One of the unanticipated byproducts of the NIL/transfer portal era in college basketball has been the decrease in importance of “superstar freshmen.”
Three seasons ago, just one freshman who has been ranked in the top 100 of his recruiting class was on a team that advanced past the Sweet 16. That was Donovan Clingan, who came off the bench for eventual national champion UConn. That same season, just one true freshman — Alabama star Brandon Miller — ranked in the top 100 in the nation in scoring.
A year later in 2024, a grand total of one of the 20 players who started a game in the Final Four was a true freshman. That was Stephon Castle, who helped Connecticut cut down the nets for a second straight year.
There are exceptions to the rule, of course, the most notable perhaps being Cooper Flagg, who won the Wooden Award last season and helped Duke get to the Final Four. Flagg would go on to be selected first overall in the following summer’s NBA Draft, but there was a noticeable difference between the 6’8 unicorn and the other non-Duke freshmen who were taken in the lottery.
Top five picks Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey put up top-tier numbers in their only season of college hoops … for a Rutgers team that went 15-17. No. 3 overall pick VJ Edgecombe was the second-leading scorer on a Baylor team that limped into the NCAA Tournament as a 9-seed and got blasted by Duke (89-66) in the second round. No. 6 pick Tre Johnson played for a Texas team that lost 16 games, including a First Four defeat at the hands of Xavier. Three more top 15 picks — Colin Murray-Boyles (South Carolina), Cedric Coward (Washington State) and Thomas Sorber (Georgetown) — played for teams that didn’t come close to sniffing the NCAA Tournament.
The decrease in freshman impact since the halcyon days of the “one and done” era can be explained in dozens of fashions. The two simplest reasons are:
1) The extra COVID year of eligibility, the landmark Diego Pavia ruling as well as the NCAA’s recent increase in willingness to grant eligibility waivers has resulted in college basketball being older than it ever has before. The average 24-year-old with six seasons of high level college basketball experience is going to be a larger asset than the above average 18-year-old with no college basketball experience. It didn’t take the sport’s most prominent head coaches long to realize this and adjust their roster construction accordingly.
2) The last handful of recruiting classes have … and I believe this is the professional recruiting term … stunk. While players like Flagg and Miller and a select few others have shone as brightly as any stars in college basketball during their respective seasons, the depth behind those headliners simply has not been there in the manner that it was with some of the classes that came before.
Tagging the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season with a “year of the freshman” (or something similar) title is probably too far, but there’s ample reason to believe that the top-rated crop of first years from the class of 2025 are going to have a much more sizable impact on the sport than we’ve seen in some time.
By all accounts from those that follow this sort of thing for a living, the class is loaded. Not only that, but the most impactful players from the class are all set to be spotlight players on what figure to be some of the best teams in the sport this season.
Most scouting services ranked 6’9 wing A.J. Dybantsa as the best player in this class. He earned MVP honors for Team USA at this summer’s FIBA U19 World Cup, and has been a fixture at or near the top of most 2026 mock NBA drafts for months. Figures are all over the place when it comes to how much exactly BYU paid for, without question, the highest-profile recruit in the program’s history, but the result is that 2025-26 is widely being referred as the most anticipated season of Cougar basketball ever. BYU is No. 8 in the latest SB Nation preseason top 25.
If Dybantsa isn’t the No. 1 pick in next summer’s NBA Draft, the player most believe will earn that honor is Kansas-bound Darryn Peterson. There’s certainly been no shortage of next-level talent to come through Lawrence over the years, but Hall of Famer Bill Self said recently that Peterson is “the best freshman I’ve ever recruited.” Self went on to say that he expects Peterson to shoulder more of the load for the Jayhawks than any of the freshmen who have come before him. That is ridiculously high praise.
What about Duke? The program that just had a trio of freshmen taken in the top 10 of the NBA Draft? Well, Jon Scheyer once again has a loaded class of newcomers headlined by a star that many believe can compete for national Player of the Year honors.
Cameron Boozer, the son of former NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer, arrives in Durham after one of the most distinguished careers in the history of high school basketball. Boozer won four state championships in four years, three Peach Jam titles in three years, and was a two-time Gatorade National Player of the Year award recipient. He also won a national title at the 2025 Chipotle Nationals and has won two gold medals with USA Basketball. The 6’10 forward, whose 5-star twin brother, Cayden, will also suit up for the Blue Devils this winter, will be asked to do many of the same things that Cooper Flagg did for Duke in 2024-25.
If you’re looking for the most exciting offense in college basketball this season, it might be played in Louisville. Ky. Pat Kelsey’s Cardinals are loaded with shooters and scoring talent, and figure to play at one of the highest paces in the country. Running the show will be freshman point guard Mikel Brown Jr., who was an absolute star for Team USA during this summer’s FIBA U19 World Cup. Brown is a tremendous ball-handler and outside shooter, and many recruiting experts have described him as the best passing point guard to come out of the high school ranks this decade. For the first time since Rick Pitino’s infamous exit, U of L — ranked No. 9 in SB Nation’s top 25 — appears to have squad capable of competing for a national championship, and Brown Jr. is the engine that could determine whether or not they get there.
Down in Knoxville, Tennessee fans are buzzing about five-star freshman Nate Ament, who has apparently been putting on a show every day during the early weeks of practice. The 6’9 wing can shoot it, he can handle it, he can pass it, he can rebound, and he can block shots. Rick Barnes has a limited amount of proven offensive ability on his roster for this season, so Ament is going to be asked to cook for the Volunteers right out of the gates.
We could continue down this road for a while.
Caleb Wilson (North Carolina), Darius Acuff (Arkansas), Chris Cenac Jr. (Houston) and Koa Peat (Arizona) are all freshmen who are expected to contribute heavily to preseason top 25 teams that have the ability to be mainstays in the national title contender conversation this winter.
The kids are more than just all right, they’re ready to bring the most extreme of youth movements back to college basketball this season.
