NABC Defensive Player of the Year


The NABC Defensive Player of the Year is a college basketball award given annually by the National Association of Basketball Coaches to recognize the top men's defensive player in NCAA Division I competition. It has been given since 1987 and was previously known as the Henry Iba Corinthian Award, named after Naismith Hall of Fame coach Henry Iba, who coached at Oklahoma State from 1934 to 1970.
Duke has dominated the award with six recipients who have won a total of nine awards. The only other schools with more than one recipient are UConn, with two recipients who combined for four awards, and Ohio State, Kentucky, and Virginia with two recipients who each won the award once. Three players have been named the NABC Defensive Player of the Year on three occasions—Stacey Augmon of UNLV, Tim Duncan of Wake Forest, and Shane Battier of Duke. Greg Oden and Anthony Davis are the only freshmen to have won the award.
Two winners of this award were born outside the main territory of the United States. Duncan was born in the United States Virgin Islands, an insular area of the U.S.; by U.S. law, all natives of the USVI are U.S. citizens by birth. Hasheem Thabeet, the 2008 and 2009 winner, is a native of Tanzania.

Winners

SeasonPlayerSchoolPositionClassReference
1986–87DukePG
1987–88DukeF
1988–89UNLVSF
1989–90 UNLVSF
1990–91 UNLVSF
1991–92GeorgetownC
1992–93DukeSF
1993–94MarquetteC
1994–95Wake ForestC
1995–96 Wake ForestC
1996–97* Wake ForestC
1997–98DukeSG
1998–99DukeSF
1999–00† DukeSF
1999–00†*CincinnatiC
2000–01* DukeSF
2001–02PG
2002–03UConnC
2003–04* UConnC
2004–05DukePF
2005–06 DukePF
2006–07Ohio StateC
2007–08UConnC
2008–09 UConnC
2009–10Mississippi StateC
2010–11Morehead StatePF / C
2011–12*KentuckyC
2012–13†*IndianaSG
2012–13†KansasC
2013–14Ohio StatePG
2014–15KentuckyPF / C
2015–16VirginiaSG
2016–17West VirginiaPG
2017–18 West VirginiaPG
2018–19VirginiaSF
2019–20KansasC
2020–21BaylorPG
2021–22AuburnC
2022–23UCLASG
2023–24HoustonPG
2024–25CreightonC