The Sporting News made another ballsy move by adding another freshman to their college preseason All-American team. If you recall last year they put Harrison Barnes, a freshman from North Carolina, on the list and college basketball critics were up in arms. Well, at least half were. Some said it was preposterous to add a player who has never played a minute of collegiate ball to an All-American list (Those same purist probably think replay in Baseball compromises the integrity of the game). Yet others, like me, said Barnes was good enough to make the team and will be a top tier player at year’s end.
Thanks to Roy Williams and his atrocious player development, the former school of thought was the correct one. Davis actually plays for a coach that will develop him and barring an injury he will be a 1st team player by the end of the basketball season as well. I could go down the list of all the freshmen Coach Cal has developed and turned into all-Americans and top draft picks, but history and reality speaks for itself. However, If you take a look at all of Coach Williams’ freshmen you will see that the “Harrison Barnes Effect” is really a result of Ol’ Roy.
North Carolina’s class of 2008 brought in Ed Davis, Larry Drew, Zeller, and Watts. Ed Davis was the most talented of the class averaged 6.7 ppg and forced his way out of Chapel Hill as a sophomore. He doubled his scoring average to 13 ppg in his 2nd year. Tyler Zeller is currently a professional college student, and by the way averaged a stunning 3 ppg as a frosh. Watts and Drew combined for 2.1 ppg in the 1st year. After Larry Drew set the world on fire at UNC he transferred to UCLA.
The class of 2009 brought in mucho taleinto (That's Spanish, B). First off, UNC reeled in David and Travis Wear (transferred during freshman year), Leslie McDonald and Dexter Strickland (Who? And Who?), and the gem of the class John Henson (college student for life). Combined these freshman scored 20 points per game. That’s like, almost what Brandon Knight averaged…by himself.
In 2010 the Tarheels landed Kendall Marshall, Reggie Bullock and THE Harrison Barnes. Kendall Marshall is well on his way to being replaced by someone less mediocre than him. That’s going to be hard to do what with his 6 ppg, 2 rpg. He did average 6 assist per game, however. It’s a good thing he contributed something to that team, because it sure wasn’t with his Jumper or size. I would break down Reggie Bullock’s game, but I have no idea what he looks like or what position he plays. Judging by his stats, he was less useful than Marshall. He averaged 6 and 2, but with 0 assists.
Harrison Barnes is by far the most talented freshman I have named so far and his rookie campaign didn’t start so hot. Barnes averaged 11 points in his first 9 games of the season. Not exactly the all-American type of numbers we all expected. Thus the hype was recounted and expectations were lowered. Barnes did end the season well capping it off with a 40 point performance, but only had a total of 4- 20 point performances for the entire year. He averaged 15 ppg and ended up having a good year, just not a 1st team all-American year.
Anthony Davis will have a much better freshman year than Harrison had because of the position he plays. Barnes had to create much of his offense by himself. Davis will get many of his points from dunks, put backs and alley oops. Also Davis will be an incredible shot blocker in the paint. Add to that, he grew up playing point guard, so he can actually dribble and distribute the rock. I expect no let down from Davis this year, because even in his off games he will still impact his team in a positive way. Is it too early for player of the year talk?
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