The country's leading returning scorers in men's basketball include a diminutive March Madness hero, the son of a current DI head coach and the namesake of an NBA champion. They're all players who averaged at least 20 points per game and some have proven they're capable of scoring twice that figure in a single game.
These are the top nine returning scorers in men's college basketball for the 2021-22 season.
1. Max Abmas, Oral Roberts
2020-21 scoring average: 24.5 points
FG%/3P%/FT%: 47.8%/43.3%/89.0%
By now, Abmas needs no introduction to even casual men's college basketball fans. Abmas, who's listed at 6-1, led Oral Roberts on a remarkable postseason run in which the Golden Eagles, who finished fourth in the Summit League, won the conference tournament to earn a No. 15 seed in the NCAA tournament. From there, Oral Roberts advanced to the Sweet 16, becoming just the second No. 15 seed to do so after Florida Gulf Coast in 2013.
Abmas also finished the season as the country's leading scorer at 24.5 points per game.
In the 2021 NCAA tournament, Abmas scored 29 points in an upset of No. 2 seed Ohio State, 26 points in an upset of No. 7 seed Florida and 25 points in a near-upset of No. 3 seed Arkansas. That's a total of 80 points in three NCAA tournament games on a combined 24-of-57 shooting (42.1 percent) and 14-of-32 3-point shooting (43.8 percent).
As a sophomore, his scoring average jumped by more than 10 points per game from 14.4 points per game as a freshman. Abmas is an elite free-throw shooter, making 89 percent of his 151 free throws, helping the Golden Eagles to finish as the country's top free-throw shooting team at 82.2 percent.
After declaring for the NBA draft, Abmas returned to Oral Roberts. Abmas played 95.7 percent of available minutes last season, per kenpom.com, and after his running mate Kevin Obanor transferred to Texas Tech, Abmas could take on an even larger role for the Golden Eagles this season.
2. Antoine Davis, Detroit Mercy
2020-21 scoring average: 24.0 points
FG%/3P%/FT%: 42.4%/37.2%/91.7%
Davis, the son of Detroit Mercy coach Mike Davis, will return to school for his senior year after finishing last season as the country's third-leading scorer at 24 points per game.
In Detroit's Horizon League tournament win over Robert Morris last season, Davis scored 46 points on 16-of-26 shooting, including 10 3-pointers. Davis had four other games with at least 30 points last season, meaning he scored 30-plus in almost a quarter of Detroit's 22 games.
Davis' scoring average has actually slightly declined year-over-year, from 26.1 points per game as a freshman to 24.3 as a sophomore to 24 last season. Through three seasons, he has scored 2,040 points, and with another season where he posts a big scoring average, Davis could finish his college career with roughly 2,800 points.
3. Stanley Umude, Arkansas
2020-21 scoring average: 21.6 points
FG%/3P%/FT%: 46.9%/35.5%/79.9%
Arkansas added South Dakota transfer Stanley Umude to its roster in the offseason. Umude, a 6-6, fifth-year senior, averaged 21.6 points per game last season, which ranked ninth nationally. South Dakota finished second in the Summit League last season with an 11-4 conference record and Umude was the driver of the Coyotes' offense, which ranked as the third-most efficient in the Summit League, per kenpom.com.
Umude took 35.5 percent of the team's shots when he was on the floor, which was the fifth-highest percentage nationally, per kenpom.com. He'll likely be asked to accept a smaller role with Arkansas, which earned a No. 3 seed in the 2021 NCAA tournament and advanced to the Elite Eight, but his already productive shooting percentages (50.3 percent on 2-point attempts and 34.9 percent on 3-pointers) could improve.
4. Davion Warren, Texas Tech
2020-21 scoring average: 21.2 points
FG%/3P%/FT%: 45.5%/30.2%/75.5%
As a senior at Hampton, Warren, a 6-6 guard, averaged 21.2 points per game, which ranked 13th nationally. Warren was one of the highest-usage players in the country — ninth, per kenpom.com — and he was a very efficient scorer at the rim, making 69.3 percent of his attempts, per hoop-math.com. However, Warren could use improvement on 2-point jumpers (38.3 percent) and from 3 (30.2 percent).
Warren transferred to Texas Tech in the offseason, where he'll play for first-year head coach Mark Adams.
5. Michael Flowers, Washington State
2020-21 scoring average: 21.0 points
FG%/3P%/FT%: 43.8%/38.8%/81.8%
Flowers spent three seasons at Western Michigan, where he developed from a freshman who averaged 3.4 points per game to a sophomore who averaged 15.7 points per game. After improving his scoring average to 16.9 points per game as a junior, he transferred to South Alabama, where he was the country's 15th-leading scorer last season at 21.0 points per game.
Now, he'll spend his fifth season of college at Washington State. Flowers is a career 36.8-percent 3-point shooter and he shot that percentage, or better, in three of his four years in college. He also excels at getting to the free throw line — last season, he took roughly one free throw for every three field-goal attempts — and he made 82.5 percent of his free throws during the 2021 season.
6. Scotty Pippen Jr., Vanderbilt
2020-21 scoring average: 20.8 points
FG%/3P%/FT%: 42.8%/35.8%/85.0%
Pippen, the namesake of Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen, declared for the NBA draft before announcing his return to Vanderbilt for his junior season. Last season, Pippen averaged 20.8 points per game — a number that ranked 16th nationally and it was a 7.2-point increase from his freshman-year average.
Pippen's usage rate of 35.2 percent (per kenpom.com) — a metric that measures what percent of a team's offensive possessions end in a given player making a shot, missing a shot that's rebounded by the defense or turning the ball over when he's on the floor — ranked third nationally. He drew 7.4 fouls per 40 minutes, per kenpom.com, which ranked sixth nationally and he took more than one free throw for every two field-goal attempts he took. Pippen then made 85 percent of his free throws once he got to the line.
7. John-Michael Wright, High Point
2020-21 scoring average: 20.7 points
FG%/3P%/FT%: 41.8%/34.3%/77.9%
As a sophomore, the 6-1 Wright scored 20.7 points per game, which ranked 17th nationally, which was a significant jump from his freshman season, when he averaged 14.2 points per game. Just shy of 39 percent of his shot attempts were from 3, per hoop-math.com, but he made just 34.3 percent of them. He was most efficient when he was at the rim (53.7 percent) or at the free throw line (77.9 percent). He made 41.3 percent of his 2-point jumpers, per hoop-math.com.
Wright is a productive creator and ball-handler, as he assisted on roughly a quarter of High Point's baskets when he was on the floor, per kenpom.com, and his turnover rate was a low 12.5 percent.
8. Jamir Harris, Seton Hall
2020-21 scoring average: 20.5 points
FG%/3P%/FT%: 47.2%/43.8%/76.2%
Harris will play in the Big East for Seton Hall next season after spending the last two seasons at American University. He started his college career at Minnesota. As a redshirt junior, Harris averaged 20.5 points per game last season — nearly double his scoring average from the previous season and that was a significant increase from his freshman-year average of 3.9 points per game with the Gophers.
Harris played as much, on a percentage basis, as almost any player in the country last season. He played 92.9 percent of available minutes, which ranked 10th nationally, per kenpom.com. He can stretch the floor (43.8 percent from 3), while also getting his teammates involved, with a 21.4-percent assist rate, which means he assisted on more than one out of every five made baskets when he was on the floor last season.
9. Darrion Trammell, Seattle
2020-21 scoring average: 20.5 points
FG%/3P%/FT%: 41.2%/34.8%/86.6%
Trammell, a 5-10 guard, averaged 20.5 points per game for Seattle last season, which ranked 19th nationally, just ahead of Oklahoma State's Cade Cunningham and Illinois' Ayo Dosunmu. It was his first season playing DI basketball after spending his freshman season at City College of San Francisco.
Trammell scored at least 30 points three times last season, including in back-to-back road games against Dixie State, and his season-high of 32 points came on the road against Long Beach State.
