Duke Basketball: How Preseason Accolades Will Affect Jahlil Okafor in 2014-15

The average basketball fan doesn't just know who the best teams are; he or she is also well aware of which players are expected to be tops in the country. This includes freshmen, who continue to be as important to the success of their teams as the most experienced veteran.

With the most gifted of college players spending as little time in school as possible, there's a premium on getting maximum production from those newcomers before they quickly move on to their pro careers. And when they come in already hyped up to the gills, this expectation is even greater.

Nothing helps illustrate this more than the fact that this year's top overall recruit, Duke center Jahlil Okafor, is the third freshman in the past five seasons to make The Associated Press' preseason All-American team...before ever playing a game.

And the accolades don't stop there for the 6'11", 270-pound Okafor. He's also projected to be the national player of the year in 2014-15 by numerous media outlets, including CBS Sports, despite the fact there's absolutely no collegiate experience to base this off of.

Okafor was rated No. 1 overall in the 2014 class by 247Sports and other recruiting services, a Chicago-area kid who has been hovering at or near the top spot in those rankings for some time. He was constantly followed throughout the travel circuit, had scouts aplenty at his high school games and has been constantly interviewed and queried about what he is being asked to live up to.

But the question is, can he? Can Okafor actually meet expectations, like the ones lumped on previous No. 1 recruits?

"My expectations for myself are higher than the expectations anybody else could put on me," Okafor told Gary Parrish of CBS Sports. "So however good people say I'm going to be this year, my plan is to be even better. And I definitely feel like I'm ready to do it."

While being No. 1 overall doesn't guarantee college success, whether it be individually or for that player's team, is has mostly ensured that the prospect will be highly coveted by NBA teams. The five previous players rated first were taken in the first round of the NBA draft, with only 2010 front-runner Harrison Barnes sticking around for more than one season in college:

Player, School	Year	Stats	Team Record	NBA draft spot
Jahlil Okafor, Duke	2014-15	???	???	???
Andrew Wiggins, Kansas	2013-14	17.1 ppg, 5.9 rpg	25-10	1st
Nerlens Noel, Kentucky	2012-13	10.5 ppg, 9.5 rpg, 4.4 bpg	21-12	6th
Anthony Davis, Kentucky	2011-12	14.2 ppg, 10.4 rpg	38-2	1st
Harrison Barnes, North Carolina	2010-11	15.7 ppg, 5.8 rpg	29-8	7th (2012)
Derrick Favors, Georgia Tech	2009-10	12.4 ppg, 8.4 rpg	23-13	3rd

Okafor is likely to be the next No. 1 player to jump to the pros after a year, as he's currently projected by NBADraft.net as the No. 2 pick in the 2015 draft. The only player ahead of him is Emmanuel Mudiay, who decided to play overseas this year rather than play what would most certainly have only been one year at SMU.

And that's pretty much the way it's going to go, as long as the NBA's draft rules require players to be one year removed from high school before they can be selected. College coaches who chase after the top recruits know this, and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski is at the forefront of this since his star freshman from last year, Jabari Parker, was as surefire a one-and-done player as any.

"We won't have him long," Krzyzewski told ESPN.com earlier this month. "We'll have him this year and then he'll be one of the top [NBA] picks."

We can't know for certain how being under the microscope will effect Okafor's play this season, but based on how the past top players have fared, he's going to be in good shape. Whether he warrants being considered the best player in the country before his career begins, well, that's a different story.

However, you have to figure that the preseason accolades Okafor has received to this point aren't much different than the attention and praise he's garnered throughout his basketball career. His online bio lists these many notations, such as being a three-time all-state player in Illinois, being the MVP of the McDonald's High School All-American game and earning several national prep player of the year awards.

And while the games that count haven't started—those begin Friday and Saturday against pushovers Presbyterian and Fairfield, respectively, before really picking up when Duke faces Michigan State in Indianapolis on Nov. 21 in the Champions Classic—what we've already seen of Okafor in a Blue Devils uniform has been impressive.

Okafor scored 27 of his side's 64 points, making 12 of 16 shots, in Duke's "Countdown to Craziness" intrasquad game. And in exhibitions against Livingstone and Central Missouri, the big man averaged 15 points and seven rebounds and made 10 of 14 shots.

Don't expect any sort of crash and burn from this latest superstar. He's the real deal. But also don't expect him to be the greatest player in college history, as some of his early honors would make it seem he's destined to be.

Instead, just expect Jahlil Okafor to be very good. And for Duke fans, their main hope should be that he can get the Blue Devils their first NCAA title since 2010.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.