Freshmen
Freshmen links for every team, conference.
If there’s ever a time to feel sorry for UCLA – 11 NCAA titles? Share the wealth, Westwood! – this week was the time. For about 5 seconds.
Losing Kevin love and Russell Westbrook on the same day is par for the course in college hoops today. But having your starting power forward declare a day later just aggravates the wound. Waiting to see if your starting point guard will also leave may mean some amputation.
Unless, of course, you’re UCLA.
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Pick your favorite Derrick Rose superlative. Astonishing. Unbelievable. Phenomenal. They all apply to Memphis’ freshman point guard.
So what’s left? Champion.
Just five years ago, Carmelo Anthony etched his name into NCAA lore as the best freshmen we’d ever seen. Rose is one victory from matching ‘Melo. Who knew history repeated itself so often? (For symmetry’s sake, the title-game opponent is the same as Anthony’s: Kansas. Go figure.)
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Plenty of opinions accompany the Player of the Year race. Yet, there’s rarely little disagreement when all the awards are handed out.
This isn’t one of those seasons.
Much like the J.J. Redick-Adam Morrison debate in 2005 (they shared the Wooden and Naismith awards but Redick won everything else), or when T.J. Ford (Naismith, Wooden), David West (AP, USBWA, Rupp) and Nick Collison (Coaches) split the six major awards in 2003, I doubt there’ll be a consensus when it comes to deciding between Michael Beasley and Tyler Hansbrough this season.
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Kansas State called this one. Might as well call Michael Beasley Joe Namath.
An upset of No. 2 Kansas on Wednesday – the Jayhawks’ first loss of the season – was proclaimed long ago by the Wildcats’ star freshman, who had yet to play a game for K-State.
"We're gonna beat KU at home," Beasley said last summer. "We're gonna beat 'em at their house. We're gonna beat 'em in Africa. Wherever we play we're gonna beat 'em."
He’s a man of his word.
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When it comes to Player of the Year, it looks like it’ll come down to Tyler Hansbrough vs. the fab freshmen. I just can’t decide just how many freshmen he’s contending against…
North Carolina’s star junior forward, who leads ACC team in points (22.0) and rebounds (10.1), is a lock for All-America honors and a Player of the Year finalist. It’s a little remarkable that a guy who’s been an All-American his first two seasons has been ever better as a junior as there’s usually some kind of letdown.
Then again, most upperclassmen don’t have to deal with a freshmen class like this.
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Monday was another typical day for Kansas State freshman Michael Beasley. He scored 24 points, grabbed 10 rebounds – his 10th double-double in 10 games this season – and helped the Wildcats to an easy win over Florida A&M.
But even a player as spectacular as Beasley hasn’t been able to transform K-State into a good team.
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You gotta love Deadspin. The snarky, irreverent humor, the plentiful links and the wide range of stories, a good portion coming from other blogs.
It all leads to stuff like this.
The gist is prized Kentucky recruit Alex Legion will transfer at the end of the fall semester. Legion, along with Patrick Patterson, was one of the fab freshmen who was supposed to make Billy Gillispie’s first year in Lexington a little easier.
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Time for some hyperbole. Tuesday’s Memphis-USC matchup in the Jimmy V Classic has an all-encompassing storyline: Derrick Rose vs. O.J. Mayo.
Nevermind that it’ll be the second Top 5 team the Trojans will have faced in a three-day span. Forget that it’s another elite non-conference foe the Tigers slated this season, which also has games against Georgetown, Arizona and Gonzaga yet to come.
After all, this game is a rematch.
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Go figure. On a day when two of the fab five freshmen play starring roles in UCLA winning a tournament title (over a game Michigan State) and helping Indiana flirt with the century mark, it’s another freshman that upstages them both.
And this freshman wasn’t even on most people’s radar. And by most people, I mean mine. That’s what I get for ignoring Australian hoops.
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Call it Year of the Freshmen, part II.
We’ve already seen plenty of star freshmen (Eric Gordon, Derrick Rose, etc.) showcase their skills this season. But in the post Durant & Oden Era, get ready for even more freshmen to step into the spotlight. Those fab five freshmen may be the best of this year’s class, but they’re far from the only ones to watch.
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