The UPI College Basketball Player of the Year was an annual basketball award given to the best men's basketball player in NCAA Division I competition. The award was first given following the 1954–55 season and was discontinued following the 1995–96 season. It was given by United Press International (UPI), a news agency in the United States that rivaled the Associated Press but began to decline with the advent of television news.
Five players—Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas, Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton and Ralph Sampson—won the award multiple times. Among them, only Robertson, Walton, and Sampson were three-time UPI Players of the Year.
UCLA had the most all-time winners with six. Ohio State was second with four winners, while Cincinnati and Virginia were tied for third with three winners apiece.
Key Player (X) Denotes the number of times the player has been awarded the UPI Player of the Year award at that point
Winners
Season Player School Position Class Reference 1954–55 La Salle F 1955–56 San Francisco C 1956–57 PG 1957–58 PG 1958–59 (2) Cincinnati PG 1959–60 (3) Cincinnati PG 1960–61 Ohio State F / C 1961–62 (2) Ohio State F / C 1962–63 Duke G / F 1963–64 F 1964–65 Princeton SF / SG 1965–66 Michigan SG 1966–67 UCLA C 1967–68 Houston F / C 1968–69 (2) UCLA C 1969–70 LSU G 1970–71 Notre Dame G 1971–72 UCLA C 1972–73 (2) UCLA C 1973–74 (3) UCLA C 1974–75 SG / SF 1975–76 Indiana F 1976–77 UCLA G / F 1977–78 Marquette PG 1978–79 Indiana State SF 1979–80 DePaul SF 1980–81 Virginia C 1981–82 (2) Virginia C 1982–83 (3) Virginia C 1983–84 North Carolina SG 1984–85 St. John's SF / SG 1985–86 St. John's PF 1986–87 Navy C 1987–88 Bradley SG 1988–89 Duke PF / C 1989–90 La Salle SF 1990–91 LSU C 1991–92 Ohio State SG 1992–93 Indiana SF 1993–94 Purdue SF / PF 1994–95 Maryland C 1995–96 UConn SG Lew Alcindor changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1971 after converting to Islam.
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