ASSOCIATED PRESS – University of Dayton redshirt sophomore
Obi Toppin was named a First Team All-American today by the Associated Press. Toppin was the only unanimous selection on the first team, and was joined by Iowa's Luka Garza, Marquette's Markus Howard, Seton Hall's Myles Powell and Oregon's Payton Pritchard.
A 6-foot-9 forward from Brooklyn, Toppin has already been named First Team All-American by The Sporting News. The Associated Press and Sporting News All-America teams are two of the four teams used to determine the NCAA's consensus All-America teams.
He has already been selected the College Basketball Player of the Year by The Athletic, USA Today, CBSsports.com, NBC Sports and Rivals. Sports Illustrated announced its Top 50 College Basketball Players for the 2019-20 season this week, and Toppin's uniform number matched his ranking – "1." (It is worth noting that Toppin's teammate and roommate, point guard
Jalen Crutcher, was number 34 in the same ranking.)
Toppin is a finalist for the Atlanta Tip-Off Club's Citizen Naismith Trophy, is on the national ballot for the Los Angeles Athletic Club's John R. Wooden Award, and is on the watch lists for the USBWA's Oscar Robertson Trophy and the Basketball Hall of Fame's Karl Malone Award.
Fan voting is currently ongoing for the Naismith, Wooden and Malone awards.
Toppin finished the year averaging 20.0 points and 7.5 rebounds a game, and shooting .633 (245-387) from the field, .390 (32-82) from 3-pt. range and .702 (99-141) from the line.
He was the only player in the country who is averaging 20.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and shot over 60% from the field. He also had the best field goal percentage in the last five years of any Division I player who averaged 20 points a game.
Toppin led the A-10 in FG% (.633, 245-387), and was second in scoring (20.0). He was the only player in the conference to be listed in both the top ten in FG% and 3-pt. FG% (8th, .390, 32-82). He was also fifth nationally in field goal percentage, even though he took more than double the number of three-pointers the rest of the top 10 combined.
The athletic high Flyer also led the nation in dunks (107).
Toppin lifted the Flyers to a 29-2 record, setting the most wins in school history even though UD did not get a chance to play any post-season games. Dayton ended the year ranked third in the nation and will carry a 20-game win streak into 2020-21, the longest active streak in Division I. UD won its third A-10 regular season championship in the last five years, but this season went undefeated (18-0) for the first time.
