Feast Week is officially over, which means there’s no better time to unveil the first edition of this season’s Ballislife National Player of the Year Ladder. This will be a weekly tracker that examines the resumes of the five leading candidates, with twists and turns sure to be aplenty if the first few weeks of the season are any indication.
Headlining this week’s list is a potentially generational freshman forward, a 23-year-old journeyman who has a story as crazy as his high-flying game, and a Las Vegas native who is coming off an insanely impressive performance at the Players Era Championship in his own town. Come to think of it, a few of these guys put on a show under the Strip’s bright lights last week. Or in another exotic location.
1. Cameron Boozer, Duke, Fr. (Age: 18)
With the eyes of the nation watching Duke’s nationally-televised bout with Arkansas on Thanksgiving night, the most accomplished prep player in modern history delivered a performance that made him the clear NPOY frontrunner.
Boozer poured in 35 points in an 81-71 win over the Razorbacks in Chicago, making 13-of-18 attempts from the field in addition to grabbing nine rebounds. Duke’s win pushed them to 7-0 in their non-conference schedule with additional double-digit wins against Texas and No. 24 Kansas.
The super freshman isn’t a one-game wonder, either. He ranks sixth in the entire country with 22.9 points per game this season and even has an additional 35-point game on a more efficient 13-of-16 shooting in a 38-point win over Indiana State. With Darryn Peterson injured and A.J. Dybantsa going through a bit more growing pains, things are lining up for Boozer to run away with the major NPOY awards and potentially the No. 1 overall selection in June’s NBA Draft.
2. Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan, Sr. (Age: 23)
It’s impossible to argue against Boozer as the current frontrunner, given his current pace, but the performance Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg put on tape almost convinces you to have the conversation anyway. His Wolverines looked unbeatable in Vegas last week, rattling off 40-point wins over San Diego State and No. 12 Gonzaga and a 30-point win over No. 21 Auburn.
Lendeborg has been the motor behind Michigan’s unreal start, leading the team in scoring in five of its first seven games and doing so in a way that can only be described as eye-popping. Lendeborg put down a trio of highlight-reel dunks during Gonzaga’s thrashing, salting the wound for a Zags team that looked as good as any in recent memory heading into that game.
It’s definitely not bad for a 23-year-old in Lendeborg who played just 11 varsity basketball games in high school and was forced to go the JUCO route at Arizona Western. Despite the lack of high-level experience, the undeniable athleticism that is so apparent today eventually landed him a scholarship at UAB, where he won back-to-back AAC Defensive Player of the Year awards before commanding a major NIL salary to transfer to Michigan in lieu of entering the NBA Draft last summer. Again, not bad.
Yaxel Lendeborg put on quite a show for the many NBA executives assembled in Las Vegas. Pushing off the glass, finding teammates on the move, creating off the bounce and making shots. The 6’10 big man can do a little bit of everything. pic.twitter.com/SIOxapJWRS
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) November 26, 2025
3. Joshua Jefferson, Iowa State, Sr. (Age: 22)
While Lendeborg had the flashier and ultimately more noteworthy performance in the desert last week given Michigan’s dominance, you could make a real case that the most effective and most valuable performance of the week came from Iowa State senior Joshua Jefferson.
It was an extra special week for Jefferson, who graduated from Liberty High School in neighboring Henderson. The senior forward tallied 17 points against No. 14 St. John’s, an 18-point double-double on the rebounds line against Creighton and a 13-point double-double on the assists line against Syracuse to lead his Cyclones to a 3-0 record in the most competitive November multi-team event in college basketball history.
Jefferson improved his season-long averages to 17.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and five assists per game. Not only that, his 1.560 KenPom Player of the Year rating (kPOY) ranks second national, trailing only Boozer’s remarkable 2.381.
4. Caleb Wilson, North Carolina, Fr. (Age: 19)
Wilson is the only player on this week’s list who is on a team that’s suffered a loss this season, but the stat lines the surefire top-five pick has been putting up to start the season all but forgive a single (albeit decisive) slip-up against Tom Izzo’s always-prepared Michigan State Spartans.
For example, Wilson put up 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds in a 26-point win over Navy. That was just four days after he went 7-for-8 from the field in a 21-point, 13-rebound performance against North Carolina Central in which he also collected three blocks on the defensive end.
Wilson’s lowest scoring output of the season is a 13-point game on an efficient night against Radford, but he’s scored at least 18 points in the Tar Heels’ six other games this season. Once this team gets into ACC play and we start seeing what Wilson can do against some schools worth watching North Carolina play against, he should maintain a regular presence on this list.
5. Bennett Stirtz, Iowa, Sr. (Age: 22)
There are few transfer decisions that made more sense than Bennett Stirtz following his old Drake coach Ben McCollum to Des Moines this season. The duo that made those Bulldogs a popular Cinderella pick on plenty of brackets last March looks to be up to all their old tricks again this season. Just in a black and gold Hawkeyes jersey.
Stirtz leads the Hawkeyes with averages of 18.7 points per game, 5.4 assists and 1.7 steals per game. He also led Iowa to the Acrisure Classic crown in Palm Desert during Feast Week, catching eyes with a 29-point performance to lead the Hawkeyes to a 15-point win over an always tough to beat Ole Miss squad coached by Chris Beard.
Stirtz is going to have his work cut out for him in a Big 10 conference that’s looking even more dangerous than usual this season, but he gets the nod over Purdue’s Braden Smith and Houston’s Kingston Flemings this week on account of his carrying of the Hawkeyes this season.
