Back in the day, first-year college players -- for the most part -- were good for two things. They served as warm bodies against which the players who actually made it into the games practiced, and they carried those regular players' luggage on roadtrips.
No more, however.
These days, when colleges are lucky to keep top talent on campus for three full years, freshmen don't lift travel bags. Rather, they've shown capable of carrying the entire team.
Look at North Carolina's freshman trio of Rashaad McCants, Sean May and Ray Felton, who put the Tar Heels on their backs for two Preseason NIT victories and a semifinal date against Kansas at Madison Square Garden. Syracuse freshman Carmelo Anthony, meanwhile, made his debut in the Garden and scored 27 points and 11 rebounds in a loss to Memphis in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.
The most significant freshmen impact, however, has come down in Gainesville, where rookies Matt Walsh and Anthony Roberson have the Florida faithful delirious to the point of nearly forgetting all about that football guy ... Spurrier or whatever his name was.
The fact is, college coaches recognize that times have changed. When they set out to recruit a talented prepster, the coaches know there is a chance that the player could start thinking about that NBA paycheck at any moment. So gone are the days of molding first-year players into sophomores who might contribute later in their college careers. Instead, the best freshmen receive playing time from Day One, and so far, they are responding.
Each week of the season, we'll pick the top five players in the country -- based solely on the prior week's performances.
Guard: T.J. Ford, Texas. Who needs braids? The nation's top assist man willed Texas to overcome a 10-point second-half deficit to defeat then-No. 16 Georgia 77-71 in the Coaches vs. Classic on Nov. 15. Ford followed that performance with a 10-assist, nine-point effort in the Longhorns' rout of Stephen F. Austin.
Forward: Keith Langford, Kansas. The left-handed sophomore slasher is shooting 90 percent on the year (17-for-19 in two wins), and he's not just dunking and shooting layups (he's 2-for-3 behind the arc). Langford, like former teammate Drew Gooden, was not a McDonald's All-American out of high school, but, like Gooden, Langford may prove to be the best recruit in his class at Kansas, one which includes sophomores Aaron Miles and Wayne Simien.
Guard: Ebi Ere, Oklahoma. Through three games -- including one against Alabama -- Ere is averaging 21.7 points and six assists. With all the star power in the Big 12, it's easy to overlook Ere
... until your team plays Oklahoma.
Guard/Forward: Matt Walsh, Florida. Who had a better week than this Gator freshman? With his ugly orange shoes, mop of red hair and headband, Walsh looks more like a band geek than a baller, but this kid can play. He started his career with a 17-point first-half performance against La. Tech (finishing with 26 points). Next, Walsh spread love throughout the box score with 20 points, nine assists, six rebounds and five steals in a 99-65 victory against Henry Domercant and Eastern Illinois and turned around for 19 points (3-of-4 from 3-point range) in Florida's third win of the year, an 88-45 laugher against Coastal Carolina.
Forward: Jordan Cornette, Notre Dame. Through three games, this sophomore has held his own private block party. He's redirected 21 shots in Notre Dame's three wins, including 11 blocks against Belmont. Granted the Irish didn't play Duke, Kansas and Arizona,
but 21 blocks in three games is good enough to land a spot on this team -- for a week, at least. By the way, Cornette's previous career high for blocks in a game? Three.
Bonus five
As a first-week treat, and since the young fellas have made so much noise in the early part of the season, here's my All-Freshman Starting Five based on the past two weeks:
Anthony Roberson, guard, Florida: Through two games, he's averaging 19.7 points, 4.0 assists in 31.7 minutes.
Hassan Adams, guard, Arizona: Twenty-two points -- 16 in the second half -- on 9-of-12 shooting in the No. 1 Wildcats' 107-68 rout of No. 19 Western Kentucky on Saturday.
Rashad McCants, guard, UNC: In the first two Preseason NIT victories, McCants averaged 23 points (shooting 67 percent) and 6.5 rebounds.
Sean May, forward, UNC: Back-to-back double-doubles for May in two games, totaling 36 points and 20 rebounds.
Carmelo Anthony, forward, Syracuse: This is based solely on his one-night stand in a Coaches vs. Cancer loss to Memphis. Anthony, in his first career game, scored 27 points (21 in the first half) and grabbed 11 boards.
FLORIDA GATORS: Think the Gators were going to struggle early with senior Brett
Nelson and highly touted freshman Christian Drejer sidelined with injures? Puh-lease.
Florida has enough depth for two Top 25 teams. Freshmen Walsh and Roberson have combined for 124 points, 29 assists and 19 rebounds in two games. Now that we've seen these guys, former Gator James White probably made the right choice bolting from Gainesville, as his on-again, off-again
act might have made it difficult for him to see much floor time. The question becomes, once
Drejer and Nelson are healthy, how will coach Billy Donovan divide up the minutes?
AIRBALL: No. 10 Xavier having to travel to Stanford
The Xavier-Stanford second-round Preseason NIT game should have been played in Cincinnati, not at Stanford. Xavier was a top-10 team; Stanford wasn't even ranked. The Cardinal deserved the victory for playing better than the Musketeers, but you can't tell me that Xavier's sluggish 33-point first-half effort was not completely unrelated to Thad Matta's team having to make that cross-country flight to play an unranked opponent.
DUNK: Cincinnati guard Leonard Stokes
The Glance always references those "seniors who won't allow their teams to lose." Well, Exhibit A this season: Cincinnati guard Leonard Stokes. As the Bearcats struggled against Tennessee Tech, missing 15 straight shots and letting a sizeable lead dwindle to just six points early in the second half, Cincinnati's Stokes took over, scoring 17 of the Bearcats' 27 final points to ensure a 54-48 victory.
AIRBALL: Widening the free-throw lane
Some experimental rules just don't work. Widening the paint is making the already guard-dominated college game move further in that direction. The idea behind widening the lane to NBA standards was to clean up the physical play around the rim and create more room for cutters, but the early returns on this experiment have been excessive amounts of three-second calls and big men who aren't sure where to post up.
DUNK: Tulsa Golden Hurricane
Three players scored at least 19 points in Tulsa's 71-61 victory against New Mexico State on Saturday. Senior Dante Swanson led the Golden Hurricane with 23 points, junior Jason Parker added 21 and senior Kevin Johnson scored 19 points. Tulsa's going to shock one or more of the teams on its schedule, such as Arkansas (11/30), Kansas (12/11), Iowa (12/28) or Gonzaga (2/22/03).
AIRBALL: NCAA's ruling on exempt tournaments
Now that teams can't participate in more than two "exempt" tournaments every four years -- thanks to those forward-thinkers at the NCAA -- much of the drama was stripped from this year's Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. Sure, we saw four quality games, but without that "tournament" feel -- the eight teams simply played one game each and headed home -- the event's lacked luster. Last year, for example, before the NCAA "two-in-four" rule, then-unranked Arizona upset two top-10 teams in Maryland and Florida en route to the tournament title, setting the tone for fabulous season in Tucson.
Florida vs. Stanford, Preseason NIT semifinal, Wed., 7 p.m., ESPN2
What will Walsh, Roberson and Co. do next? Here's safe bet: Walsh will record a triple-double
before the season ends. On the Stanford end, will anyone besides Josh Childress be able to
match up with the athleticism and speed of Florida? We think not.
Kansas vs. UNC, Preseason NIT semifinal, Wed., 9 p.m., ESPN2
Think Matt Doherty is going to say something about the Kansas cheerleaders? Nah, don't count on
it. But this game is significant for many reasons: It's the first meeting between the two
schools since Roy Williams passed on the UNC job in 2000, and it's the first clash between
Williams and Doherty, his former assistant. North Carolina is in somewhat of a no-lose
situation here. Kansas is clearly the better team, so a UNC loss wouldn't shock anyone. But if the Tar Heels can upset the Jayhawks, it will go a long way in repairing the feelings of inadequacies many Tar Heel fans hold after being jilted by their (once) favorite son, Williams.
Preseason NIT championship, Fri., 9 p.m., ESPN2
Whether it's Kansas-Florida, North Carolina-Stanford or some other combination, this will be a
quality game worth watching. The Gators and Jayhawks have the best chance to do real damage
late in the year, but if the Tar Heels or Cardinal somehow pull off a Preseason NIT title, that
can be the kind of momentum a program can build around for an entire season.
Duke vs. UCLA, Wooden Tradition, Sat., 1 p.m.
It's Duke and UCLA. Need we say more? Well, we will. Duke's freshmen are as lethal as any mentioned in this space -- J.J. Reddick and Shavlik Randolph will be stars -- and sophomore Daniel Ewing has the potential to be mentioned among the nation's elite shooting guards. UCLA has Jason Kapono back for what seems like his third senior year, and if 6-foot-6 point guard Cedric Bozeman improves as much as coach Steve Lavin expects, UCLA will once again be a late-season factor. This is a fantastic matchup.
"I'm not afraid of the coach; I'm afraid of facing their players. If I was going against Coach Williams, I'd have an opportunity to post him up because he's a little smaller than me." -- UNC coach Matt Doherty on his upcoming game against
Kansas, where he was an assistant coach under Roy Williams.
"We are going to win a lot of games by a lot of points,"
-- Arizona senior Luke Walton after a 107-68 trouncing of then-No. 19 Western Kentucky.
"It's nice to learn a lesson without losing." -- Gonzaga coach Mark Few on his team's poor play in a 69-61 victory against Hofstra. Gonzaga was outrebounded 41-38 and missed 10 of 28 free-throw attempts.
"This is beginning to become a blowout."
-- Keen insight from ESPN2 broadcast analyst Larry Conley as Kansas led UNC-Greensboro by 37 points (87-50) with 8:30 to play in the second half.
Don't just sit there, get in the game! Every week we'll, you'll be asked a specific question about the college basketball season. Keep your replies short (less than 50 words, please), and we'll print a sample of your responses right here next week.
This week's question:
What do you think of the experimental rules that extend the 3-point arc and widen the free-throw lane?
Mark Button covers College Basketball for CNNSI.com
