March Madness MOP Winners: See Every Player Who Has Won the Award

The list of greats who have won the Most Outstanding Player award at a Final Four is like a Who’s Who of college basketball.

It’s list that includes Hall of Famers Bill Walton, Magic Johnson, Patrick Ewing, Isiah Thomas, James Worthy and Christian Laettner. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was known as Lew Alcindor at the time, won it 3 times. Hakeem Olajuwon (then, Akeem) was so good for Houston in 1983 that he won the award even though his team lost the championship game to NC State.

But not every winner was a star. Every now and then, a role player will step up and steal the spotlight the way Adama Sanogo did for UConn in 2023, Luke Hancock for Louisville in 2013 and Jeff Sheppard for Kentucky in 1996.

Men’s Final Four MOP Winners

Here is the complete list of Final Four Most outstanding players, from Ohio State’s Jimmy Hull in 1939 to UConn’s Tristen Newton in 2024:

* – Louisville’s participation in the 2013 NCAA tournament was later vacated
** – Indicates player named MOP without winning national championship
^ — Now known as Hakeem Olajuwon
# – Now known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
% – Now known as Oklahoma State

Who Has Won the Most MOP Awards?

Five players have won the Most Outstanding Player Award at least twice. Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) is the only player to win it 3 times:

• 3: Lew Alcindor, UCLA: 1967, 1968, 1969
• 2: Bob Kurland, Oklahoma State: 1945, 1946
• 2: Alex Groza, Kentucky: 1948, 1949
• 2: Jerry Lucas, Ohio State: 1960, 1961
• 2: Bill Walton, UCLA: 1972, 1973

How Many Freshmen Have Won the MOP Award?

In 1944, Utah’s Arnie Ferrin became the first freshman to win the Final Four Most Outstanding Player Award. For many years after that, freshmen weren’t allowed to participate in varsity athletics. In 1986, Louisville’s Pervis Ellison became the next freshman to win the MOP. Here’s the complete list of freshmen who have won the MOP Award:

• 1944: Arnie Ferrin, Utah
• 1986: Pervis Ellison, Louisville
• 2003: Carmelo Anthony, Syracuse
• 2012: Anthony Davis, Kentucky
• 2015: Tyus Jones, Duke

Brett Friedlander

Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.