National Player of the Year Watch: Week 3

Duke forward Mason Plumlee is among the leading candidates for the AP National Player of the Year award. Each week throughout the season, we will check in on Plumlee’s progress as well as the performance of other top candidates for college basketball’s top honor.

Mason Plumlee, Duke: After nearly playing himself out of the National Player of the Year  picture following a slow start to his conference slate, Plumlee has appeared to find his groove with strong performances against Maryland and Wake Forest this week. The senior poured in 19 points against the Terrapins and a career-high 32 against the Demon Deacons, converting on 77.8 percent of his attempts from the field in the two-game stretch. Plumlee also found his touch from the free throw line against Wake Forest, converting 8-of-10 shots from the charity stripe. After starting off the season shooting remarkably well from the line, Plumlee had lost his touch in recent weeks and began to look like the Plumlee of old from the free throw line—before last night's game against Wake Forest, the senior had not converted on more than 50 percent of his free throws in a game where he shot more than four times from the line since Dec. 29, 2012 against Santa Clara.

The lone blemish on Plumlee's performance against the Demon Deacons was his seven turnovers, three of which came on charges. The forward has struggled to protect the basketball for Duke and still suffers from lapses on the defensive end, but his strong offensive play has kept him in the National Player of the Year race.

Doug McDermott, Creighton: This man just keeps on scoring. McDermott notched back-to-back double-doubles this week, recording 21 points and 10 rebounds in Creighton's win against Southern Illinois and 29 points and 10 rebounds in the Bluejays' win against Missouri State. As Creighton's primary ballhandler, McDermott's most impressive stat last week may have been the one combined turnover he surrendered in the two contests. He has simply been a machine.

Trey Burke, Michigan: Burke's numbers might not jump off the page and slap you in the face like McDermott's do, but he has been arguably just as consistent in the past few weeks. When the Wolverine point guard takes the floor, you know exactly what you are going to get—a consistent scoring effort, careful and precise distribution of the ball and command of the floor. Burke's 19 point, five assist effort in Michigan's win against Illinois and his 18 point, eight assist effort in the Wolverines' dispatching of Northwestern are prime examples of his consistency. Strong play from Burke at point guard is one of the main reasons why Michigan is the No. 1 team in the country.

On the outside looking in: It seems as though this discussion is quickly boiling down to a three-horse race. Syracuse guard Michael Carter-Williams was good, but not great in his team's 75-71 overtime loss to Villanova last week, with 17 points, four assists and five rebounds. Indiana's Cody Zeller hasn't showed enough consistency to be taken as a serious contender, turning in a nice 19-point, 11 rebound performance against Purdue but managing just nine points against a ranked Michigan State team. Ben McLemore of Kansas has played consistently, but hasn't shown enough star quality to be legitimately considered for the award. Louisville's free-fall through the rankings thanks to three-consecutive losses has all-but-ended the chances for guard Russ Smith as well.