If the No. 1 storyline in college basketball is Connecticut chasing history, then right behind the back-to-back champion Huskies are the freshman phenoms spread throughout the sport.
For several years now, many of the best high school prospects in the country bypassed college. The G-League Ignite became a popular option.
Playing overseas drew some top players.
That trend is changing, mostly because of the advent of Name, Image & Likeness (NIL) that allows these players the opportunity to make money and showcase themselves on a big stage.
“Since NIL came along, it actually destroyed the G-League Ignite program,” said Travis Branham, a national recruiting analyst for 247Sports.com. “It’s all NIL-based. … It makes it a lot more interesting, a lot more exciting. It’s probably better for the sport.”
Last year, for instance, two of the top-seven players in 247Sports.com’s high school rankings — Ron Holland and Matas Buzelis — played for Ignite.
The year before, four of the top-five draft picks — Victor Wembanyama, Scoot Henderson, and Amen and Ausar Thompson — didn’t attend college.
The 2021 NBA Draft featured the likes of top-seven picks Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga spending the year with Ignite.
Entering the season, the lone projected top-10 pick not playing in college is French guard Nolan Traore.
The enticing class is led by Cooper Flagg, a 6-foot-9 forward with guard skills who some experts have said is the best prospect to attend college since Zion Williamson.
Rutgers features Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper, the son of five-time NBA champion Ron Harper.
Baylor, picked by The Post to cut down the nets at the Final Four in San Antonio, beat out Kentucky and Duke for V.J. Edgecombe, a dynamic 6-foot-5 wing out of local powerhouse Long Island Lutheran.
North Carolina boasts the explosive perimeter duo Drake Powell and Bronx native Ian Jackson.
There are also a host of international players, such as BYU’s Egor Demin of Russia and Illinois’ Kasparas Jakucionis of Lithuania, who are on the radar of NBA teams.
“This is probably the most excited we’ve been about college ball in a long time,” an NBA scout told The Post. “The talent’s there. It’s also becoming more normal, with this becoming the last year of the COVID year.”
Branham called it easily the best class of freshmen in college since 2021, a group that included Chet Holmgren, Paolo Banchero and Jabari Smith Jr., and it could surpass that.
“We haven’t had this much star power in a long time,” he said. “Cooper Flagg, I would say, is basically a certified NBA All-Star as long as everything goes according to plan. Ace Bailey, another guy who can be one of the best scorers in the world if all goes according to plan with him.
“Dylan Harper, potential All-Star in the future. [Duke’s] Khaman Maluach, V.J. Edgecombe, there’s so much star power in this class we haven’t been seeing of late.”
The scout said the one question with Flagg is his perimeter shot.
He raved about Flagg as a “monster” defensively who does everything else at a high level.
He can control a game without scoring. Flagg trained with the USA Olympic Team and LeBron James raved about him, saying, “He’s going to be a big-time player here for Team USA down the road.”
There is some thought that the 6-foot-10 Bailey has a chance to surpass Flagg by the time the draft rolls around. Bailey isn’t as advanced or complete a player entering college, but he’s an electric athlete with limitless range on the wing. Another scout compared him to Hornets wing Brandon Miller, the second pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.
“There could be people who like Ace’s upside more,” an Eastern Conference executive said.
All of this hype, however, doesn’t mean the Final Four will be littered with freshmen. The last freshmen-led team to win a national championship was Duke in 2015.
Experience still wins.
The current Blue Devils led by coach Jon Scheyer will test that theory.
They boast the top-ranked recruiting class in the country, according to 247Sports.com, Flagg joined by five-star prospects Maluach, Isaiah Evans and Kon Knueppel.
“We sometimes don’t separate the fact that just because you’re really good, just because you’re a really good prospect and a potential lottery pick, doesn’t directly correlate to winning,” CBS Sports analyst Jon Rothstein said in a phone interview. “Three of the last nine No. 1 picks in the NBA draft, Anthony Edwards, Markelle Fultz and Ben Simmons, played on teams in college that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament.”
But it certainly adds intrigue to an already fascinating season. Next year’s freshman class could be even better, too, the first NBA scout believes.
It has a big three of uncommitted wing AJ Dybantsa; Duke commit Cameron Boozer, the son of former NBA forward Carlos Boozer; and Kansas pledge Darryn Peterson. Brantham put them in the same category as Flagg.
It feels like a new era for the sport. Elite freshmen are back. It will likely mean extra eyeballs on the game.
“It pulls in people from the periphery,” Rothstein said, “in terms of making certain games appointment television.”
— Additional reporting by Stefan Bondy
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