2025-26 Men's College Basketball Freshman of the Year Rankings
If there were national All-Freshman teams in men's college basketball like there are national All-American teams, who would be the first-, second- and third-team diaper dandies for 2025-26?
Let's face it: The race for the top spot in our Freshman of the Year rankings hasn't been a race at any point in the past three months. It's going to be Duke's Cameron Boozer.
But this season's class of first-year stars has been so preposterously good that even the final spot on the hypothetical third-team is a tough call between several guys who would probably be first-teamers in most years.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics are current through the start of play on Thursday, March 5.
Honorable Mentions
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Allen Graves, Santa Clara
11.5 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 2.0 SPG, 1.8 APG, 40.8% 3PT
The lone mid-major player on this list, Graves has been the heart and soul of the Broncos' quest for their first NCAA tournament appearance in three decades. He only averages 22 minutes per game off the bench, so he's putting up 21 points, 12 rebounds and 3.6 steals per 40. He might have won WCC POY were it not for Gonzaga's Graham Ike.
Acaden Lewis, Villanova
12.5 PPG, 5.1 APG, 3.2 RPG, 2.0 SPG
Villanova has been something of a third wheel in the race for Big East supremacy between Connecticut and St. John's, but it's largely because of this freshman point guard that the Wildcats are going to be back in the NCAA tournament for the first time in four years. Would love to see him bring the noise against a quality opponent, though. Per KenPom, Lewis has a 79.8 O-Rating in 10 games played against Tier A competition.
David Mirkovic, Illinois
12.9 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 2.5 APG, 37.9% 3PT
The top rebounder and one of the top scorers for a top 10 team, Mirkovic checks a lot of the boxes for consideration as one of the most valuable freshmen in the country. The problem is he can't even remotely claim to be the most valuable freshman on his own team, as Keaton Wagler appears much higher on this list. If Mirk stays in college (and at Illinois) for a second season, though, he'll be one of the candidates for preseason B1G POY.
Meleek Thomas, Arkansas
14.9 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 2.4 APG, 1.5 SPG, 40.1% 3PT
See: Mirkovic, David. Thomas has had a mighty fine season for a prolific Arkansas offense. But he simply cannot hold a candle to what teammate Darius Acuff Jr. has been doing on a nightly basis. Then again, how many assists would Acuff have if he didn't have Thomas draining multiple triples per night?
Tounde Yessoufou, Baylor
17.7 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 1.9 SPG, 1.5 APG, 31.3% 3PT
Yessoufou was a consensus 5-star recruit who did live up to the hype. He just got a wee bit forgotten about while Baylor crashed and burned its way to a .500 record. He got to at least 20 points on 11 occasions, including a 37-point spectacular...in a 99-94 loss to BYU. Yessoufou also went for 20 and 12 with two steals and two assists Wednesday against Houston, but it wasn't enough for a win.
Third-Team All-Freshman
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15. Hannes Steinbach, Washington
18.3 PPG, 11.6 RPG, 1.6 APG, 1.2 BPG, 1.1 SPG
To some extent, team success is always going to be a factor in these types of rankings. And Washington hasn't had much success, liable to end the season with a losing record. Steinbach has been a dynamo, though, recording a double-double in 19 of his 27 games played—including Wednesday night's absurd 22 and 24 performance against USC—en route to potentially becoming a lottery pick.
14. Ebuka Okorie, Stanford
22.8 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 3.6 APG, 1.6 SPG, 34.8% 3PT
It's a crying shame that Chisom Okpara suffered a season-ending injury in mid-January and that Stanford's season subsequently tanked, because Okorie in the NCAA tournament could have been all sorts of fun. He has averaged 29.9 points in the Cardinal's last 10 wins, including going for 36 points and nine assists in the upset of North Carolina.
13. Braylon Mullins, Connecticut
12.1 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 1.3 APG, 1.1 SPG, 38.2% 3PT
Mullins' numbers pale in comparison to those of Okorie and Steinbach, but that's comparing a key starter on a projected No. 1 seed to a pair of sensational solo acts on teams going nowhere fast. Though Mullins' usage rate ebbs and flows in this five-headed attack, he can take over a game at a moment's notice.
12. Koa Peat, Arizona
13.3 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 2.7 APG
11. Brayden Burries, Arizona
15.5 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 2.7 APG, 1.5 SPG, 36.9% 3PT
Like Mullins at Connecticut, this dynamic duo of freshmen has been nothing short of indispensable for a projected No. 1 seed. After starting slow in the first couple of weeks, Burries has been the more consistently impactful of the two. But they combined for 32 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists in the recent blowout of Kansas, so pick your poison on some nights.
Second-Team All-Freshman
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10. Thijs De Ridder, Virginia
16.0 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 1.6 APG, 34.1% 3PT
The leading scorer and top rebounder for a 26-4 Cavaliers squad, De Ridder has been the driving force of this team's turnaround from last year's 15-17 embarrassment. Though Virginia lost its games against Duke and North Carolina, De Ridder went for 16 points in the former, 20 points and eight rebounds in the latter.
9. Darryn Peterson, Kansas
19.5 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 1.6 APG, 1.3 SPG, 38.5% 3PT
Peterson might still be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft, but here—at the back end of a quartet of stars who we wish would have been able to stay healthy—is about as high as we can justify going with his ranking. The skill is undeniable and tantalizing, even as we wait on his explosiveness to return. Also undeniable is the fact that Kansas is 12-7 when he plays, including all four of its worst losses.
8. Nate Ament, Tennessee
17.4 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 2.4 APG, 1.0 SPG, 32.8% 3PT
Ament suffered a leg injury last week against Alabama and missed Tuesday's game against South Carolina. But if he's available for the dance and picks up where he left off at 21.6 PPG over the 13 games prior to the injury, he could be a star who takes over the NCAA tournament. Ament was a raw, hit-or-miss player through the first two months of the season, but he has blossomed into something special in SEC play.
7. Mikel Brown Jr., Louisville
18.2 PPG, 4.7 APG, 3.3 RPG, 1.2 SPG, 34.4% 3PT
Brown missed a month of action with a lower back injury, and was out of the lineup again on Tuesday after re-aggravating it. But there was a five-game stretch in between those stints on the shelf in which he averaged 29.2 points while shooting 54.0 percent from distance. Special player with a permanent green light when he's healthy.
6. Caleb Wilson, North Carolina
19.8 PPG, 9.4 RPG, 2.7 APG, 1.5 SPG, 1.4 BPG
Last but the furthest thing from least on the injured stars front, here's hoping that the season finale against Duke is when Wilson returns from his fractured non-shooting hand and that he's a full go for the dance. He tallied a double-double in 11 of his first 16 games and has scored at least 20 points in 17 of 24 contests. Wilson also unofficially leads the nation in "angry dunk attempts" by players not named Coen Carr.
5. Kingston Flemings, Houston
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Season Stats: 16.6 PPG, 5.3 APG, 3.8 RPG, 1.6 SPG, 37.8% 3PT
In Wednesday night's game against Baylor, Houston trailed by four with nine minutes remaining.
But in the blink of an eye, the Cougars were up by six, and Kingston Flemings had added two points, three assists and two steals to his stat line.
Those takeover surges were commonplace for Flemings for the first three-quarters of the season, as he was named the KenPom game MVP in 15 of Houston's first 22 games. At that point, he was tied with Cameron Boozer for the national lead in that department.
We hadn't seen it much in recent weeks, though, save for his play in the "third quarter" of the game at Iowa State on Feb. 16. But it will become much easier to pick Houston to return to the Final Four if we see more of the phenomenal side of Flemings in the Big 12 tournament.
Because, let's face it: He is this team's sine qua non.
Emanuel Sharp is a great shooter. Chris Cenac Jr. and JoJo Tugler are forces on the glass, with Tugler also one of the better defenders in the nation. Milos Uzan has been inconsistent, but solid. But it's Flemings that holds it altogether; the super glue of this championship hopeful.
4. Keaton Wagler, Illinois
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Season Stats: 18.1 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 4.3 APG, 42.0% 3PT
For the three weeks in which Kylan Boswell was unavailable, Keaton Wagler was a superstar.
He was already quite good, but he had maxed out at 23 points through his first 18 contests. But he averaged 24.6 points and 5.7 assists in those seven games, quickly becoming the top challenger to Boozer for National Freshman of the Year.
Since Boswell's return, however, Wagler's role has diminished a bit.
Granted, in three of those five games, Illinois won by at least 20 and had the luxury of not needing to call his number as relentlessly. And in the loss to Michigan, he did lead all scorers with 23 points.
The problem is that while Wagler has averaged 16 points and four assists in recent weeks, Darius Acuff Jr. is sitting at 28 and seven, AJ Dybantsa is averaging 29, nine and four and we all know Boozer has continued to rack up around 22, 10 and four on a nightly basis.
Even though Wagler hasn't played poorly in the slightest—posting an O-Rating of at least 110 in all five games, as he did for 16 of the prior 17—he simply hasn't been able to keep pace with the top three.
Still, he's a solid No. 4 on our list and a relatively easy choice for first-team All-Freshman if there were such an official honor.
3. AJ Dybantsa, BYU
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Season Stats: 24.8 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 3.8 APG, 1.1 SPG, 34.7% 3PT
When AJ Dybantsa was averaging 23.1 points for a 16-1 BYU squad that had been ranked in the AP Top 10 throughout the first two months, he was easily the top threat to dethrone Cameron Boozer as the National Freshman of the Year.
Since mid-January, he is averaging 27.2 PPG, 6.3 RPG and 3.9 APG for a BYU team that has lost nine out of 13.
He is no longer No. 2 on the list. And though he remains slightly ahead of Kingston Flemings for us, we wouldn't exactly be stunned if the lead guard of the 25-5 Cougars team edges out this star of the 20-10 Cougars team for Big 12 Freshman of the Year.
Funny how that works, eh?
We should point out that though Dybantsa has slipped a bit (because BYU has crumbled) in the NFOY rankings, at least the mock draft community appears to finally be appreciating his individual dominance. There have been a lot of mocks lately with Dybantsa going No. 1 overall, including B/R's Jonathan Wasserman.
And why not? He hasn't scored fewer than 20 points in a game since the end of January, and he had two near triple-doubles along the way, falling one assist shy in the win over Iowa State and two assists shy in the win over Colorado.
Sadly, though, that's what it takes for BYU to win a game these days. Dybantsa has averaged 32.0 points, 8.5 rebounds and 6.8 assists in the only four games the Cougars have won in the past seven weeks.
Maybe he can go full Kemba Walker mode in the dance, though?
2. Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas
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Season Stats: 22.2 PPG, 6.4 APG, 3.0 RPG, 43.7% 3PT
While AJ Dybantsa has put up the aforementioned averages during a 4-9 stretch for his team, Darius Acuff Jr. has gone for 25.8 PPG, 6.7 APG and 3.1 RPG, shooting 47.8 percent from distance as the Razorbacks have won nine of their last 12.
That includes the 49-point Superman performance in the double overtime loss at Alabama, before which Acuff was reportedly in a walking boot and questionable to play.
It also includes Wednesday night's rout of Texas with 28 points and 13 assists, tying a season high in the dimes department while recording his fifth double-double.
Between those two games and the Valentine's Day victory over Auburn, Acuff shot a combined 17-for-26 from downtown with 25 assists to boot.
It's madness.
And while most have pushed back against the growing notion that Acuff might be the best guard John Calipari has ever coached—seeing as how John Wall does still exist—it's frankly a bit of a slam dunk in Acuff's favor as far as the stats go.
Wall (2009-10): 34.8 MPG, 16.6 PPG, 6.5 APG, 4.3 RPG, 1.8 SPG, 32.5% 3PT, 22.3 PER
Acuff (2025-26): 34.7 MPG, 22.2 PPG, 6.4 APG, 3.0 RPG, 0.8 SPG, 43.7% 3PT, 24.7 PER
Notably, Wall was way more of an asset on defense, and Acuff's deficiencies on that end of the floor are why A) Arkansas is allowing 80 points per game and B) he might not even be drafted in the top 10.
But no one in the country is putting on a more entertaining show on a nightly basis than the SEC's leader in both points and assists.
1. Cameron Boozer, Duke
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Season Stats: 22.6 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 4.0 APG, 1.6 SPG, 40.4% 3PT
The one thing that Cameron Boozer doesn't have when comparing him to a startling number of these other phenomenal freshmen is...that one game.
For instance, Acuff had the 49-point explosion against Alabama.
Wagler scored 46 in a win at Purdue.
Dybantsa scored 43 in a rivalry win over Utah.
Flemings went off for 42 against Texas Tech.
Even outside the top five, Mikel Brown Jr. scored 45 against NC State and Darryn Peterson basically won a game at Texas Tech with his late heroics.
For Boozer, though, going for 35 and nine in the Thanksgiving win over Arkansas was arguably the biggest eye popper.
More importantly, however, Boozer hasn't needed to request any mulligans, virtually always delivering no worse than an A-minus performance.
According to Game Score on Sports Reference, Boozer has had 17 games north of a 20.0 and nothing lower than a 12.6.
Dybantsa has had 12 and seven games, respectively. Acuff is at 10 and eight. Wagler is at seven and 10. And Flemings is at five and 12.
Granted, Game Score isn't any sort of gospel, and it does inherently prefer an efficient double-double machine to a volume scorer.
But it does speak volumes to how consistently dominant Boozer has been, to have a log of Game Scores through 30 games played that is basically identical to what Zach Edey put up in his final season at Purdue.
