This year’s top freshmen feel representative of the rich pageant that is men’s college basketball. There’s a sixth man on a title contender; a much-hyped, top-five NBA Draft pick on a team likely to miss the NCAA Tournament; and arguably the best player on arguably the best team in the sport.
Yes, Cooper Flagg is inevitable, but overall this season has been pleasantly competitive, wide-open and reliably entertaining on the heels of back-to-back championships by UConn. The players on this list are a big reason for that.
Presenting The Athletic’s 2024-25 men’s college basketball freshman All-America team. Stats are through Jan. 27.
GO DEEPER
Midseason All-America team: Cooper Flagg, Johni Broome, Kam Jones and more
Cooper Flagg, Duke (unanimous selection)
Flagg’s inclusion on the All-Freshman team is a bit like noting the Valedictorian also made the Honor Roll. We’re talking about a lock for First-Team All-America, a top-two candidate to win Player of the Year and in all likelihood the top overall pick in the next NBA Draft, all while elevating Duke to a leading title contender. So yeah, toss some midseason freshman honors on the pile, too. It’s basically a footnote.
Credit the Blue Devils’ young star for living up to the incredible hype in what will be his lone season of college hoops. He had solid numbers to start the year yet often looked like a 17-year-old, including those late-game turnovers in a couple of high-profile nonconference matchups. Flagg settled in over the past month, getting better and more efficient, which is also a credit to Duke head coach Jon Scheyer for showing some patience and foresight.
Flagg is averaging 19.9 points, 7.9 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.2 blocks, leading the Blue Devils in each of those categories. More importantly, he’s made significant improvements in terms of efficiency, including 42.5 percent from 3-point range, 68.1 true shooting percentage and 30.7 assist percentage over his last 10 games, each of which rank in the top 89th percentile in the sport over that span, according to CBB Analytics. Combine that with the strides he has made as a creator and playmaker — which our NBA Draft guru Sam Vecenie detailed recently — and Flagg is looking every bit the best player in college basketball.
GO DEEPER
How Cooper Flagg has cemented his status as 2025’s top draft prospect
Dylan Harper, Rutgers (unanimous selection)
Harper and fellow five-star freshman Ace Bailey earned plenty of preseason attention, making Rutgers the only school in the past decade other than Duke to land two of the top three recruits in the same class. It hasn’t quite panned out for the Scarlet Knights, who are 10-10 overall and not in the NCAA Tournament picture. But Harper in particular has been as advertised, a composed, do-everything guard and likely top-five pick in this year’s NBA Draft.
The younger brother of former Rutgers player Ron Harper Jr. — and son of ’90s Bulls legend Ron Harper — is averaging 18.6 points (second on the team to Bailey), 4.8 rebounds and 4.1 assists, shooting 33.7 percent from 3-point range and 48.8 percent from the field. Harper’s numbers have remained steady since the start of the season, including back-to-back games of 36 points and 37 points against Notre Dame and Alabama in November. The only noteworthy changes upon entering Big Ten play have been an odd dip in free-throw shooting (down to 70.8 percent) and a slight uptick in turnover percentage, but considering his usage rate near 30 percent, that comes with the territory. Plus he’s maintained a strong 1.88 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Harper has shown all the things NBA evaluators want to see for the next level, including smooth ball handling and an elite ability to finish and score at the rim. His production backs that up. Unfortunately, we’ll likely miss watching Harper and Bailey come NCAA Tournament time.
Kasparas Jakucionis, Illinois (unanimous selection)
The native Lithuanian and one of the top international prospects in the 2024 class has blossomed in Champaign and helped establish the Illini as a championship contender. Jakucionis is the team’s leading scorer (15.9 points) and distributor (5.4 assists) and shoots 37.5 percent from 3-point range — while accounting for nearly half of his overall field-goal attempts — and 86.8 from the line. His shooting efficiency is off the charts, ranking in the 90th percentile in effective field goal and true shooting percentage, according to CBB Analytics, and he’s second among freshmen in BPM (box score plus/minus), behind Flagg.
Jakucionis has shown to be adept on and off the ball, able to direct the offense and navigate ball screens. There is room for growth: He’s a creative passer but can get careless with the ball, registering a 20 percent turnover rate. He’s also been prone to foul trouble in Big Ten play, including fouling out in just nine minutes in a recent road loss to Michigan State. Those are areas that should improve with age and experience, even down the stretch of this season, and Jakucionis has proven to be an ideally versatile and creative scorer who has unlocked head coach Brad Underwood’s uptempo style for this roster.
Kasparas Jakucionis set the Illinois freshman record for assists in a season-opener with seven against Eastern Illinois on Nov. 4, 2024. (Ron Johnson / Imagn Images)
Newell has been a model of consistency for a modern big in college basketball, which is tough and rare as a freshman. Landing the 6-foot-11 five-star was a coup for the Bulldogs, who capitalized on having Asa’s older brother, Jaden, on the roster as a walk-on, along with the two spending their childhood on Georgia’s campus.
Newell has delivered, averaging 15.1 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.1 blocks, including a 96th percentile offensive rebound rate according to CBB Analytics. His athleticism and versatility have helped defensively, where Georgia ranks top 20 in KenPom. Newell will probably only be in Athens this one season, but his goal was to put Georgia men’s basketball on the map. He’s done his part, including helping get the Bulldogs into the AP Top 25 earlier in the season, but the challenging SEC has started taking its toll of late, with four straight losses.
That tough stretch has put Newell and the Dawgs on the NCAA Tournament bubble, but the team will have plenty of chances at quality wins the rest of the way.
Tahaad Pettiford, Auburn
Last month, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl had high praise for his point guard: “He’s the best freshman in the country, based on preseason expectations.”
Pettiford was a composite five-star, McDonald’s All-American and top-30 prospect nationally in the 2024 class, but it’s true that he didn’t have anywhere near the hype of Flagg or Harper, and all he’s done is run the show for an Auburn team vying with Duke as title favorites. Pettiford benefits from playing alongside Johni Broome, who is neck-and-neck with Flagg in the Player of the Year race, but Pettiford has been brilliant in his role as a table-setting sixth man for the best offense in the country, according to KenPom. He’s averaging 11.8 points, 2.6 assists and 1.3 steals, is one of the Tigers’ best 3-point shooters at 41.9 percent.
The young southpaw shot right-handed as a kid before his dad nudged him toward a more natural-looking left-handed jump shot, but it allowed him to be equally comfortable dribbling and finishing at the rim with either hand.
Since fouling out in a scoreless, 0-for-4, very freshman-looking performance against Vermont in the season opener, Pettiford has played wise beyond his years for Auburn, including 21 points and 5-for-8 from 3 in the very next game — a massive win over Houston. If the Tigers manage to survive the back-breaking SEC and make a deep NCAA Tournament run, Pettiford will be a critical piece.
Also receiving votes: Jeremiah Fears (2), Tre Johnson (2), Boogie Fland, Tomislav Ivisic, Khaman Maluach, Derik Queen
(Voting panel: Scott Dochterman, Brian Hamilton, Brendan Marks, CJ Moore, Brendan Quinn, Joe Rexrode, Lindsay Schnell, Justin Williams)
(Top photos of Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper: Jim Dedmon, Vincent Carchietta / Imagn Images)
