The recent trend in men’s basketball has been to build rosters through the NCAA transfer portal, adding experienced players who already know the college game and can have an immediate impact.
The movement has been upended this season with a deep, ubertalented class of freshmen who are making a massive difference for programs across the country less than a year removed from their high school hoops days.
“It’s an anomaly, in the sense that every year there’s a handful of freshmen that make an impact, and oftentimes those are the one-and-done guys,” said ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla, who spent decades in the coaching business before beginning his TV career.
“But this, to me, is one of the deepest, if not the deepest freshman class that I can remember in 25 years. It’s been impressive that they literally are, in many cases, the best player on some really good Top 25 teams.”
The long list of star freshmen over the years include Carmelo Anthony, Anthony Davis, Zion Williamson and Cooper Flagg over the years.
Most seasons, though, the one-and-done headliners are sprinkled around the country, usually at blue-blood programs. Impact freshmen seem to be everywhere this season, and Cameron Boozer (Duke), AJ Dybantsa (BYU) and Darryn Peterson (Kansas) are already the go-to players for their respective teams.
Arizona forward Koa Peat had 30 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals against reigning national champion Florida in his college debut. North Carolina big man Caleb Wilson also shined in the spotlight of a marquee game, finishing with 24 points, seven rebounds and four assists in a win against Kansas.
Stanford freshman Ebuka Okorie is third nationally with 25.3 points per game. Tennessee’s Nate Ament is averaging 20 points and 8.7 rebounds. Kingston Flemings leads Houston in scoring at 17.2 points, and fellow freshman Chris Cenac Jr. is averaging nearly a double-double for the Cougars.
Darius Acuff Jr. and Meleek Thomas (Arkansas), Kiyan Anthony (Syracuse), Neoklis Avdalas (Virginia Tech), Mikel Brown Jr. (Louisville), David Mirkovic (Illinois), Stefan Vaaks (Providence), Cam Ward (Michigan State) and Tounde Yessoufou (Baylor) … this season’s list of impact freshmen goes on and on.
“We’re going to put the best players out on the floor no matter what year in school they are,” said Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd, who has already gotten good production from Peat, Dwayne Aristode, Brayden Burries and Ivan Kharchenkov. “We have a great freshman group that we’re excited about, and they have real maturity, and physically they’re also ready.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, leading to the cancellation of that year’s NCAA Division I basketball tournaments for men and women, college athletes were awarded an extra year of eligibility, expanding the number of players available in the transfer portal who could fit seamlessly into a roster.
Now that there are only a handful of seniors left who have been in the college game for more than five seasons, the transfer pool has essentially shrunk from five classes to four. The portal is still a huge avenue in roster building, but this year’s talented freshman class has more than filled the gaps.
For many freshmen, the move from high school to college can be overwhelming, the rush of unfamiliar experiences and the weight of new responsibilities impacting what they can do on the court.
Most of this year’s freshman class doesn’t seem to have that problem. If anything, they’re embracing front-and-center roles.
An example: North Carolina’s Wilson helped create a whiteout against Kansas with a tweet.
“We had a freshman just say, ‘We’re having a whiteout,’ and the whole 22,000 showed up in white,” North Carolina coach Hubert Davis said. “I really believe this: If he ran for student body president, he would win — and he’s only been here three months.”
It certainly helped that a good chunk of this freshman class arrived on campus with college-ready games and the confidence to go with it.
The feeling-out process that typically comes with first-year players has, for the most part, not been there. These freshmen are soaring and scoring as if they’ve been in college for three or four years, not three or four months.
“These these guys have played so much basketball against each other, both in high school and on the summer circuit, they’re not fazed by the level of competition they’re facing because they’ve already done it,” Fraschilla said. “But to go into these major arenas and play like they did in a high school gym or at a summer tournament is pretty remarkable.”
There is a downside, at least beyond this season. Because so many of this year’s freshmen have played so well so fast, the one-and-done highway to the NBA is going to be crowded.
“Either fortunately or unfortunately this is such a good class we’re going to see so many of them leave after one year there,” Fraschilla said. “But we’re enjoying them now.”