College basketball’s 2022-23 freshmen: Who’s thriving, who’s surprising, who’s waiting

After a 2021-22 freshman class that produced two second-team All-Americans and a third-team All-American– a trio that would eventually end up as the leading three picks in the 2022 NBA draft– there was a pretty high bar for the high school class of 2022 to strike at the college level.Because of the increasing variety of players selecting the G League Spark or Overtime Elite over college, this season’s freshman class was a bit diminished at the top. It certainly wasn’t without a substantial amount of talent: ESPN’s mock draft going into 2022-23 featured 20 incoming college freshmen in the very first round.And in terms of NBA draft stock

, this class of freshmen has mainly measured up to the hype at the top: Seventeen college freshmen are still in the current ESPN leading 30 NBA draft rankings, and really couple of, if any, leading 20 recruits have actually stopped working to make an impact.But the much deeper you go into the final ESPN 100 for the 2022 class

, the fewer first-year effects you’ll find than in the past. Entering Tuesday’s games, just 19 ESPN 100 employees are averaging double figures in scoring. Twelve of those were top-25 employees– suggesting just seven of the players ranked in between 26 and 100 are putting up double figures in points so far this season.As the season advances, certain first-year players will get more comfortable at the college level, and playing

time and production will occur with it. But with the brand-new year, and conference play, approaching, it’s time to take stock of 2022-23’s freshmen up until now. * A lot of stats since Dec. 21 Best of the Best It appeared quite quickly that Miller was the best freshman in college basketball this season. He had 20 points in the 2nd game of his profession against Liberty,

then scored at least 18 points in each of his next four games– including 24 points and nine rebounds versus Michigan State on Thanksgiving night. Miller took his game to another level recently, scoring 24 and getting 8 boards in a win over Memphis, then dropping 36 points in a loss to Gonzaga. Balancing 19.3 points(initially among all freshmen )and 8.7 rebounds(fourth among all freshmen), and shooting 44.2% from 3 on the season.