The 2025–26 freshman class in college basketball has been touted as generational since some of the stars were 15 years old. Until now, I’ve resisted comparing this season’s group to other classes. But the calendar has flipped to February, teams have played about half of their conference slates and 20-plus games overall. The sample size is enough to say confidently that this freshman class is the best of the one-and-done era.
Much of the talk with this class has surrounded its big three (Cameron Boozer, AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson), who’ve long been expected to dominate college and compete for the No. 1 pick in June’s NBA draft. And if it was only those three showing out, this class would certainly be in the conversation with the best in the last 20-plus years but would have real competition. But no season can make the sheer quantity of elite freshmen making huge impacts on the best teams in the sport. Arizona, still undefeated and the consensus No. 1 team in the country, is led in scoring by a pair of freshmen. So is Duke with Boozer, BYU with Dybantsa, Kansas with Peterson, Illinois with Keaton Wagler and Houston with Kingston Flemings. These aren’t just stars, they’re All-American-level producers in an era in which teams are going to whatever lengths are necessary (including the courtroom) to build older and older rosters.
