Fresh perspective: this year's freshman class is exceptional in quantity, quality and that all-important intangible—character

Sporting News, The, Jan 20, 2003 by Mike DeCourcy

The first 40 minutes of this college basketball season were dominated by two kids playing their first 40 minutes of college basketball. Syracuse freshman Carmelo Anthony dazzled a Madison Square Garden audience with a 27-point, 11-rebound performance that since has been demonstrated to be routine. Memphis point guard Jeremy Hunt, who had 19 points and seven assists, was in such command of the game that Anthony's brilliance could not secure a victory.

This is the kind of thing we've seen every week since: Indiana's Bracey Wright (Main Invitational) and North Carolina's Rashad McCants (Preseason NIT) winning major tournament MVP honors; Notre Dame power forward Torin Francis putting the fight in the Irish as they claimed wins over three top 25 teams in a week; point guard Dee Brown energizing Illinois during an 8-0 start; a quartet of freshmen helping restore Duke to the No. 1 ranking in the media polls.

This culture loves to celebrate all that is new. That's true in sports, where Phoenix Suns rookie Amare Stoudemire gets more publicity for his 12.4 points and 9.0 rebounds per game than teammate Shawn Marion receives for 20.7 points and 9.3 rebounds. It's true in music where James Taylor's sublim October Road CD received fewer Grammy nominations than Britney Spears got for her flop, Britney.

But it isn't novelty that makes the freshman class of 2003 compelling. To say Wright, McCants, Brown and Anthony are great freshmen is correct, but you could stop at great and be accurate. To say these guys and their classmates form the greatest group of freshman players since Alonzo Mourning, Chris Jackson and Christian Laettner began roaming college courts in 1988 might be debatable, but the new class' influence on the 2002-03 season is not.

Of the 25 teams in last week's TSN Power Poll, 15 play freshmen who have started regularly. That includes the teams ranked first (Notre Dame), second (Duke) and third (Arizona) and seven of the top 10. Of the 10 teams in the poll that were unranked in the preseason, six have at least one freshman starter and four have a freshman averaging double figures in scoring. Of the 24 players who competed in last year's McDonald's All-American game, 16 are part of the regular rotation for teams that have been ranked. Of the 22 who entered Division I, only one is not averaging 10 or more minutes.

"This is a group that has proven by their play that maybe they were better than everybody thought," says Van Coleman, the recruiting analyst who runs the Iowa-based FutureStars service. "A year ago, we figured this would be an above-average class."

This proliferation of precocity commonly is ascribed to the wide range of experiences freshmen carry into NCAA basketball, including the AAU/club tournament circuit, elite talent camps and national schedules played by high school teams.

If the explanation were this simple, every freshman class would produce the same excellence as this one. That didn't happen in 2001-02, when Kansas' Aaron Miles was the only freshman starter in the Final Four. It probably won't happen next season, when a fairly thin crop arrives.

The reasons for this year's revolution are as varied as the talents of the players at its core.

Pressing needs

It's an interesting coincidence that so many prestigious, name-brand programs required talent infusions simultaneously. Indiana, Duke and North Carolina all became immediately dependent on first-year players.

Forward Jared Jeffries elevated last year's Indiana team to Final Four status by forcing opponents to spend extra defensive attention on him. With his ability to shoot from long range, penetrate the defense and make sound decisions, Wright immediately assumed that responsibility. "What you're seeing in Bracey is a guy who has advanced scoring skills," says recruiting analyst Dave Telep of TheInsidersHoops.com.

North Carolina all but turned over its team to the freshman trio of McCants, point guard Raymond Felton and big man Sean May. Although May broke his foot and could be out until March, these three helped rescue the Tar Heels from last year's 8-20 disaster. Combined, the three freshmen averaged 41.8 of the team's 73.2 points in the nine games before May was hurt.

Duke's celebrated six-man class yielded four players for coach Mike Krzyzewski's rotation, including leading scorer J.J. Redick and No. 3 rebounder Shavlik Randolph. Freshmen have consumed 40 percent of the Blue Devils' minutes. Redick was known to be an uncommonly good shooter but has proved to be a complete offensive player.

"We're all supposed to be major contributors as freshmen," says Notre Dame's Francis. "It's not that it puts pressure on us, but it gives us a role that we have to develop. It gives us the mind-set that we've got playing time, and we have to go out there and prove we can play."

The comeback kids

Randolph and Florida guard Anthony Roberson are awfully young to have made it back from any kind of adversity, but basketball's star-making process tends to consume some who pass through.