Bleacher Report says UCLA’s Lonzo Ball is the best freshman in college basketball so far this season.
They rank Kentucky’s De’Aaron Fox No. 2 and Malik Monk No. 4.
Bam Adebayo isn’t in the top 10.
Here’s an excerpt about Fox:
Speed, playmaking and scoring make De’Aaron Fox an ideal point guard for the Kentucky system. He is the best player on a Wildcats team loaded with freshman stars and is perhaps the chief reason Kentucky has a chance to win another national championship this season.
Fox is averaging 15.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.9 assists, and he recorded the second triple-double in Kentucky history with 14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in just 31 minutes against Arizona State on Nov. 28.
“He’s just a really talented guy, really runs their team extremely well,” Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said of Fox, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. “Like a lot of great players do, he does a lot of things well on the floor. I’m a big fan of his. I think he’s obviously got a really high ceiling, both this season and beyond.”
The one aspect Fox must improve before advancing to the NBA is his outside shooting. He has made just three of 21 three-points shots (14.3 percent). However, he does so many other things to help his team that his shooting woes barely matter. It is reminiscent of the freshman season Jason Kidd had at Cal in 1992-93, when he shot just 28 percent from three-point range but did everything else while orchestrating a turnaround for the Cal program.
Fox won his individual battle with UCLA point guard Lonzo Ball by collecting 20 points and nine assists with just two turnovers against the Bruins. But Ball won the war as UCLA stunned the Wildcats in Rupp Arena.
