Youth Movement: No Freshman Named Among 18 All-Americans This Season

No freshman was named among the 18 NCAA Division I All-Americans this season. Duke's Kyle Filipowski was the lone sophomore although he occasionally played like an immature yearling, scoring only three points in NCAA playoff opening-round game against Vermont and fouling out of both contests vs. North Carolina State in last two weeks of the campaign.

We may have reached an inflection point in replenishing rosters where experienced transfers - seasoned veterans for "won-and-done" aspirations - are more vital than immature "one-and-done" high school recruits. For instance, Duke and Kentucky ranked 1-2, 1-3 or 2-3 in nine of the last 11 recruiting classes with the Blue Devils also ranked #1 in 2022 after UK was #2 in 2021. But it didn't mean squat of late in terms of success reaching the Final Four. Duke, which lost in national semifinals in 2022, is the only one of the two bluebloods advancing to the F4 in the last seven tourneys. Similarly, Memphis ranked atop the recruiting list twice in a three-year span from 2019 through 2021 but the Tigers garnered a grand total of one playoff triumph since 2014.

Prior to pathetic playoff performance a year ago, Brandon Miller (Alabama) was outstanding as a freshman in becoming an NCAA consensus second-team All-American. But he fell short of first-team acclaim. Three years ago, Oklahoma State's Cade Cunningham achieved a distinction luminaries Mark Aguirre, Carmelo Anthony, Stephen Curry, Patrick Ewing, Phil Ford, Tyler Hansbrough, James Harden, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Bernard King, Alonzo Mourning, Shaquille O'Neal, Derrick Rose, Ralph Sampson and Russell Westbrook failed to do. Cunningham became an NCAA consensus first-team All-American as a freshman. He was the 25th yearling on the following chronological list in this rare-air category named first-team A-A: