The five CBS Sports First Team All-Americans come from five different conferences. What’s most interesting about them is that only one of the five players was a no-doubt First Teamer in the preseason five months ago.
That’s obviously Zach Edey.
Purdue’s 7-foot-4 center, the reigning and soon-to-be two-time CBS Sports National Player of the Year, was expected to be the sport’s best player before this season began, and he’s been the sport’s best player by a sizable margin. He’s joined on the First Team by Houston’s Jamal Shead, North Carolina’s RJ Davis, UConn’s Tristen Newton and Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht, the last of whom is the biggest surprise relative to preseason expectations.
Knecht, who transferred to UT after two years at Northern Colorado that followed two years of junior college, wasn’t even on CBS Sports’ list of the top 100 And 1 college basketball players last October. His emergence from a relatively unknown mid-major scorer to the SEC Player of the Year and likely lottery pick in the 2024 NBA Draft is a wild story that’ll be told many times between now and when he’s selected by a franchise in June.
2023-24 CBS Sports All-America First Team
Zach Edey | Purdue | Center | 7-4 | Senior
The most obvious of picks since … Edey did the same thing last season. Yes, Purdue has the rare guy who is both the best player in the sport and a multi-time First Team honoree. That is a dying species over the past 10 years in men’s college basketball. A consensus pick for this honor, Edey leads the country in scoring (25.0 ppg) and is the first player to do that and make a Final Four since Oscar Robertson in 1960. Edey also averages 12.2 rebounds, 2.2 blocks and shoots 62.4% from the field. He’s now one of four players ever to average 30-plus points and 15-plus rebounds in the NCAA Tournament after four games, joining three fellow legends: Wilt Chamberlain (Kansas, 1957), Jerry West (West Virginia, 1959) and Elvin Hayes (Houston, 1968). That’s not the only legendary company he keeps. In totaling more than 900 points and 450 rebounds this season, Edey became the first player to do that since Larry Bird in 1978-79. Purdue is 33-4 and will play in its third Final Four this weekend. Without Edey, it doesn’t come close. His greatness is undersold, if anything. — Matt Norlander
Dalton Knecht | Tennessee | Guard | 6-6 | Fifth year
Along with Edey, Knecht was our only other consensus choice to First Team All-America. He ignited Tennessee’s offense and became one of the best players Rick Barnes has coached in more than four decades in the business. Knecht finished eighth nationally in scoring (21.7 ppg) and turned himself into a viable lottery pick after transferring last offseason from Northern Colorado. He was the biggest reason Tennessee’s run to the Elite Eight as a No. 2 seed (its best showing under Barnes), where it ultimately lost to Edey and Purdue to end its season at 27-9. Knecht also averaged 39.7% from beyond the arc and hauled in 4.9 rebounds per night. He was the best transfer in the country; over the next few weeks, every coaching staff at a power-conference program will be trying to find
2023-24 CBS Sports All-America teams: College basketball’s best and most talented players
- Advertisment - 