Disappointing Freshman or Back to Reality?

Over the last two years the NCAA has been blessed by outstanding freshman talent like Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, Kevin Love, Derrick Rose and OJ Mayo. This is in no small part to the NBA draft rule that requires players to be 19 years old and be one year removed from high school. Otherwise these fine players probably never would have stepped on a college campus.

This year the NCAA had plenty of highly touted freshman joining various programs, but overall there hasn't been any stand-out freshman comparable to players in years past. Players like BJ Mullens and DeMar DeRozan haven't lived up to the expectations that were established in part because of great freshman who played at their respective schools before them.

Now many critics have emerged; saying that this year's freshman class is significantly worse than 2007 or 2008's: they aren't "Wunderkids". However, not everyone thinks this year's freshman are not so much disappointing rather simply not as good as the spectacular classes that preceded them. Maybe this is how the NCAA is supposed to be.

Not to say that this freshman class is full of schmucks. There are still freshman playing very well this season including Liberty's Seth Curry (Stephen's younger brother) and Oklahoma's Willie Warren. These player's simply aren't as dominating as Kevin Durant or Michael Beasley, but still good players.

Where the real damage may come is in the NBA Draft. Draft Express (linked to above) thinks many of these players should remain in school for another year. Many of the highly touted freshman are still projected lottery picks in the 2009 NBA Draft and millions of dollars may tempt these players to the NBA rather than improving their games.

Do you think the influx of talent in the NCAA has been bad this year or a refelection of how good previous freshman classes have been? Let us know in the comments section.

Zach Bowers

0 comments »   12/29/08