The college basketball season is underway. It started three weeks ago, with the first games happening on November 4th. So far, the freshman class has done very well, impressing the whole league and college basketball fans. Rutgers duo Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper, Dukes Cooper Flagg, and Texas Tre Johnson are a couple of the soon-to-be NBA stars.
Rutgers signed two top 5 players in the 2024 high school class, Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper. This is unprecedented for Rutgers to pick up such talent and are poised to be a powerhouse this season. Ace started the season with a minor back injury and precautiously missed the first 2 games of the season. He played the last 3 games, currently averaging 19 points, 5.7 rebounds, 0.3 assists, and a 47.6 field goal percentage. Dylan’s brother Ron Harper Jr who was a Rutgers Basketball hero followed in his footsteps committing to Rutgers. Dylan has played in all 5 games, playing extremely well. He is averaging 19.8 points, 5 rebounds, 5.2 assists, and a 54.3 field goal percentage. Ace and Dylan are projected to be the top 5 picks in the upcoming NBA Draft.
Duke Small Forward Cooper Flagg has also had a great start to the season. Cooper was the number 1 recruit in the 2024 class. In 5 games, Cooper is averaging 17.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and a 44.2 field goal percentage. Cooper is projected to be the upcoming first-overall pick in the NBA draft.
Texas also has a star freshman on their team, Tre Johnson. So far, Tre has played very well and many are saying he is the best freshman at Texas since Kevin Durant. Through 6 games, Tre is averaging 21.2 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2 assists, and a 47.8 field goal percentage. Tre is projected to be a top-10 pick in this upcoming NBA draft.
As the season continues to unfold it will be interesting to see how Ace, Dylan, Cooper, Tre, and the rest of the freshman class will perform. The last time Rutgers made the March Madness bracket was in 2022 losing in the first four. Texas and Duke have made the tournament each consecutive year since 2021. It will be very exciting to see these future stars in the upcoming tournament. How far will their teams go?