Instant Success: Will Any of Frosh Class Rank Among All-Time Best Rookies?

Fresh men. As in fresh blood or brand spanking new. Just like an excess of one thousand male teenagers who attempt each season to survive in the dog-eat-dog world of major-college basketball less than one year after being a top dog at the high school level. For many of the yearlings, it is a risk-filled voyage where "rookies" are thrown in the Division I ocean and asked to sink or swim. Some of the can't-miss prospects become studs such as Kentucky center Anthony Davis two years ago while others turn into duds. And some are somewhere inbetween such as North Carolina's Harrison Barnes, the first freshman ever named a preseason All-American by the AP. And now we have media outlets proclaiming freshmen will dominate the race for national player of the year in 2013-14.

Complicating the high-expectations transition are misguided rush-to-judgment comments from experts such as Dick Vitale who hype recruits beyond reason during their senior season in high school. According to the effervescent ESPN analyst, Delray Brooks (Indiana/Providence) was going to be the next Oscar Robertson, Tito Horford (Louisiana State/Miami, FL) was going to be the next Hakeem Olajuwon, Jeff Lebo (North Carolina) was going to be the next Jerry West, ad nauseam. Brooks, Horford and Lebo went on to become fine college players, but the only thing they had in common with the Big O, the Dream and Mr. Clutch was they played in the same half century.

Freshmen played varsity college basketball in wartime years during the 1940s and early '50s because of manpower shortages, and at earlier times when eligibility requirements were lax. But for the most part prior to the 1972-73 campaign, colleges fielded freshman teams requiring extra scholarships and operating expenses. Consequently, the introduction of freshman eligibility trimmed costs and, of course, gave eager coaches instant access to high school phenoms who are immediately placed under the glare of the spotlight to help keep elite programs on a pedestal or possibly give struggling teams a chance to climb the ladder of success.

Exhibiting an amateurish historical perspective, many "so-called" experts are hyping this year's freshman class as the greatest in NCAA history. But they need to take a sedative while someone with some authentic expertise tells them about the following center-stage crop of freshman recruits in 1979-80 (listed alphabetically): John Bagley (Boston College), Thurl Bailey (North Carolina State), Sam Bowie (Kentucky), Antoine Carr (Wichita State), Howard Carter (Louisiana State), Terry Cummings (DePaul), Quintin Dailey (San Francisco), Dale Ellis (Tennessee), Sidney Green (UNLV), Clark Kellogg (Ohio State), Cliff Levingston (Wichita State), Jeff Malone (Mississippi State), Rodney McCray (Louisville), John Paxson (Notre Dame), Ralph Sampson (Virginia, Byron Scott (Arizona State), Steve Stipanovich (Missouri), Isiah Thomas (Indiana), LaSalle Thompson (Texas), Dominique Wilkins (Georgia), Rob Williams (Houston) and James Worthy (North Carolina). Carter and Williams are the only players in this gifted group not to either become an NBA lottery pick or score at least 4,900 points in the NBA. Will any recruiting genius say this year's frosh crop can come anywhere close to this one from 1979-80 featuring a dozen top five NBA draft selections, 18 players who had pro careers of at least nine NBA seasons and seven different players who scored more than 15,000 NBA points?

Former Marquette coach Al McGuire coined the phrase: "The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores." Too bad flamboyant Al wasn't college hoops impresario and could mandate that "the best thing about recruiting gurus is that they eventually are forced to have brain transplants." Amid the widespread player ranking miscues, a striking number of sudden-impact freshmen combined sufficient physical maturity with quick adjustments to the speed and complexity of the college game. Celebrating the first 40 years of freshman eligibility, following is a ranking of the top 40 freshman seasons nationally including frosh statistics and games improved by their school from the previous season: