There was a discussion in another thread about players who started as freshmen under Coach K. Twenty-five players have started the majority of the games their freshman season. That's 25 out of my list of 100 recruited freshmen. Here they are --
Code:
Pct. Pos. Player Year recruiting ranking
100.0% G Johnny Dawkins 1983 **
100.0% F Mark Alarie 1983 **?
100.0% G Tommy Amaker 1984 **?
100.0% G Bobby Hurley 1990 **
100.0% G Jason Williams 2000 #3
100.0% F Kyle Singler 2008 #5
97.1% G Austin Rivers 2012 #2
97.0% G Jon Scheyer 2007 #28
91.7% G Greg Paulus 2006 #13
90.9% G JJ Redick 2002 #11
88.2% C Carlos Boozer 2000 #8
86.5% F Luol Deng 2004 #2
86.1% FC Josh McRoberts 2006 #1
85.7% GF David Henderson 1983 ??
85.7% F Jay Bilas 1983 ??
85.7% F Elton Brand - 2 1998 **
82.4% G Jeff Capel 1994 **?
79.5% F Grant Hill 1991 **
77.4% G Trajan Langdon 1995 **
72.7% G Kyrie Irving - 2 2011 #2
69.7% F Shelden Williams 2002 #8
58.1% C Taymon Domzalski 1996 ??
55.6% F Shane Battier 1998 **
54.5% F Lance Thomas 2007 #20
52.5% CF Danny Ferry 1986 **
51.9% GF Ricky Price 1995 **
A few surprises there -- Taymon Domzalski, Jeff Capel and Lance Thomas -- all of whom started in less-than-stellar seasons. I did the stats on Elton and Kyrie based on number of games available (Elton would have made the list anyway).
The list includes 11 guards, 9 forwards, 2 centers and three hybrids (McBob, Ferry, and David Henderson).
Anyway, there were freshman starters in 17 years (out of 32). 1983 is the champ, of course, when JD, Alarie, Bilas and Henderson started almost all of the games. Other years with two freshman starters include Shane and Elton in 1998, JWill and Boozer in 2000, JJ and Shelden in 2003, McBob and Paulus in 2006, and Lance and Jon in 2007.
Does this analysis lead to a cure for cancer or bring about peace? No-o-o-o-o. Not exactly.
sagegrouse