Three Freshman To Watch Next Season

This is the year of the Freshman in College Basketball.  Michael Beasley, OJ Mayo, Derrick Rose, Jerryd Bayless, Kevin Love, DeAndre Jordan and Eric Gordon are all first year college players expected to be making impact in the Assosciation next season.

Here is a look at three first year players who are expected to still be at their respective schools next year.  

Davon Jefferson, 6'8" 210, USC Trojans

Davon Jefferson is a player that has had a long, rough journey to get where he is at now.  He is already 21 years old, but despite his age is still a guy with a lot of upside for the USC Trojans. 

Jefferson plays very well off the ball as he is an excellent leaper and does a good job getting his body in to position to get offensive rebounds.  There is always a place in any league for players who can get garbage points and Jefferson is certainly one of those.

He has a good midrange game but he has a slow release point and doesn’t shoot the ball well from beyond the arc.

Davon is in the tweener category in the sense that he is too small to be a Power Forward in the NBA and not fast enough to be a Small Forward.   He’s inconsistent defensively and doesn’t handle the ball very well, but if you get him the rock in spots where he’s comfortable he can finish with both hands around the rim and is a very crafty scorer. 

Next year with teammate OJ Mayo expected to be playing as a lottery pick in the NBA, Davon will get a chance to showcase his talents and could end up a lottery pick in the NBA next year.  His age will always be a concern until he really proves that it isn’t a problem. 

NBA Comparison: Kenyon Martin, Richard Jefferson 

Evan Turner, 6'6" 205, Ohio State Buckeyes

This year the Buckeyes primarily used a seven man rotation that Evan had to scratch and claw to find his way in to, but now he is a permanent fixture in what Ohio State is going to try and do these next couple years and he may even be the most underrated player in the entire nation.

At the beginning of the seasons Evan was playing behind fellow freshman Jon Diebler, but Evan’s defense and work ethic quickly made him a full time starter at the wing.  Diebler continued to struggle in every aspect of the game all season but Evan picked up the slack and kept Ohio State from falling too far in the Big 10 standings. 

Evan is an extremely versatile stat stuffer who does pretty much everything on the court well.  The strongest aspects of his game are his defense and passing ability.  With Senior point guard Jamar Butler graduating this year, Ohio State has a huge hole at the Point Guard position and Evan could play a Point Forward role for the Buckeyes next year.

He needs to continue to add muscle mass and since he is already a deceptively quick player at 6’6” he could cause a lot of matchup problems if he does run the point next year.  NBA teams love tall point guards if they are skilled enough to run the offense at a high level.  It allows a lot of flexibility to what teams can do.  He already has the ball handling skills to run OSU’s offense and is certainly a better dribble penetrator then Butler is. 

As a Buckeye fan and someone who wants to see Evan balling with the best of the best when his college career is over, I'm hoping the point guard route is the way they go.  

OSU is getting 6’3” Point Guard Anthony Crater as an incoming Freshman next year, and how well he develops might determine Evan’s role as the ball handler next year.  

 As Evan gets older and more experienced he will become more of a first or second option on offense, and could really explode on to the scene next year if he develops a more consistent outside shot.  His scoring ability is the most underrated aspect of his game.  He was able to score the ball at almost nine points per game this year in a role where he was more of a facilitator, he has an extremely high offensive ceiling.  The best is certainly yet to come from Evan Turner. 

NBA comparison: Brandon Roy, Scottie Pippen, Danny Granger
 

James Johnson, 6'8" 235, Wake Forest Deamon Deacons

James Johnson has made an immediate impact for Wake Forest and is most likely going to stay one more year and then hit the NBA. 

James is not far off from being a lottery pick in June but he doesn’t have the basketball IQ to play in the NBA quite yet.  He still makes freshman mistakes like gambling for steals too often defensively and pulling up for jumpers when he can get to the rim.  He seems unsure of himself sometimes when he gets the ball on the perimiter in one on one situations. 

With all the negatives out of the way, I’m afraid I might run out of space to list all of his positives.  James Johnson is one of the smoothest players in the country and does a ton of things well on both ends. 

He has a very long wingspan and doesn’t waste them rebounding.  He gets rebounds at their highest point and that is something too many players with long arms don’t do often enough. 

He is also very efficient offensive player which shows in his nearly 50 percent field goal percentage. 

He does leave you scratching your head at times.  For example this year he put on a clinic for three games in a row against Duke, North Carolina and Maryland, scoring 24, 22 and 25 respectively with 16, 8 and 14 rebounds.  Then he goes out and in consecutive games against Georgia Tech and Virgina Tech fails to even reach five points in either game. 

Next year will be a telling season for Johnson.  NBA scouts will be watching him very closely because he has Superstar level talent, he just needs to have that lighbulb switch on in his head and he is capable of being a 20/12 player in the ACC. 

NBA Comparison: Joe Johnson, Mike Dunleavy, Andres Nocioni