2024-25 Men's College Basketball Freshman of the Year Rankings

Duke's Cooper Flagg played what figures to be the final home game of his college career on Monday. With one road game against North Carolina remaining in his regular season, we are beyond ready to declare that he'll soon be named the National Freshman of the Year.

(Considering Auburn's Johni Broome has had two consecutive subpar performances while Flagg continues to annihilate everything in his path, the National Player of the Year race is probably over, too.)

Thus, for what will be our final freshman rankings piece of the season, we're switching things up a bit. Instead of just a regular 1-10 ranking, we're approaching it as though there are national first-team, second-team and third-team All-Freshmen rosters named.

We'll still dedicate more space to the first-team players, but the gap between Nos. 8 and 7 in a race that was over months ago doesn't seem all that important these days.

Notably, it doesn't matter if the teams make sense from a positional standpoint. Had it ended up being five point guards on the first team and five centers on the second team, so be it.

Statistics current through the start of play on Wednesday, March 5.

Third-Team All-Freshmen

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Michigan State's Jase Richardson

Egor Demin, BYU
10.8 PPG, 5.6 APG, 3.7 RPG, 1.2 SPG, 28% 3PT

Aside from maybe Duke, no one in the country has been hotter than BYU over the past three-plus weeks. And though veterans like Richie Saunders, Dallin Hall and Kebe Keita are mostly to thank for this incredible run, BYU's 6'9" freshman point guard has been a big piece of the puzzle as well, including a 13-point, eight-assist performance in the marquee road win over Arizona.

Jeremiah Fears, Oklahoma
15.9 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 4.1 APG, 1.6 SPG, 27% 3PT

Life in the SEC has been brutal for Oklahoma, but Fears still balls out on a semi-regular basis. In the Sooners' four league wins, he has averaged 20.0 points, 6.3 assists and 6.3 rebounds. He has also had a couple of 20-point games in losing efforts. But his 30-point game punctuated by a late four-point play in the win over Michigan in mid-December does feel like a lifetime ago.

Kon Knueppel, Duke
13.6 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 2.5 APG, 40% 3PT

The Cam Reddish to Cooper Flagg's Zion Williamson, Knueppel has been hopelessly overshadowed for a guy who is going to be a lottery pick in a few months. But he has been Duke's second-leading scorer, an excellent three-point shooter and one of the most reliable free-throw shooters (74-for-81) in the entire country.

Labaron Philon, Alabama
10.4 PPG, 3.5 APG, 3.2 RPG, 1.3 SPG, 30% 3PT

Philon gets a bit lost in the whirlwind of high-scoring affairs that is Alabama basketball, but the freshman point guard has done a phenomenal job as Mark Sears' backcourt running mate. With 13 points, five steals and four assists in last weekend's game at Tennessee, he nearly paced the Crimson Tide to a win that would have just about cemented them as a No. 1 seed.

Jase Richardson, Michigan State
11.0 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 1.9 SPG, 39% 3PT

If this were a ranking of freshmen most likely to do some serious damage in the NCAA tournament, Richardson would easily rank in the top five, as he has been on quite a tear over his last seven games after a hit-or-miss first three months of his career. If Michigan State is going to end the Big Ten's 25-year championship drought, he'll be a massive part of it.

Second-Team All-Freshmen

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Illinois' Kasparas Jakucionis

10. Liam McNeeley, Connecticut
15.3 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 2.5 APG, 36% 3PT

There's little question that UConn's tournament ceiling has felt a bit higher over the past month with McNeeley back in the lineup, compared to how lost this team looked while he was recovering from an ankle sprain. He has a knack for knowing when he needs to take over a game, although he did have a rough afternoon when he tried to take over in UConn's loss to Seton Hall in mid-February.

9. Tahaad Pettiford, Auburn
11.3 PPG, 2.9 APG, 1.9 RPG, 1.0 SPG, 39% 3PT

Denver Jones suffered an ankle injury early two games ago against Kentucky, forcing Pettiford to play more than his usual 20-ish minutes off the bench. Between those road games against the Wildcats and Texas A&M, he went for 40 points (including 7-for-14 on three-pointers) with six assists and three turnovers. If you find a place to bet on next year's Wooden Award winner, you could do worse than sprinkling some action on Pettiford, who might be the lone freshman out of these 15 who doesn't go one-and-done.

8. Asa Newell, Georgia
15.1 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 1.1 SPG, 1.0 BPG, 29% 3PT

In a recent game that Georgia needed to win to save its season, Newell did his thing with 15 points and nine rebounds in a marquee victory over Florida. This stretch 5 has scored in double figures in all but three games this season, and his prowess on the offensive glass will be key during what will be Georgia's first NCAA tournament appearance since 2015.

7. Ace Bailey, Rutgers
18.0 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 1.2 BPG, 1.2 APG, 1.0 SPG, 35% 3PT

Bailey should go well before No. 7 on draft night. However, he hasn't been making as much of an impact in recent weeks, he's almost indisputably behind teammate Dylan Harper at this point, and we don't need two players from a 14-16 team in our top five. With that said, his maturation from a ball hog who had multiple assists in one of his first 14 games into an all-around star with five games of three or more assists since the beginning of February has been nice to watch, even if Rutgers basketball hasn't been.

6. Kasparas Jakucionis, Illinois
15.4 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 4.8 APG, 33% 3PT

Though Illinois was woefully embarrassed in its showdown with Duke two Saturdays ago, Jakucionis at least had a solid individual showing with 14 points, seven rebounds, six assists and a pair of blocks in a game featuring upwards of seven possible first-round draft picks. He also went for 17, six and four in the statement win at Michigan this past Sunday. When he posts an O-rating of 112 or greater, Illinois is 16-0. That's no accident.

First-Team All-Freshman No. 5: V.J. Edgecombe, Baylor

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Season Stats: 14.7 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 3.3 APG, 2.1 SPG, 36% 3PT

Would the real V.J. Edgecombe please stand up?

When senior guard Jeremy Roach missed four games in late January and early February, it seemed like Edgecombe had leveled up to stardom. He was already trending in that direction, but that was when he averaged 23.3 points and had everyone repurchasing Baylor stock en masse.

But he rolled an ankle in that fourth game against Kansas, missed the subsequent game against Texas Tech and has been kind of hit-or-miss ever since.

Maybe Tuesday's game against TCU was a step back in the right direction, though. He took more shots in that game (14) than he had in over a month, finishing that must-win road game with 18 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals.

However, he still was too passive down the stretch given the amount of talent that he has. Only taking one shot in the final six minutes (he was on the court the whole time) while the Horned Frogs clawed their way back to make it a nail-biter was inexcusable. And that 18-point performance came on the heels of a stretch of five games in which he was held to eight points or fewer three times.

He's still a top-five freshman in our book, but it's a shame he never managed to harness that aggression he was playing with a little over a month ago. If Baylor loses to Houston this weekend before also losing its Big 12 tournament opener, it might be a photo finish for the Bears.

First-Team All-Freshman No. 4: Derik Queen, Maryland

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Season Stats: 15.9 PPG, 9.0 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.1 SPG, 1.0 BPG

See, this is the type of "just give me the damn ball" mentality that we'd like to see more often from Edgecombe.

After a modest January with more duds than gems, Derik Queen has reemerged as the go-to star of the "Crab Five."

Over his last eight games, Queen is averaging 17.8 points and 11.5 rebounds with 11.6 field-goal attempts and 8.4 free-throw attempts per game.

He put up 29 points, 15 rebounds and five assists in their win over Rutgers, which was the first of five consecutive double-doubles. Even when that streak was snapped this past Saturday at Penn State, Queen still finished with 23 points, six rebounds, four steals and two blocks.

This isn't some recent development, either. Queen was great for the first two months of the season, averaging 22.3 points and 10.3 rebounds in four early games against Marquette, Villanova, Ohio State and Purdue. He just went through a bit of a rough patch in January with five single-digit point showings in the span of eight games.

Now he's back, and talk of this being Maryland's best team since 2002 has grown palpable in recent weeks.

For all the marveling at Michigan's Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin lineup with two versatile 7-footers, Maryland's 1-2 big man punch of Queen and Julian Reese—who have shot a combined 2-for-25 from three-point range this season—is probably the one with more championship potential, combining for around 29 points, 18 rebounds, three blocks and two steals per game.

First-Team All-Freshman No. 3: Dylan Harper, Rutgers

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Season Stats: 19.1 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 4.0 APG, 1.4 SPG, 35% 3PT

Early in the year, Dylan Harper had a real shot at winning this thing. Even though Rutgers was merely 8-5, he was averaging 22.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists through his first 13 games, punctuated by a triple-double against Columbia on Dec. 30.

Then came the illness and the injury, and a handful of games in between in which he was barely even a shell of himself—during which time teammate Ace Bailey went off, averaging 24.3 PPG in January. Harper went from the clear 1B in this race to barely even a top-10 candidate.

But after that five-week rough patch, early-season Harper resurfaced in early February.

He went for 28 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals in an upset of Illinois. He scored 20 at Maryland. And in a recent pair of wins over Washington and USC, he posted a combined line of 59 points, 12 assists, eight steals and seven rebounds.

It hasn't done anything to help the Scarlet Knights' case for an at-large bid, but they could at least lock up a spot in the Big Ten tournament with a season-finale home win over Minnesota on Sunday. (If they haven't already clinched a spot in the top 15 by then.)

And if Harper and Bailey are both good to go for that tournament, never say never. Maybe they'll have a magical run in Indianapolis before they run off to become top-three picks in the draft.

First-Team All-Freshman No. 2: Tre Johnson, Texas

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Season Stats: 20.6 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 2.7 APG, 40% 3PT

It's unfair that Tre Johnson never had a chance in this race, because he has been sensational in trying to just about single-handedly carry Texas to a spot in the NCAA tournament.

In the greatest SEC of all time—if not the greatest conference of all time—this freshman shooting guard is leading the league in scoring. And not by a little bit, either.

Johnson is 1.5 PPG ahead of the next-closest player (Mark Sears). This is despite missing two games in December against New Orleans and Arkansas-Pine Bluff, in which he probably could've had 30 points by halftime, as the Longhorns scored 98 and 121 even without him in those "contests."

While the 20.6 mark for the season is impressive, Johnson is at 24.5 PPG and 3.7 APG over his last 11 games while trying to carry the Longhorns into the dance. He won the games against Kentucky (32 points), Texas A&M (30 points) and Mississippi State (23 points), and it's absurd that his 39-point effort at Arkansas wasn't enough for Texas to get that victory.

I try not to root for much, but here's hoping Johnson has a few more gems up his sleeve for this weekend's matchup with Oklahoma and then the SEC tournament. It'd be a crying shame if we don't get any of Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey or Johnson in the NCAA tournament.

First-Team All-Freshman No. 1: Cooper Flagg, Duke

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Season Stats: 19.6 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 4.2 APG, 1.6 SPG, 1.2 BPG, 38% 3PT

Though Cooper Flagg was clearly great from the moment he first took the floor in a Duke uniform, it's wild to consider how much he has improved over these last four months.

Early in the year, turnovers were a regular problem for Flagg. He committed at least three in five consecutive games at one point, including losses to Kentucky and Kansas. But over his last nine games, Flagg has committed a grand total of eight turnovers. His last game with three-plus giveaways came on Feb. 1. And his turnovers aren't down because he has been any less aggressive or assertive.

Early in the year, if Flagg settled for a perimeter jumper, that was a win for the defense. He was 8-for-36 (22.2 percent) from three-point range through his first 10 games, compared to 34-for-74 (45.9 percent) over his last 20.

He's also just about automatic from the charity stripe now, going from 69.6 percent eight games into his college career to 87.3 percent since early December.

All the while, he has continued to do the little things in a big way, leading Duke in each of points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. The latter is the only one that is even remotely close, with Khaman Maluach just one swat behind him.

The assists are the big one. When he dropped the MJ shrug in Monday's demolition of Wake Forest, it wasn't after the breakaway dunk, one of his three triples or his three blocks. It was when he got into the paint before kicking it out to a wide-open Sion James for one of his seven assists.

As great as Flagg is at taking over a game by himself, he gets just as much joy out of making you pay for double-teaming him. It's a massive part of why Duke is having one of the most efficient seasons in KenPom history, and why the Blue Devils are neck-and-neck with Auburn for the favorite to win it all.