INDIANAPOLIS (USBWA) — In an effort to expand coverage of the men’s game and to further highlight standout players both at power-conference schools and in the mid-major ranks, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association executive board introduced an additional piece of coverage for the 2025-26 season: the Oscar Robertson National Players of the Month.
Today, we’re announcing our final pair for the season.
You may notice the calendar and wonder why such an announcement is landing in mid-April. Leave it to a bunch of overtaxed sports hacks to blow through a deadline. Nevertheless, we have one more duo to reveal, even with the season more than a week in our rearview mirror. The Final Four and planning the end-of-season USBWA awards dinner in St. Louis occupied a fair amount of our attention, but that won’t stop us from shining a light on two players who were outstanding when the games mattered most.
(Note: Given that the Final Four is staged in April — and because there is a Final Four Most Outstanding Player award — the three games that were played in Indianapolis did not factor into the voting for our final POTM award.)
Here are the High-Major and Mid-Major winners for Player of the Month for March:
High-Major Player of the Month: Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas
The most important month on the college hoops calendar created a logjam of candidates for our final POTM accolade. Acuff, who is off to be a top-10 pick in a little more than two months’ time, beat out the likes of Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg, Connecticut’s Tarris Reed Jr., Duke’s Cameron Boozer, Vanderbilt’s Tyler Tanner and more for the final honor of 2025-26.
He also goes back-to-back; Acuff was our High-Major Player of the Month for February. The Detroit native’s eight-week ascension is also why he finished the season as a USBWA First Team All-American. In winning Player of the Month for March, Acuff also completes a season-long sweep for freshmen: every single high-major USBWA POTM was a first-year guy in men’s college basketball.
Acuff averaged a college basketball-best 29.6 points in the month of March while starring in seven games. He also put up 7.4 assists and 3.3 rebounds and shot a scorching 47.9% from 3-point range in the final four weeks of his college career. Arkansas’ only loss in March was its last, to No. 1 seed Arizona, in the Sweet 16 in the West Regional semifinal. Acuff was the head of the snake on a Razorbacks team that earned a 4-seed and finished 28-9 in John Calipari’s second season in Fayetteville. With season averages of 23.5 points and 6.4 assists, Acuff joins Pete Maravich as the only SEC players to lead the league in scoring and assists. He also has a claim as one of the best players to be coached by Calipari, whose Hall-of-Fame resume has a list of NBA Draft picks longer than any coach in history.
Mid-Major Player of the Month: Rob Martin, High Point
When we think of the magic of March, Rob Martin fits the description to a T. A diminutive bucket-getter who isn’t afraid of the moment and helps a mid-major team pull a Cinderella upset. That’s what Martin did when he went for 23 points, 10 assists and two blocks in High Point’s riveting 83-82 win over No. 5 seed Wisconsin in the first round of the NCAAs on March 19.
For as great as that game was, the 5-10 senior point guard from St. Louis was positively electric in High Point’s second round loss to Arkansas, tossing up 30 points and trading blows with none other than his high-major honoree for the month of March, Darius Acuff Jr.
Martin had some big-time competition for this honor (Cal Baptist’s Dominique Daniels Jr., VCU’s Terrence Hill Jr. and Penn’s TJ Power also received a lot of support), but it was High Point’s push combined with Martin’s crowd-pleasing performances that got him over the top. The slithery Panthers point guard averaged 22.2 points and 6.0 assists for the Big South champs in March, who put up 83.6 points in the final month of the season and earned a No. 12 seed after going 31-5, including an 18-1 mark against conference foes. Flynn Clayman’s first season running a program was one of the more successful debuts we’ve seen in the past 40 years in college basketball, and it was made possible by bringing on Martin, who transferred for his senior season after playing at Southeast Missouri State a year ago.
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Since the 1958-59 season, the USBWA has named a National Player of the Year. In 1998, the award was named in honor of the University of Cincinnati Hall of Famer and two-time USBWA Player of the Year Oscar Robertson. It is the nation's oldest award and the only one named after a former player.
At the conclusion of the regular season, the USBWA will name finalists for the award, which is voted on by the entire membership. The winner of the award will be announced at the 2026 Men's Final Four in Indianapolis, with the formal presentation to follow at the annual USBWA Awards Luncheon hosted by the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis.
The U.S. Basketball Writers Association was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. With some 800 members worldwide, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. It has selected an All-America team since the 1956-57 season. For more information on the USBWA and the Oscar Robertson Trophy, contact executive director Malcolm Moran at 814-574-1485.
2025-26 USBWA Oscar Robertson Trophy Players of the Month
• November: Cameron Boozer, Duke (High-Major); Delrecco Gillespie, Kent State (Mid-Major).
• December: AJ Dybantsa, BYU (High-Major); Cruz Davis, Hofstra (Mid-Major).
• January: Keaton Wagler, Illinois (High-Major); Dominique Daniels Jr., California Baptist (Mid-Major).
• February: Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas (High-Major); Aidan Kehoe, Navy (Mid-Major).
• March: Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas (High-Major); Rob Martin, High Point (Mid-Major).