19

Sep

Aussies in NCAAM

Revealed: Aussie is best player on No1 ranked college team

Written By

Peter Brown

Senior Editor

Revealed: Aussie is best player on No1 ranked college team
Revealed: Aussie is best player on No1 ranked college team

Ole Miss forward Roman Siulepa, Florida Gators forward Alex Condon and Wisconsin Badgers teammates Owen Foxwell and Austin Rapp. Photos: Getty Images

Western Australian is rated college basketball's fifth-best player, and his Gators its best team.

  • Condon is rated the No. 5 player in NCAA Division I by Evan Miya
  • His Florida Gators are the projected No. 1 team in the country
  • He is the only Australian ranked inside Evan Miya's top 100 players

Australian centre Alex Condon is ranked the best player on the best team heading into the 2026-27 NCAA Men’s Division 1 basketball season.

The 22-year-old Western Australian is ranked 5th by analytics site Evan Miya while his 2025 National Champion Florida Gators are the projected No. 1 team in the country.

His BPR of +9.53 estimates how many points per 100 possessions he would be better than his opponent if he were on the court with nine other average Division I players. Michigan State’s No.1. ranked Jeremy Fears Jr. comes in at +11.12.

The Gators are stacked: Condon #5; teammates Thomas Haugh #6; Rueben Chinyelu #17; and Boogie Fland #24 are all in the Top 25. Fellow Australian Gator Alex Kovatchev is ranked 4,013.

Condon, who made his Australian Boomers debut in July, withdrew from the 2026 NBA Draft, opting instead to return to Florida for his senior season and a NIL bag.

"It's not the result that we wanted at the end of the year," Condon told ESPN.

"I think we're a better team than that. So, [we] left a bit of unfinished business with the Gators.

"So to go back to school and compete – we know what it's like to win a national championship, and that's the No. 1 goal for me.”

Condon is the only Australian in the Top 100. Wisconsin’s Austin Rapp (+5.11) is ranked 125th; Ole Miss forward Roman Siulepa (+3.97) is 256th; Rapp’s Badgers teammate and former South East Melbourne Phoenix guard Owen Foxwell (+3.16) is 404th; and Foxwell’s brother Joel (+2.06) at Arizona State is 712th.

The NCAA basketball season starts on November 2, 2026 (AEDT).

NCAA men’s preseason ratings: the top 10, and every Australian

The top 10 in Division I, then every Australian we track, 76 in all. Alex Condon is the highest rated Australian, 5th in the country. Every row below the top 10 is Australian.
RankPlayerBPRSchoolOffDef
1Jeremy Fears Jr.+11.12Michigan State+7.91+3.21
2Patrick Ngongba+9.77Duke+5.64+4.13
3Tyler Tanner+9.71Vanderbilt+6.30+3.41
4Silas Demary Jr.+9.54Connecticut+5.92+3.62
5Alex Condon AUS+9.53Florida+5.19+4.35
6Thomas Haugh+9.07Florida+5.71+3.36
7Joseph Tugler+9.06Houston+3.37+5.69
8Chance Mallory+8.90Virginia+5.89+3.02
9Flory Bidunga+8.90Louisville+3.96+4.94
10David Mirkovic+8.63Illinois+5.95+2.67
125Austin Rapp+5.11Wisconsin+3.41+1.70
256Roman Siulepa+3.97Ole Miss+2.34+1.62
414Owen Foxwell+3.16Wisconsin+2.59+0.56
578Ben Henshall+2.50Ole Miss+1.58+0.92
712Joel Foxwell+2.06Arizona State+1.44+0.62
817Tasman Goodrick+1.78Syracuse+0.78+1.00
972Noah Pagotto+1.42Northern Kentucky+0.98+0.44
1068Alex Dickeson+1.20Colorado+0.53+0.67
1420Bol Dengdit+0.59Hawaii+0.60-0.02
1469James O’Donnell+0.50Portland-0.03+0.53
1561Emmett Adair+0.35George Mason+0.91-0.56
1633Jacob Furphy+0.26Boston College+0.02+0.24
1649Roor Akhuar+0.24Fordham-0.43+0.67
1668Mading Kuany+0.21Georgia-0.29+0.50
1669Fraser Roxburgh+0.21Washington State+0.98-0.76
1687Nash Walker+0.20Marquette-0.12+0.32
1766Ethan Elliott+0.06Northern Kentucky+0.24-0.17
1771Marcus Vaughns+0.06Arizona State-0.37+0.43
1786Abass Bodija+0.04Fordham-0.53+0.56
1821RJ Greer+0.00UNC Greensboro+0.35-0.35
1837Josh Ibukunoluwa-0.02Bradley+0.31-0.33
1980Goc Malual-0.16Colorado-0.30+0.14
1985Clayton Jewell-0.17Southeast Missouri State-0.48+0.31
2026Rory Hawke-0.21Saint Mary’s-0.36+0.14
2049Isaac Riddle-0.25Wisconsin-0.29+0.03
2116Ben Waller-0.34UC Riverside-0.04-0.30
2187Ben Tweedy-0.41Manhattan+0.57-0.99
2227Jack Whitbourn-0.46Fordham-0.60+0.15
2420Truman Byrne-0.63Lipscomb+0.11-0.74
2424Lueth Awan-0.64Hawaii-0.56-0.08
2443Will Shortt-0.66Northern Kentucky-0.65-0.01
2450Will Mortimore-0.67College of Charleston-1.07+0.40
2482Ryan Hunt-0.70TCU-0.68-0.02
2486Flynn Pavely-0.70 team ratingSaint Mary’s-0.79+0.09
2532Riley Dunn-0.73Hofstra-0.56-0.18
2605Ché Brogan-0.81Ohio-0.69-0.12
2664Deng Manyang-0.88George Washington-0.75-0.13
2801Luca Ace-Nasteski-1.02Harvard-0.75-0.27
2817Tom Koppens-1.03Cal State Bakersfield-0.79-0.25
2818Ajak Nyuon-1.04Arizona State-0.72-0.32
2866Tristan Devers-1.07Washington-0.37-0.70
2913Austin Foxwell-1.11Portland-0.69-0.42
2947Luke Fennell-1.15Saint Mary’s-0.73-0.42
2959Campbell Blogg-1.16Northern Colorado-0.76-0.40
2971Jesse Mcintosh-1.18William & Mary-0.64-0.54
3074Rex Stirling-1.25Jacksonville-0.71-0.54
3135Nicolo Romanelli-1.28Columbia-0.48-0.80
3146Kobe McDowell-White-1.29Chattanooga-0.92-0.37
3317Koby Moir-1.41UC Davis-1.21-0.20
3437Carlin Briggs-1.52Portland-0.89-0.63
3688Henry Sewell-1.72Portland-0.97-0.75
3879Roman Stathis-1.86 team ratingWashington State-1.14-0.72
3967Xavier Istomin-Monroe-1.93Detroit-1.87-0.06
3984Isaiah Walter-1.95UMass Lowell-1.43-0.51
4013Alex Kovatchev-1.97Florida-1.28-0.69
4034Kiir Kuany-1.98Ohio-1.55-0.43
4157Malik Davis-2.05 team ratingDavidson-1.12-0.93
4322Delang Muon-2.16 team ratingArkansas State-1.26-0.90
4348Bowyn Beatty-2.18La Salle-2.19+0.01
4366Stephen Olowoniyi-2.20Duquesne-1.68-0.51
4515Harrison Lyttle-2.33 team ratingMercer-1.67-0.66
4528Frank Oguche-2.35Charlotte-0.95-1.40
4538Henry Lau-2.36Long Beach State-0.97-1.39
4575James Dyson-Merwe-2.40Evansville-2.43+0.04
4758Tim Ibukunoluwa-2.56 team ratingSiena-1.44-1.13
4903Marshal Destremau-2.77West Georgia-1.53-1.23
4957Brad Ballinger-2.84New Haven-2.03-0.81
4993Oluwatomisin Ayodele-Osho-2.92West Florida-1.67-1.25
5044Alvin Cole-3.01Maryland-Eastern Shore-1.98-1.02
5068Jasraj Gill-3.07 team ratingLafayette-2.14-0.93
5093Joe Baldwin-3.17South Carolina Upstate-1.41-1.76
5107Charlie Dimmock-3.19 team ratingDenver-1.64-1.55
5110Harry Bates-3.19 team ratingDenver-1.64-1.55
5290Ethan Marten-Coney-3.73 team ratingBucknell-2.03-1.71
5329Abu Riak-3.94Canisius-1.38-2.56
The 10 best rated players in Division I men’s basketball before a ball is bounced, and then every Australian, in rank order. A higher rating is better, and 0.0 is an average Division I player. Ratings by EvanMiya.com.
How the rating works, and what the marked rows mean
What the rating means. It estimates how many points per 100 possessions better than the opponent a player’s team would be if he were on the court with nine other average Division I players. Off and Def split that between his attacking and defensive value, and a higher number is better in both. The ratings are not ours. They are the Bayesian Performance Ratings published by EvanMiya.com, reproduced as supplied, and the credit for the modelling belongs there. These are PREDICTIONS, not results. Nobody has played a game yet, so every figure here is what the model expects from last season’s form, who has arrived and who has left. The columns that count what actually happens on the floor – minutes, shooting, plus-minus – are empty until the season starts, so we have left them out rather than print a row of zeros that looks like a measurement. Why some rows say “team rating”. Where the model has nothing to go on for an individual player, it gives him his team’s rating instead. Those players share an identical figure with their own team-mates, down to the last decimal place. It is a fair guess about the team and it is not a measurement of the player, so we mark it rather than let it read as a verdict on him. 10 of the 76 Australians here are marked; across the whole list of 5,465 players, 514 are in that position, and none of them are in the top 1,000. Who counts as Australian. The Australians are the men on our own list of every Australian in NCAA Division I men’s basketball, as it stood on 3 September 2026. 76 of them appear in the ratings; 7 do not, either because their school is not settled yet or because the ratings simply do not carry them. So this is the Australians we track who are rated, not a count of every Australian in college basketball.

NCAA men’s preseason team ratings: the top 25

Florida are rated first of 365 teams. Only 2 of the 76 Australians we track are on a top-25 team, and both are at Florida.
RankTeamBPRAustraliansOffDefInj. rank
1Florida+31.322 Condon, Kovatchev+16.67+14.652
2Duke+31.06+16.92+14.141
3Illinois+29.81+18.33+11.483
4Arizona+26.31+12.56+13.754
5Gonzaga+25.05+14.91+10.149
6Connecticut+25.02+12.54+12.485
7Houston+24.51+11.36+13.156
8Michigan State+23.93+11.86+12.067
9St. John’s+23.28+11.74+11.5434
10Alabama+23.01+13.62+9.3914
11Texas Tech+22.57+14.71+7.8626
12Louisville+22.26+11.89+10.378
13Michigan+21.25+11.00+10.2519
14Texas+21.16+12.40+8.7610
15Iowa State+20.98+11.01+9.9611
16Tennessee+20.21+10.66+9.5513
17LSU+19.64+11.21+8.44150
18Kentucky+19.55+11.31+8.2412
19Arkansas+18.99+11.00+7.9915
20Miami (Fla.)+18.98+12.29+6.6916
21UCLA+18.85+10.87+7.9817
22Virginia+18.79+10.59+8.2018
23Auburn+18.53+11.97+6.5628
24BYU+18.46+11.81+6.6531
25Purdue+18.40+11.89+6.5120
The 25 best rated teams in Division I men’s basketball before a ball is bounced, and how many Australians we track are on each. A higher rating is better. Ratings by EvanMiya.com.
How the rating works, and why there are two rankings
What the rating means. It estimates how many points per 100 possessions better than their opponent a team is expected to be. Off and Def split that between attack and defence, and a higher number is better in both. These are PREDICTIONS: nobody has played yet, so the columns that count what actually happens – wins, losses, points scored – are empty and we have left them out rather than print zeros that look like results. The ratings are not ours: they are published by EvanMiya.com and we have reproduced them as supplied. ⛔ Why there are two rankings, and why we print both. The source ranks teams twice: once on its headline rating, and once adjusted for players currently injured. THE TWO DISAGREE AT THE TOP. Florida lead on the headline number by 0.26 points, which on a scale this size is a rounding error; on the injury-adjusted ranking Duke come first instead. So the top of this table is genuinely close, and anyone calling one of them the best team in the country is choosing a column. We show you both. The Australians column counts the men on our own list of every Australian in NCAA Division I men’s basketball who also appear in these ratings, as that list stood on 3 September 2026. Only 2 of the 76 Australians we track are on a top-25 team, and all of them are at one club. A dash means no Australian we track, not that the club has none.

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