Seth Trimble made The Shot, a final-second 3-pointer to topple Duke on Saturday, a testament to old-fashioned college basketball, where a prospect can develop, without transferring and with considerable patience, from a seldom-used freshman to an indispensable senior.
But the best player on the floor in North Carolina’s 71-68 victory was Tar Heels forward Caleb Wilson, who’s on pace to become the highest-scoring freshman in program history. And Duke’s best player was forward Cameron Boozer, on track to set the ACC’s single-season scoring record for freshmen.
Wilson tallied 23 points on just 10 shots, while also contributing four rebounds, two assists, two steals and a blocked shot. Boozer required 17 shots to score his 24 points, but also produced 11 rebounds and three assists.
And they are just part of a stirring freshman class nationally, and in the ACC, that reached another peak Monday night, courtesy of Louisville guard Mikel Brown Jr.
In a 118-77 demolition of NC State, Brown set an ACC single-game record for freshmen with 45 points, eclipsing by three the standard Duke’s Cooper Flagg established last season against Notre Dame. Brown made 14 of 23 shots, a stunning 10 of 16 beyond the 3-point arc.
“It’s incredible, it really is,” Virginia coach Ryan Odom said. “All the coaches around the country, and people in your position, marvel at what these young people are doing, especially when you talk about college basketball, where (people say) you have to be old to win.”
Indeed, “get old and stay old,” has been the sport’s mantra since the NCAA essentially gave athletes unlimited freedom to transfer. Programs began stockpiling multiple upperclassmen transfers and replacing them each offseason with players of like pedigree.
Sure, Flagg was last season’s national player of the year, but the other four consensus first-team All-Americans were seniors Johni Broome of Auburn, Mark Sears of Alabama and Walter Clayton of Florida, plus Purdue junior Braden Smith.
Moreover, Clayton teamed with Alijah Martin and Will Richard in an all-senior backcourt that led the Gators to the national championship.
Another veteran squad — think No. 2 Michigan — could well win this year’s NCAA Tournament. But equally probable is No. 1 Arizona, whose top two scorers are freshmen Brayden Burries and Koa Peat.
As a freshman in 1993-94, Pitt coach Jeff Capel started on a Duke team that reached the NCAA final, falling to Arkansas. While on the recruiting circuit, he quickly realized “how special this class was.”
“It’s been cool to watch from afar, to see what these guys do,” Capel said. “It always amazes me, as a guy that played a lot as a freshman just the confidence these guys come in with. … That’s why, when I hear that the U.S. system is broken, I don’t believe it, because I see how talented the young kids are coming in.”
The buzz surrounding this season’s freshmen hit overdrive Jan. 25, when Illinois’ Keaton Wagler, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa and Houston’s Kingston Flemings scored 46, 43 and 42 points, respectively. Oh, and Boozer went for 32 and Arkansas’ Darius Acuff for 31.
Just as Trimble’s bucket was turning Chapel Hill delirious Saturday night, Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie, far less heralded than Wilson and Boozer, was commencing a 40-point tour de force in a rout of Georgia Tech.
Ebuka Okorie vs Virginia Tech:
• 31 PTS
• 2 REB
• 6 AST (1 TO)
• 1 STL
• 11/18 FG
• 4/8 3PT
• 5/5 FT
• GAME WINNER
Not just one of the best freshman guards or scorers in the ACC or in all of D1. One of the best players in the NCAA…PERIOD! pic.twitter.com/rhfuHCSjs1
— Conrado Pascual (@CP3_777) January 8, 2026
Also Saturday, Dybantsa’s 28 points weren’t enough for BYU against Houston, primarily because Flemings led the Cougars with 18 points, five assists and five rebounds. In a setback at Kentucky, Tennessee’s Nate Ament had the best game of his sterling rookie season with 29 points and eight rebounds.
“Cooper Flagg was fantastic, and there were other really good freshmen last year,” Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “But there wasn’t the depth and quality.”
With the Fighting Irish’s top returning player, second-team All-ACC guard Markus Burton, shelved by an ankle injury, Shrewsberry has relied on freshman forward Jalan Haralson to carry the offense. And Haralson has embraced the role, averaging 15 points a game on 50% shooting.
“He’s just humming along and playing the game and barely getting mentioned,” Shrewsberry said, “and that just shows you the quality of this class.”
Kansas guard Darryn Peterson is arguably the most gifted of the group and projected as the No. 1 overall selection of June’s NBA draft. But Peterson has missed 10 complete games, including the Jayhawks’ victory Monday over No. 1 and previously undefeated Arizona, and portions of several others with ailments such as hamstring tightness, cramps and flu-like symptoms.
The anticipation for Peterson’s Jan. 31 clash against BYU’s Dybantsa, perhaps his closest rival for the top draft slot, was especially keen. And Peterson more than delivered — for a half — as his 18 points included a viral dunk that fueled Kansas’ 20-point intermission advantage.
UNREAL. pic.twitter.com/rMEBRVZq3A
— Kansas Men’s Basketball (@KUHoops) January 31, 2026
But Peterson cramped early in the second half and spent the final 16 minutes on the bench.
Brown missed eight games with a back injury and returned Jan. 24 against Virginia Tech, scoring 20 points in a Louisville victory. His season-high before Monday was 29 points in a win over Kentucky.
ACC media voted Brown and Boozer first-team preseason all-conference, but the only balloting that matters is for the all-league teams in March. Only twice in ACC history have two freshmen made first-team all-conference: 1996 with Georgia Tech’s Stephon Marbury and North Carolina’s Antawn Jamison, and 2019 with Duke’s Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett.
Boozer and Wilson are near first-team locks, and Okorie, who trails only Boozer among all ACC players in scoring, could make it an unprecedented three. Do I hear four?
Thijs De Ridder leads Virginia in scoring and rebounding, and although the NCAA granted him only two seasons of eligibility after his professional experience in Europe, he’s listed as a freshman.
“Those guys are playing high-level games against really good players,” Virginia Tech coach Mike Young said. “And they have been doing so since they were 14, 13 years old in all these tournaments across the country. So, when they get here, this is the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big 12, Big East, whatever it might be, different level and different level of interest, but they’re not spooked by it.
“And the kids coming from Europe, they have played professional basketball, they have played for their city or their country. … I think they’re just better-equipped to step in and make significant contributions.”
Source: The NCAA has officially cleared #UVA basketball’s Thijs De Ridder. He will have two seasons of eligibility. Associate head coach Griff Aldrich ran the point on this recruitment.
Here’s a recent story on De Ridder:https://t.co/0xpbD75jIc
— David Teel (@ByDavidTeel) July 18, 2025
Veteran Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes believes the quality of freshman classes is merely cyclical and said he and Deacons assistant B.J. McKie constantly debate the relative merits of the 1979 and ’95 McDonald’s High School All-American teams.
Forbes favors the ’79 group, headlined by Ralph Sampson, Isiah Thomas, James Worthy, Dominique Wilkins, John Paxson and Byron Scott. McKie argues for the ’95 crew, of which he was a part along with Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Vince Carter, Chauncey Billups, Marbury and Jamison.
But high school All-America honors and/or five-star rankings aren’t prerequisites for immediate college impact.
Now considered a certain top-15 NBA pick, Illinois’ Wagler was No. 263 in the 247 Sports composite rankings. Drawing minimal Division I interest, Okorie originally committed to Harvard, his parents’ alma mater, before flipping to Stanford.
Averaging 22.4 points, second only to Boozer’s 23.3 in the ACC, Okorie torched Virginia Tech for 31 and North Carolina for 36 before his 40-point performance Saturday. Stanford coach Kyle Smith posits that analytics are allowing coaches to discover players’ talents sooner.
Conversely, some freshmen’s gifts are immediate apparent.
“A lot of these guys don’t belong in college basketball,” Smith said. “They wouldn’t be in college basketball if there wasn’t (the NBA age minimum). Dybantsa, Peterson, Boozer, those guys, that’s … like Kobe Bryant playing college basketball.”
David Teel, david.teel@virginiamedia.com
