I assume you were inspired by a post on another thread that suggested that Coach K isn't comfortable starting freshman. Your list is a superb answer.

Allow me to address a few points raised in this thread:

-- I also remember that Christian Laettner was more highly recruited that Crawford Palmer -- but not by a lot. And, Jim, I think he would have been ranked closer to No. 15-20 than No. 10 if there was an RSCI in 1988. I checked and both were McDonald's All-Americans. Christian was a second-team Parade (Parade picked four 10-man teams) which put him between 11-20 (although junior Kenny Anderson took one of the first-team spots). Palmer was a third-team Parade A-A, which would put him between 21-30. Of course, that's just one source, but overall, I think Christian was a more highly touted prospect, although Palmer gained a lot of respect for his head-to-head success against Alonzo Mourning, who was thought to be in a class of his own (until Christian shattered his aura in the 1989 East Regional title game).

-- Taymon Domzalski was a McDonald's A-A and a second-team Parade A-A. He did have a promising freshman season, but the rest of his career was ruined by chronic bad knees. True that his freshman season was less-than-steller, but keep in mind that he replaced an NBA lottery pick (Cherokee Parks) and a second-round NBA pick (Eric Meeks) in the post and was the primary big man on a team that improved from 13-18 to 18-13. And, I agree with the guys who argue that 1994 was NOT a less-than-stellar season.

-- It's significant to me that a couple of guys who didn't make the list emerged as starters late in their freshman seasons. Laettner became a full-time starter in mid-January. Duhon first started when Boozer got hurt just before the regular season finale -- he still played enough to be ACC rookie of the year. Carrawell became a starter in late January. Elliott Williams became a starter in early February. In contrast, Danny Ferry started the first half of the season when Jay Bilas was hurt. When Bilas returned at just after the halfway point, Ferry became the sixth man.

-- Interesting to me that K has had three ACC rookie of the year picks since 2001 (Duhon, Singler and Rivers) after having none before 2001. I mean as great as Dawkins, Grant Hill, Hurley, Jason Williams and Ferry were, there always seemed to be somebody a little better (at least the voters thought so).