When I wrote the Player Preview, I walked out the idea that maybe, just maybe, if everything shakes out in the right direction for Marquette men’s basketball this season, maybe Nigel James has a pathway to being the national player of the year. I know it’s a bit crazy to think about, Marquette has had just one NPOY in the history of the program, and that was Butch Lee in 1978.
Nigel James making the 20 man watch list for the Bob Cousy Award was definitely encouraging in the direction of making my point for me, but that’s just Best Point Guard, not Best Player. And so, the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame decided to do me a solid on Monday and release their 50 man watch list for the Naismith Trophy, their version of the Player of the Year award.
Yep, Nigel James is one of the 50.
James averaged 16.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, 4.9 assists, and 1.9 steals per game for Marquette last season, earning Big East Freshman of the Year honors along the way. He put up 17/4/5/2 as a starter and 19/4/6/2 in Big East regular season games. While 2025-26 was the worst Marquette season in a looooong time, you can not say anything but good things regarding not just how James played but how he handled his business as well.
Nigel James is one of four men in the Big East on the 50 man watch list, which by pure math is not just the Hall of Fame listing all 20 guys on the watch list for all five positional awards. It’s very clearly only HALF of those 100 guys. The other three Big East guys on the list are Silas Demary and Braylon Mullins from UConn along with Tounde Yessoufou from St. John’s.
The four games against those two teams aren’t the only time we’ll see James on the court with another POY watch list guy. In addition to Jeremy Fears from Michigan State, which we already saw in the exhibition game at Fiserv Forum, non-conference play will get us these matchups:
Elliot Cadeau, Michigan
Trey McKenney, Michigan
Josh Hubbard, Mississippi State
Jason Crowe, Missouri
PJ Haggerty, Texas A&M
Thijs De Ridder, Virginia
Nolan Winter, Wisconsin
I don’t think Marquette is going to go 6-0 in those games, seeing as that’s all six of MU’s high profile non-con games. However, you have to admit, a 6-0 mark in games against those guys would go a long way towards making the case for Nigel James as the best player in the country, right?
As I type this, we’re seven hours away from tipoff on the 2026-27 season. First game is on Monday night against Mercyhurst, with tipoff on ESPN+ set for 6:30pm Central time. Our preview and Game Thread are already up on the site!
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