Obi Toppin has been the feel-good story of the 2019-2020 college basketball season. He was the consensus National Player of the Year after leading the Dayton Flyers, a mid-major school, to a top-three finish in the polls. Toppin’s highlight machine style of play made him a staple of SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays, as well as a strong prospect for the Charlotte Hornets to review. However, he was far from the national spotlight before this season.
The Brooklyn, New York native, was ruled academically ineligible to play his freshman season. Yet, with little fanfare coming from his recruitment, nobody batted much of an eye at the time.