Overhyped NCAA Basketball Freshmen Not Yet Ready for the NBA
Freshmen are the lifeblood of college basketball, an annual infusion of talent that replenishes the losses that come each year through graduation and early departure to the NBA. The vast majority enter college without high expectations placed on their shoulders, so it's a pleasant surprise when they do well in that first season.
Then there are the big-name freshmen, those ranked highly by recruiting services and who have been tracked throughout their high school careers. These are the ones who are expected to make instant impacts. Assuming the hype is justified, many won't stick around beyond that freshman year.
That's the expectation. It's not always reality.
Using Scout's final class of 2016 rankings as a guide, we've picked some of the highest-rated freshmen who haven't done much to justify their incoming publicity. This could change before the end of 2016-17, but for now, they've massively underperformed and don't seem ready to go pro.
Ike Anigbogu, UCLA
1 of 8
Recruiting rank: 17th
2016-17 stats: 4.4 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 1.4 BPG, 61.1 FG%, 40.9 FT%
Lonzo Ball and TJ Leaf have been tremendous additions for UCLA. The pair of freshmen came to Westwood with high hopes, and so far they've lived up to the hype by combining for 31.2 points, 14.4 rebounds and 10.6 assists per game while shooting 58.5 percent overall and 44.6 percent from three-point range.
Then there's Ike Anigbogu, a 6'10", 250-pound forward who was the third-highest-rated player to come out of California in the 2016 class and was ranked five spots ahead of Leaf on the overall list. But those ratings didn't fully take into account Anigbogu's age in comparison to the rest of the class, as he didn't turn 18 until four weeks before the 2016-17 season began.
That youth has been evident, with Anigbogu managing just 12.5 minutes per game. His missing UCLA's first five games because of a knee injury didn't help, as that put him behind the curve.
Throw in persistent foul trouble—he averages 8.8 fouls per 40 minutes and has fouled out twice—and Anigbogu is far from being ready to play in the NBA.
Marques Bolden, Duke
2 of 8
Recruiting rank: 8th
2016-17 stats: 2.4 PPG, 1.7 RPG, 46.4 FG%, 50.0 FT%
Duke was the preseason No. 1 and a heavy favorite to win it all this season—a ranking and prediction based heavily on a superb freshman class, of which center Marques Bolden was a significant piece. But little has gone right for the Blue Devils for a variety of reasons, including preseason injuries to Bolden and two other freshmen that delayed their debuts.
The 6'11", 245-pound Bolden missed Duke's first eight games, and since playing 12 minutes on Dec. 3 against Maine, his court time has varied by the night. He played two minutes against Florida on Dec. 6, the first of seven games with single-digit minutes. But then he logged 23 on Jan. 21 against Miami (Florida) and then 18 while making his first career start in Monday's home loss to North Carolina State.
He was key to the comeback against Miami but then struggled against NC State, making one of four shots with three fouls. Bolden also had a two-point, four-foul, seven-minute game Jan. 7 against Boston College.
There's hope for his immediate future, as Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller described his recent play as that of a "Plumlee-esque energy guy." That doesn't mean he's NBA-ready, though.
Sam Cunliffe, Kansas
3 of 8
Recruiting rank: 45th
2016-17 stats: 9.5 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 1.4 APG, 34.8 FG%, 40.5 3-pt%, 62.1% FT
We've listed Sam Cunliffe based on the school he's currently enrolled in, not the one at which he began the season. The 6'6" guard played 10 games for Arizona State before leaving the program in December. Then earlier this month, he transferred to Kansas where he'll be eligible for the second semester of the 2017-18 season.
Cunliffe wasn't exactly struggling for playing time at ASU, starting every game in which he played while averaging 25.4 minutes. He had 23 points against The Citadel, part of a string of five consecutive games with double-figure scoring. However, in his final two contests (against Purdue and at San Diego State) he had only eight total points while shooting 3-of-16 from the field.
ASU was 6-4 with Cunliffe and 4-7 since his departure, with only one Sun Devil holding a better three-point shooting rate. His biggest problem, though, was making shots inside the arc, as he shot just 30.8 percent on two-pointers, which led to a team-worst 43.3 percent effective field goal rate.
Maybe the year off will enable Cunliffe to improve that closer-to-the-rim shooting touch, though he'll be hard-pressed to get as many minutes with what should be a much deeper Kansas team than what got at ASU.
Sacha Killeya-Jones, Kentucky
4 of 8
Recruiting rank: 27th
2016-17 stats: 2.9 PPG, 2.2 RPG, 58.6 FG%, 40.0 FT%
Sacha Killeya-Jones was the least heralded of Kentucky's five signees for 2016-17, but that description means something different when used on Wildcats freshmen compared to those from other schools. Had he gone somewhere else, he likely would have been that program's top addition. With Kentucky, he's the newcomer who's far behind the rest of the pack.
The 6'10", 230-pound forward has only appeared in 14 of Kentucky's games and half of its eight SEC contests. At 6.9 minutes per game, Killeya-Jones ranks 10th on the team and has nearly 14 minutes fewer per outing than Kentucky's second-least-used freshman, wing Wenyen Gabriel.
It's become almost a given that every top recruit Kentucky adds under John Calipari will test the NBA draft waters, though recently a few have stuck around for more than one campaign. The Harrison twins, Andrew and Aaron, stayed through their sophomore year in 2014-15, Tyler Ulis did the same in 2015-16 and sophomore Isaiah Briscoe returned for this season.
The difference was those other players were listed, at one time or another, in early NBA mock drafts as freshmen, as are current Wildcats De'Aaron Fox, Malik Monk and Edrice "Bam" Adebayo. Gabriel could soon be found there as well if the 6'9" forward continues to progress.
But Killeya-Jones needs at least another year, if not more, before he's ready to turn pro.
V.J. King, Louisville
5 of 8
Recruiting rank: 20th
2016-17 stats: 6.0 PPG, 2.2 RPG, 41.4 FG%, 40.7 3-pt%, 82.5 FT %
Much was made of V.J. King's being Louisville's first McDonald's All-American since 2011, but he's yet to show he was worthy of that prestigious honor. Praised as a versatile scorer who could fill the void left by the graduated Damion Lee, King has instead been hard-pressed to even see the court on what's been an offensively challenged team.
The 6'6" wing is playing 14 minutes per game, eighth-most on the team. He's started four contests, all since Dec. 31 and three of them in ACC play, but he's had more games in which he's scored two or fewer points (eight) than games in which he's reached double digits (five).
King's last start, on Jan. 21 at Florida State, resulted in his going scoreless on 0-of-4 shooting in only seven minutes. Three days later, as the Cardinals blitzed Pittsburgh 106-51, he came off the bench for 14 minutes but was just 1-of-3 from the field.
It's not that Louisville's other wings and guards are shooting the lights out. Sophomores Deng Adel and Donovan Mitchell and junior Quentin Snider, all of whom play 28 or more minutes per game, are shooting a collective 38.7 percent overall and 34.9 percent from three.
Josh Langford, Michigan State
6 of 8
Recruiting rank: 24th
2016-17 stats: 6.1 PPG, 2.1 RPG, 1.4 APG, 50.0 FG%, 42.9 3-pt%, 63.6 FT%
A massive roster turnover in the offseason meant Michigan State was going to have to rely on its freshman class more than ever under coach Tom Izzo. The need further increased after preseason injuries to a pair of veteran big men, resulting in more than 40 percent of the Spartans' minutes played in 2016-17 going to first-year players.
The quartet of Miles Bridges, Joshua Langford, Nick Ward and Cassius Winston have combined to start 40 times. Bridges and Ward have been stellar, both averaging double figures in scoring and more than six rebounds per game, while Winston is Michigan State's leading assist man at 5.4 per contest.
Then there's Langford, who has started 13 games and averages 20.4 minutes but has yet to figure out his role. The 6'5" guard is MSU's most effective outside shooter by percentage, but his 21 makes are fifth-most on the team, and he's yet to attempt more than four threes in a game.
Langford shoots less than almost everyone else in the Spartans' rotation outside of Kenny Goins and Lourawls Nairn Jr. If he was more willing to put it up, his production would be a lot better.
Seventh Woods, North Carolina
7 of 8
Recruiting rank: 40th
2016-17 stats: 2.2 PPG, 1.6 RPG, 1.5 APG, 30.2 FG%, 20.0 3-pt%, 56.8% FT
North Carolina fans have known about Seventh Woods for a long time. The 6'2" guard from South Carolina was a much-coveted prospect who was first offered by the Tar Heels in 2013 but didn't commit until signing day in November 2015. Those same fans are still waiting to see what Woods can do, because so far his impact has been minimal at best.
Woods has appeared in all 22 games but is getting 9.2 minutes per contest, which is 11th-most on the team. He played a season-high 22 minutes in a December win against Radford (when he had a career-high nine points), but since ACC play began, he's averaged 6.4 minutes, with 15 of those coming in garbage time of an early January blowout of North Carolina State.
The opportunities have been there for Woods to rise up the depth chart with other guards missing time because of injuries, but he hasn't broken through. Theo Pinson missed UNC's first 16 games with a broken bone in his right foot, and Joel Berry II was out for a few games, but head coach Roy Williams stayed mostly with Nate Britt and Kenny Williams, both as fill-ins for those missing players and as the fifth starter in the lineup.
Omer Yurtseven, North Carolina State
8 of 8
Recruiting rank: N/A
2016-17 stats: 6.6 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 1.3 APG, 46.6 FG%, 50.0 3-pt%, 71.4 FT%
Scout didn't rank Omer Yurtseven as part of the 2016 class because he is an international prospect from Turkey, and not much was known about the 7'0", 245-pound center other than what could be found on the internet. But because that included news that he'd scored a whopping 91 points in a U-18 game in May, it was hard not to be excited about what he could do in the U.S.
But then Yurtseven had to sit out North Carolina State's first nine games, the result of an NCAA suspension because of issues with his amateur status while playing overseas. He made his debut Dec. 15 and had 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting, with four rebounds in 24 minutes—an effort that looked like it was going to be a great foundation for things to come.
He built on that for a little bit, scoring 12 with six rebounds and three assists three days later against Fairfield. Later in December, he had a career-best 16 points against Rider. But in ACC play, Yurtseven has struggled, averaging 4.4 points with 5.6 rebounds and shooting only 39.0 percent.
Yurtseven's inability to stay out of foul trouble has impacted his development, as he's had four or more fouls in eight of 12 games and thus averages only 20.2 minutes per contest. But because of his size and perceived upside, he remains a top draft prospect, sitting 32nd in DraftExpress' latest mock draft for 2017. Despite that ranking, he's not ready for the pros at this stage.
All statistics courtesy of Sports-Reference.com, unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information courtesy of Scout.com, unless otherwise noted.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
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