This season in college basketball is looking to be as exciting as ever, since many top talents chose not enter the NBA draft and return to school. That’s very rare these days with “one-and-dones” taking over college basketball. Every year, a new crop of fresh talent takes over the season and pushes to the top of the All-American voting. This year is no different, and I think this season will be loaded with even more high-profile freshman talent than last year.
The first place I check for good freshman basketball players every year is whichever school John Calipari coaches. He always has a great recruiting class and this year is no different. He has four freshmen on his roster who participated in the most recent McDonald’s All-American game. I expect power forward Kyle Wiltjer, power forward Anthony Davis, small forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and point guard Marquis Teague to all make big impacts for the Wildcats this season.
Of those players, Anthony Davis is getting the most hype. He was rated as [Rivals.com’s second best player](http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recruiting/player-Anthony-Davis-112305) in the 2011 class. Most experts believe he has the physical tools and skill set to immediately dominate in the post with his incredible wingspan. But his fellow classmates are very talented as well. Kyle Wiltjer won the McDonalds All-American 3-point shootout, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist has been hailed as one of the best wing players to come up since LeBron, and Marquis Teague is said to have more potential than his brother in the NBA guard Jeff Teague. These players give college basketball some fresh faces that could lead their team to the championship.
Elsewhere there are still more freshmen looking to take over college basketball. Duke snagged who many believe is the top overall prospect in shooting guard Austin Rivers. Rivers, son of NBA coach Doc Rivers, is a guard with good size who is a big-time scoring threat. He was one of the most impressive performers in the AAU circuit and many believe he could step in and lead Duke right away with his very high basketball IQ. Many say he can improve on defense, but I’d expect that from a freshman.
Another freshman with huge impact potential is center Andre Drummond at Connecticut University. This is somewhat of a surprise as he was originally the number one prospect in the 2012 class. But he decided to skip a year of prep school and join the Huskies for the 2011-12 season. He is an ultra-athletic 6-foot-11-inch big man who dominates in the paint. Many didn’t have UConn as a favorite to repeat as national champs until he joined the roster. It’s tough to see how they would repeat unless Drummond has a big season.
Last year was also chalk full of talent with the likes of small forward Harrison Barnes, forward Jared Sullinger and guard Kyrie Irving. But I don’t think they were relied on as heavily as the freshmen this year. Kentucky made the final four using primarily their freshmen talent, but the national championship went to UConn, a team led by veteran Kemba Walker. This year, almost all of the serious champion contenders are going to need to have a freshman step up and produce in order to win the national championship.
There are always a few freshmen to watch every season in college basketball. They don’t always produce like they should and some are just flat out disappointing. But this season, with the incredible depth in freshman talent, I think there will be a huge positive impact by the new faces across the country.
