Austin Rivers: Duke Has This Season's Jimmer Fredette in Overrated Freshman

Every season has one. They are the players that will be critiqued long before they should be and lauded long before it is warranted. This year, Duke has the distinction of having the biggest name in college hoops hype in Austin Rivers. 

If you listened to just what was said upon Rivers deciding to take his talents to Duke, you would have thought that Mike Kryzewski was about to take a breather. Rivers was bestowed with so much praise I thought he could coach and play all five positions at once.

And this is where I am coming from. As sports fans, we hardly ever live in the now. It is far more appealing to speculate on the future without stopping to savor the present. 

Rivers may one day be a star in the NBA. But for now he is a talented freshman who still needs a hell of a lot of grooming. 

So where do I get off relating a freshman to Jimmer Fredette? Easy. The hype. I am not about to sit here and spout off that Fredette will never be anything in the NBA. That is not what this is about. 

I see stark similarities in Rivers and Fredette, with even Fredette commanding a more full game than Rivers. The similarities is how they have both been received by their alumni and supporters. 

Perspective is not a sentiment I would use to describe it. Now for Rivers, who recently laid an egg by going 1-for-7 for five points against Michigan State. 

This is the point that can be made for college superstars: let them grow before we hail them as the next greatest studs of the sport. 

There are going to be some growing pains, especially for a phenom who chose to play for one of the most storied programs in the nation. 

There are going to be a couple of duds amidst some gems. This doesn't mean that he will flame out or fade away. It just means we need a bigger sample size before we call him a star or a flop. 

The fact that Rivers is getting so much buzz is the same reason that I was irate that Fredette was getting run as an assured NBA star at the draft, because we simply can't wait. 

Give it some time and Rivers will let us all know exactly what kind of player he is, at least until January, people.