The 2002-03 Syracuse freshmen of Carmelo Anthony and Gerry McNamara and Billy Edelin. The 2011-12 Kentucky trio of Anthony Davis, Marquis Teague and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
They stood alone as freshmen-led teams to win national titles — until Monday night.
Duke’s foursome of Grayson Allen, Tyus Jones, Jahlil Okafor and Justise Winslow joined those two heralded classes — and joined the conversation as one of the best freshman classes ever assembled — after carrying the Blue Devils to their fifth national championship, scoring 60 of the team’s points in a 68-63 triumph over Wisconsin.
These three groups, of course, are all fighting for second place, behind the Michigan Fab Five.
What made this Duke group so unique, so special, was how well they played off of each other, how smart and poised they were no matter the stage.
With its lofty ranking entering the year, Kentucky was the story in college basketball this season.
Sure, Okafor was the guy everyone talked about in reverential terms back in November, the likely No. 1 pick in June’s NBA draft. But Kentucky was the superpower, the team with three potential freshmen lottery picks in Karl-Anthony Towns, Trey Lyles and Devin Booker, and an exceptional fourth freshman in Tyler Ulis.
But it was the Blue Devils freshmen who handled the March stage like seasoned veterans, who dominated their competition in six NCAA Tournament games, winning by an average of 15.5 points. And, furthermore, they showed they were far more than just Okafor. He was the fourth-best Duke freshman Monday night.
There was Allen, coming out of virtually nowhere to change the game’s momentum, scoring 10 of his 16 points in the second half; Jones hitting every key shot en route to 23 points and Most Outstanding Player honors; and Winslow giving his usual all-encompassing floor game, producing 11 points, nine rebounds and three blocks.
What stood out the most to Quinn Cook, the team’s lone senior contributor and leader, was the selflessness of the four. Allen never complained when he spent so much of the year on the bench. Okafor didn’t mind seeing others carry the load when opponents double- and triple-teamed him. Winslow was overshadowed by the package deal that brought Jones and Okafor to Duke, but quickly became close with both of them.
“All the top 20 recruits, the No. 1 class, they came in so humble,” Cook said Monday night. “It was all about the team. All of them worked. All of them looked to the upperclassmen for advice. They didn’t think they knew it all and things like that. They worked.”
“They’ve been making plays for us all year. It’s great that it paid off in the biggest game of everybody’s lives. I’m grateful for those young guys because, you know, for them to perform like that on the stage like this says a lot about those guys’ confidence. I’m just thankful that they came to Duke.”
It’s difficult to compare the three stellar freshman groups, because of how different they were. Kentucky gets the edge on the defensive end, where Davis and Kidd-Gilchrist were so stifling, shot-blocking dominators able to guard so many different positions. Syracuse was the most explosive, behind Anthony — who averaged 20.2 points in that tournament, and the sharpshooting McNamara, who hit six 3-pointers in the title game against Kansas.
Duke? It had the most variety. A point guard like Jones able to dominate the national championship game but just as happy to be an orchestrator; the do-it-all Winslow who could control the game at both ends of the floor and completely lock down Wisconsin star Sam Dekker in the second half Monday night; and of course Okafor, as polished and poised offensively as any young big man in the paint in recent memory.
The argument can be made Duke’s freshmen were the most complete of the three. At the very least, they joined the debate Monday night of great freshmen-led teams that won national titles.