Youth Movement: Boozer is Duke's 7th 1st-Team Frosh A-A in Last 13 Years

Cameron Boozer is the seventh Duke freshman in the last 13 years to be named a first-team All-American (six of them unanimously). Boozer is joined by fellow frosh Arkansas' Darius Acuff Jr. and BYU's AJ Dybantsa as first-team A-As, duplicating trio feat by freshmen Deandre Ayton (Arizona), Marvin Bagley III (Duke) and Trae Young (Oklahoma) in 2017-18.

We may have reached an inflection point in replenishing rosters where experienced transfers - seasoned veterans for "won-and-done" aspirations - are more vital than immature "one-and-done" high school recruits. For instance, Duke and Kentucky ranked 1-2, 1-3 or 2-3 in 10 of the previous 12 recruiting classes with the Blue Devils also ranked #1 in 2022 after UK was #2 in 2021. But it didn't mean squat of late in terms of success reaching the Final Four. Duke, which lost in national semifinals in 2022, is the only one of the two bluebloods advancing to the F4 in the previous eight tourneys. Similarly, Memphis ranked atop the recruiting list twice in a three-year span from 2019 through 2021 but the Tigers garnered a grand total of two playoff triumphs since 2014.

Prior to pathetic playoff performance three years ago, Brandon Miller (Alabama) was outstanding as a freshman in becoming an NCAA consensus second-team All-American. But he fell short of first-team acclaim. Five years ago, Oklahoma State's Cade Cunningham achieved a distinction luminaries Mark Aguirre, Carmelo Anthony, Stephen Curry, Patrick Ewing, Phil Ford, Tyler Hansbrough, James Harden, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Bernard King, Alonzo Mourning, Shaquille O'Neal, Derrick Rose, Ralph Sampson and Russell Westbrook failed to do. Following is a chronological list of 29 freshmen in this rare-air category named first-team A-A: