Freshmen
Freshmen links for every team, conference.
Some college hoops pundits think freshmen will play a key role in this year’s national title hunt. Others are reserving judgment until they actually get on the court.
How about a little bit of both?
Every fan has high hopes for their team’s incoming freshmen when they could be the missing piece of a championship puzzle. But those freshmen who don’t quite live up to the hype? That hurts.
Still, it’s hard not to get just a little bit excited about watching the incoming freshmen. Here are 16 I’m excited to watch.
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Talent vs. experience. That’s the eternal question. Do you want a roster of experienced players or a team full of talented, young ballers?
OK, you want both. That’s easy. And if you can’t have experienced, talented players, you want a mix.
But when it’s crunch time in late March, what kind of player is on the floor? The most talented bunch or a group you can trust to make the right decision because they’ve been there before?
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Hype’s a hard thing to ignore. Every season, the elite incoming college freshmen are touted as instant stars, able to carry a team to the Final Four (Derrick Rose) or even a title (Carmelo Anthony).
And why not? When we read about their exploits, see a YouTube video or various SportsCenter highlights, it’s hard not to believe that one of these players could indeed dominate like Kevin Durant.
Thankfully, there are writers who keep their cool and remind us that sometimes, not all freshmen are saviors, but merely good players.
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The 2008-09 college basketball season doesn’t feature a Michael Beasley. Or a Greg Oden. Or a Kevin Durant, Kevin Love or O.J. Mayo. It’s full of good, but not great players.
At least, that’s the general opinion by most media outlets.
Still, even if the player of the year isn’t a freshmen, there are plenty of dynamic newcomers you’ll need to know. Here are 10.
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The Brandon Jennings watch continues.
Jennings, the McDonald’s All-American point guard, is still waiting to see if he’ll be ruled eligible for next season after taking his third SAT. Those scores won’t be released until July 11th. And all of those delays just brew even more talk about Jennings possibly playing in Europe next season.
It’s like the Brett Favre un-retirement talk, but for us hoops junkies…
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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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