Ten sophomores who are ready to make major impact

	Darren Collison's increased role with the Bruins has already lead to improvement in his stat line. Collin Erie/US PRESSWIRE
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I've never gotten a consensus on which coach coined the phrase, "The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores," but the logic resonates today as much as ever. Thanks to intensified attention being paid to recruiting via the Internet, today's freshmen arrive on campus with more hype, more arrogance and more expectations. Yet, in most cases they still turn out to be overgrown teenagers who have a lot to learn.

Year 2 is a different story. Most of the time, a player will make the biggest improvement of his entire career between his freshman and sophomore years in college. This is true for three reasons. First, his body will have undergone a significant change after a full cycle of preseason, in-season and off-season conditioning. Second, he will have adapted to the speed of the college game and the elevated capabilities of his opponents. And third, thanks to graduation and early defection to the NBA of his freshman-year teammates, he will have a greater chance to earn minutes.

Thus, I have once again assembled a list of 10 sophomores who I believe are poised to have breakout seasons. Keep in mind, this is NOT a list of the top 10 sophomores in America. Rather, they are players who came upon the scene in relatively quiet fashion a year ago but are now ready to make some noise.

Not all freshmen arrive quietly, of course. And some choices are simply too obvious to mention as breakout sophomores. Scanning the current sophs, here are the names of the players I deemed ineligible for either of those reasons: Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, UCLA; Josh McRoberts and Greg Paulus, Duke; Eric Devendorf, Syracuse; Richard Hendrix, Alabama; Brandon Rush and Julian Wright, Kansas; Dominic James, Marquette; Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina; and Jeff Adrien, UConn.

So here, then, are my 10 sophs to watch (listed in alphabetical order). In addition, I have also revisited the list of guys I assembled one year ago and provided an assessment of how prescient I was (or wasn't).

DARREN COLLISON
6-foot-1, G, UCLA
2005-06: 19.2 minutes, 5.5 pts, 2.3 assists, .9 steals, 40.2% FG, 32.8% 3FG
2006-07: 32.2 minutes, 13.2 pts, 7.4 assists, 3.6 steals, 53.8% FG, 40.0% 3FG

Skinny: This is the easiest pick on the board. Collison got promoted to full-time starter after Jordan Farmar turned pro following last season. Collison is not the scorer or playmaker Farmar was in the half-court, but he is a much, much better defender, and when it comes to feeding his teammates in transition he is as good as any point guard in the country.

DAUNTE CUNNINGHAM
6-9, F, Villanova
2005-06: 19.1 minutes, 2.2 pts, 4.0 rebs, 46.8% FG
2006-07: 29.8 minutes, 8.5 pts, 6.3 rebs, 65.2% FG

Skinny: You could flip a coin here between Cunningham and his frontcourtmate Shane Clark, who had an impressive 17 points in Villanova's loss to Xavier on Nov. 19. I went with Cunningham because he is a spectacular athlete who will do a great job crashing the offensive boards. And as his huge jump in field-goal percentage indicates, he will be a much more reliable scorer this season.