Player of the Year, helped take the Tar Heels to the ACC regular-season title and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Davis averages 21.4 points and 3.5 assists per game. He and Armando Bacot, now a two-time selection to the USBWA’s third-team, are the only teammates to make this year’s 15-man squad.

Dalton Knecht of Tennessee made the first team and is one of the SEC’s four All-America nods that topped all conferences. Knecht, Tennessee’s first UBSWA All-America selection in five seasons and the SEC’s Player of the Year, is averaging 21.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists.

The Big East had three players on the team, headlined by Marquette quard Tyler Kolek, now a two-time USBWA All-American, moving up to the first team after a earning second-team honors last season. Kolek averages 15.0 points, 7.6 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game.

Houston’s all-everything guard Jamal Shead helped push the Cougars back to the top of the polls in March as the Big 12’s Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. Shead averages 13.1 points and 6.2 assists per game but is best known for his tenacious defense. He is the third guard in the last four seasons at Houston to be named a USBWA All-American.

No one conference had multiple players on the first or second teams. The Big East and ACC each had three players represented, followed by the Big 12 with two and the Atlantic 10, Big Ten and Pac-12 with one apiece.

Tristen Newton of Connecticut, the top player on the NCAA Tournament’s top overall seed after a regular season that saw him average 15.2 points, 7.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists, headlines the second team. Newton is UConn's first USBWA All-American in 10 seasons since Shabazz Napier earned first-team honors in the 2013-14 season. Newton is joined by Caleb Love of Arizona, the Pac-12’s Player of the Year averaging 18.1 points per game in the regular season. Love gives Arizona an All-American in three consecutive seasons. The other second-teamers are Duke sophomore center Kyle Filipowski, the only sophomore on the 15-man team, Alabama guard Mark Sears, who gives his program consecutive USBWA All-Americans for the first time, and Hunter Dickinson of Kansas, now a two-time USBWA All-American after earning his first accolade while at Michigan as a freshman in 2020-21.

Joining Bacot on the third team are DaRon Holmes II, the scoring and defensive phenom at Dayton and the Atlantic 10’s Player of the Year, Auburn forward/center Johni Broome, Kentucky guard Antonio Reeves and Creighton guard Baylor Scheierman, Creighton’s first USBWA All-American in 10 seasons since three-time honoree and 2014 Oscar Robertson Trophy winner Doug McDermott from 2012-14.

In this third season for the USBWA to include honorable mentions – the top vote-getters not named to the first three teams – the list of honored players features Boo Buie, a graduate guard at Northwestern, L.J. Cryer, a senior guard at Houston, Jaedon LeDee, a senior forward at San Diego State, Kevin McCullar Jr., a graduate guard at Kansas and Terrence Shannon Jr., a fifth-year guard at Illinois.

Following is the complete 2023-24 USBWA Men's All-America Team:

The U.S. Basketball Writers Associationwas formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. With some 800 members worldwide, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. It has selected a men's All-America team since its founding season of 1956-57 season. For more information on the USBWA and its award programs, contact executive director Malcolm Moran at malcolm@usbwa.com.