sherron collins

While the NCAA Tournament is ultimately about team success, you can't win games without star players. But which players will be the heroes of the 2010 NCAA Tournament? Look below:

It's March and everyone's talking about college basketball. Is your team on the bubble?

While all the talk is about teams and brackets and seeds, let's not forget about some of the top individual players who hope to lead those squads deep into the NCAA Tournament.

So let's get started with my five leading candidates to win the coveted Naismith Award, which honors the best player in men's college basketball:

Cole Aldrich (Kansas)

Al-Farouq Aminu (Wake Forest)

Da'Sean Butler (West Virginia)

Sherron Collins (Kansas)

DeMarcus Cousins (Kentucky)

Luke Harangody (Notre Dame)

Wesley Johnson (Syracuse)

Scottie Reynolds (Villanova)

Jon Scheyer (Duke)

Evan Turner (Ohio St)

John Wall (Kentucky)

Other (Anderson, Hummel, James, Vasquez, etc)

FEBRUARY 4, 2010 - The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts announced today the final 11 candidates in consideration for the 2010 Bob Cousy Award presented by The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. This annual award is given to college basketball’s top point guard and is named after Hall of Famer and former Boston Celtic great Bob Cousy.

Cole Aldrich (Kansas - 11.6 ppg, 10.3 rpg, 3.6 bpg)

James Anderson (Oklahoma St - 22.8 ppg, 5.9 rpg)

Sherron Collins (Kansas - 15.5 ppg, 4.1 apg)

Damion James (Texas - 18 ppg, 11 rpg)

Jacob Pullen (Kansas St - 19 ppg, 3.5 apg)

Donald Sloan (Texas A&M - 18.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg)

Cole Aldrich

Sherron Collins

Xavier Henry

Other (Taylor, one of the Morris's, etc)

Overall Rank: #1

Conference Rank: #1 Big 12 Conference

Luke Harangody of Notre Dame is the only 2009 Wooden All-American returning to college basketball in 2009-10. Other returning players from last year’s Wooden Award ballot, include Sherron Collins of Kansas, Duke’s Kyle Singler and Kalin Lucas of Michigan State. Purdue’s Robbie Hummel made the Wooden ballot in 2008.