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spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i++] = new Array("","Intro","Michael Jordan","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/z_Projects_in_progress/040224_College_hoops/jordan_michael.vmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "Robert Willett", "AP", "298", "194", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i-1].body = "Let the arguments begin. Even before most fans look at this list of the top college freshmen of all time, they’ll have their own lists of basketball greats firmly in mind. It is inevitable that many will find their personal favorite has been omitted, whether it’s Mike Bibby, Stephon Marbury, Chris Mullin, Kenny Anderson, or any of a dozen or more others, and will be moved to pen angry e-mails about the injustice.We don’t expect everyone to agree, but we also stand by our selections as worthy.
Before the 1970-71 season, freshmen weren’t allowed to play varsity ball, so this list inevitably can not address the great first-year players of all-time, a list that would surely include such greats as Lew Alcindor, who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, and arguably the greatest college player ever, \"Pistol\" Pete Maravich.
The decision to allow freshman to play was controversial, and many coaches for years felt obliged to make even the greatest first-year men serve time on the bench before joining the starting lineup. As late as 1981, Michael Jordan found himself having to work his way into Dean Smith's lineup. But, as top players have increasingly left school early for the NBA — assuming they attend at all — the role of freshmen has become increasingly important.";
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i++] = new Array("","1. Carmelo Anthony, Syracuse","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/z_Projects_in_progress/040224_College_hoops/anthony_carmelo.vmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "Craig Jones", "Getty Images", "283", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i-1].body = "
When he arrived in Syracuse to play his only season of college ball, the 6-8 swing man with all the right moves was Carmelo Anthony. By the end of the year, as 'Cuse was cutting down the nets, he had already dispensed with one of his names and a third of the other. After what he did to the NCAA in 2003, 'Melo was all the name he needed.
Other people have had better one-year stats, but no player ever did for a program what Anthony did for Syracuse. Before he arrived, the Orange, despite numerous Big East titles and a history book full of great players such as \"The Pearl\" Washington and Derrick Coleman, had never won a trophy. It gnawed at their fans. It gnawed at their fretful coach, Jim Boeheim.
Anthony announced his arrival in his first collegiate game when he threw down 27 points. By year's end, he was averaging 22 points and 10 rebounds a game. Not many average a double-double in the pros. Very, very few do so at the highest level of the college game.
But he saved his best for last. Against Texas in the national semifinals, he racked up 33 points. Nursing a bad back, he came back against Kansas in the championship game and darned near pulled off a triple-double with 20 points, 10 boards, and 7 assists.
Few have ever been better and meant more to a championship team at any stage in their careers. No one, including Jordan, has ever been better as a freshman than Syracuse's Carmelo Anthony.";
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i++] = new Array("","2. Michael Jordan, North Carolina","","","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "Robert Willett", "AP", "298", "194", "", "", "", "", "");
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i-1].body = "
Go ahead and argue that, while he may be the best pro player of all time, Jordan was not the most spectacular college freshman — or even sophomore or junior — ever.
You’re right, if you’re talking just about stats. Jordan averaged under 18 points for his North Carolina career, prompting wits to pronounce that Tar Heels coach Dean Smith was the only man who could hold Jordan under 20 points.
Jordan had to work his way into the starting lineup, Smith not being a believer in the ability of freshman to understand the total team concept. But Jordan, the kid who had been cut from his high school team as a sophomore, understood winning perfectly. Until he arrived, Smith, for all his fame and victories, had never won a national championship.
Jordan remedied that deficiency in the Super Dome in the spring of 1982. With 15 seconds left, Jordan showed why he’s the greatest when he nailed the jumper that gave North Carolina a 53-52 lead over a Georgetown team led by another freshman, Patrick Ewing. The Hoyas’ last chance to win was short-circuited when Fred Brown inexplicably passed the ball to his opponents, and the game was over.";
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i++] = new Array("","3. Earvin 'Magic' Johnson, Michigan State","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/z_Projects_in_progress/040224_College_hoops/johnson_magic.vmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "AP", "244", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i-1].body = "
The moment that defined the way Johnson would be perceived forevermore occurred not in college, but in high school at the tender age of 15.
Until then, the active and happy boy had been known as “June Bug” because of the way he was always jumping joyfully from one activity to the next. Then, in a high school game, he had 36 points, 18 rebounds, and 16 assists. In writing about the performance, a sportswriter dubbed him “Magic.” The name stuck.
A guard in a forward's body, Johnson revolutionized the point position. He stayed in his home town to play for Michigan State University, and the magic was there from the start. After going 10-17 without him the previous year, the 1977-78 Spartans improved to 25-5 and won their first Big Ten title in 19 years.
A year later, after being moved at mid-season from point guard to forward, he led the team to its first NCAA Championship, beating Larry Bird’s Indiana State team in the final. Johnson scored 24 and was the MVP of the Final Four.
Leaving school for the NBA after his sophomore year, Johnson teamed up with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the Lakers and, at the age of 20, led L.A. to the NBA Championship. In Game 6 against Philadelphia, with Jabbar out with an ankle injury, Johnson moved to center and scored 42 points to go with 15 rebounds in the win. He was the first rookie to be MVP of the NBA finals.";
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i++] = new Array("","4. Patrick Ewing, Georgetown","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/z_Projects_in_progress/040224_College_hoops/ewing_patrick.vmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "AP", "275", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i-1].body = "
No matter what you feel about his professional career, there is no question that when Patrick Ewing came out of Rindge and Latin High in Cambridge, Mass., in 1981, he was one of the most sought-after school-boy players ever. Nor did he disappoint when he started playing for John Thompson’s Georgetown Hoyas.
Ewing was the Big East Defensive Player of the Year, a big man who was quick and agile and blocked shots at a prodigious rate. He took the Hoyas to the NCAA Championship game — they lost on that shot by Jordan — that year and two more years. Favored to win four titles, the Hoyas won only one, over Houston in Ewing’s junior season.
But what Ewing is best remembered for is probably Hoya Paranoia, which he didn’t invent, but of which he was the grim, relentless, glowering symbol. The image was Thompson’s invention. He wouldn’t let the media talk to Ewing, perhaps leading the Ewing’s NBA career-long touchy relationship with the press. Thompson would squirrel his team away in hotels without announcing where they were staying, and brought the same image of menace to silver-and-black that the Raiders did in the NFL, only without the sense of fun.
The image and the Hoyas’ ferocious play made them feared and loathed, and much of the negative emotion was directed at Ewing, who had bananas thrown at him on the court in Madison Square Garden during a game against St. John's. Ewing never complained, though. He just got even, time and time again.";
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i++] = new Array("","5. Isiah Thomas, Indiana","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/z_Projects_in_progress/040224_College_hoops/thomas_isiah.vmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "AP file", "298", "186", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i-1].body = "
The youngest of nine children, Thomas was raised by his mother on the rough West Side of Chicago. Protected and guided by his elder siblings, he came to be possessed of a killer instinct second to none, saving his best performances for his biggest games. The recruiting battle for his services was won by Bobby Knight, who hadn’t yet become more famous for his temper than for his coaching.
Before he ever went to a college class, Thomas showed the nation what he could do when he played for a U.S. team coached by Knight in the 1979 Pan-American games in Puerto Rico — the same games in which Knight would get in trouble for an altercation with a Puerto Rican policeman.
Installed at the point, Thomas showed he had game beyond his years, scoring 21 points in the final and leading Team USA to victory.
He didn’t miss a beat once school began, starting the season at point guard and becoming the first freshman ever to be named All-Big Ten. The following year, Thomas led the Hoosiers to a National Championship. In the final game, a 63-50 romp over North Carolina, Thomas led all scorers with 23 points.
In an era when most collegians still played four years of college ball, Thomas left Indiana after his sophomore year and was drafted by the Pistons, which he would lead to two NBA championships.";
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i++] = new Array("","6. Chris Webber, Michigan","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/z_Projects_in_progress/040224_College_hoops/webber_chris.vmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "", "294", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i-1].body = "
He was the best of a great recruiting class that also included Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson. Together, they formed a quintet of freshman starters called the “Fab Five” and made it all the way to the final game of the 1992 Final Four before losing to Duke. A year later, they made it back to the Championship game, where Webber committed a mental error as famous in its own way as was Jordan’s championship-winning shot for North Carolina.
Webber and his teammates became famous as much for their baggy shorts, on-court styling, trash-talking, and chest-bumping as for their play, and the farther they went in the tournament, the more excitement — and merchandise sales — they generated.
For all his flash, though, in the two years he played before moving on to the pros, Webber and the Fab Five never equaled the success of the 1988-89 Michigan team, which beat Seaton Hall in the NCAA final to win the championship. Webber himself became the culprit in the 1992 game when, with Michigan trailing by two and time running out, he called a timeout that the Wolverines didn’t have and was assessed a technical. When the shots were made, the game was over.
That sin was overshadowed when it was alleged that a booster had paid large amounts of money to Webber and his teammates while they were playing. To forestall draconian NCAA penalties, the university forfeited all the games they won, while Webber was charged by a grand jury with perjury.";
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i++] = new Array("","7. Ralph Sampson, Virginia","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i-1].body = "
A Sports Illustrated cover boy before he ever played a game, the 7-foot-4, reed-thin Sampson was ballyhooed as perhaps the most athletic big man ever to play the game, a center who could dribble and pass and play a team game. He didn’t disappoint. Playing for a team that was among the ACC’s weaker sisters, he took the Cavaliers to an NIT championship in his freshman year.
He was remarkably consistent, averaging 11 boards and 15 points during his freshman season — nearly identical to O’Neal — and remained within a few points of that throughout his four years, the rebounds always between 11 and 12 and the points always between 15 and 20.
But even early on, there were whispers that Sampson was softer than a center should be, a small forward in a center’s body. Although the Cavaliers were 112-23 during his career, they advanced to the Final Four only once, in his sophomore year, and never won a title. Still, he was the national and ACC Player of the Year in each of his final three seasons and still holds Virginia records for rebounds and blocked shots.";
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i++] = new Array("","8. Shaquille O'Neal, LSU","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/z_Projects_in_progress/040224_College_hoops/oneal_shaquille.vmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "Bill Waugh", "AP", "258", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i-1].body = "
Hype follows big men like sea gulls follow fishing boats, and as it had been for Wilt Chamberlain, Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton, Ralph Sampson, and Patrick Ewing, so was it for Shaquille O'Neal. He was a mild-mannered and athletic giant who was a late bloomer as a high schooler, but he exploded under Dale Brown at LSU.
The first indication that he was special came in his third game, when he registered the first of 20 double-doubles in the 1989-90 season, with 13 points and 11 rebounds against McNeese State. But the true measure of what he would be came midway through the season when he hung a triple-double on Loyola-Marymount with 20 points, 24 boards, and an incredible 12 blocks.
Unlike most of the others on this list, O’Neal never played for a championship in the three years he remained with LSU before turning pro, but that’s more because he played for LSU, which was no longer among the elite teams, than because of anything he did. With zone defenses swarming over him like ants on a sugar spill, he dominated from his first year as few have before or since.";
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i++] = new Array("","9. Bobby Hurley, Duke","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/z_Projects_in_progress/040224_College_hoops/hurley_bobby.vmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "Ed Reinke", "AP", "267", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i-1].body = "
Hurley was the gym rat son of Bob Hurley, a legendary New Jersey high school coach. Slight of build, he was nonetheless the prototypical point guard, a player who made his teammates better with his court sense. By the time he finished his career, he would be counted among the best pure point guards ever to play the college game.
Highly recruited by Big East teams, including Seton Hall and St. John’s, which were less than an hour away from his Jersey City home, Hurley instead chose to go to Duke, where he became the foundation of Mike Krzyzewski’s great run of Final Fours and NCAA titles.
His freshman year was inconsistent in many ways, but he took Duke to the Final Four and an eventual showdown in the final with Jerry Tarkanian’s Runnin’ Rebels of Nevada-Las Vegas. Hurley’s biggest freshman moment wasn’t his best. UNLV’s quick and athletic players hounded him into numerous errors and Duke was all but run out of the building, losing 103-73.
But that loss made Hurley stronger, and he came back the next year and, in a scenario straight out of a Hollywood potboiler, found himself facing the Runnin’ Rebels again in the national semifinal. This time, Hurley didn’t falter and the Blue Devils went on to win the championship. In 1992, he and Duke won again, making him one of the few players to appear in three straight Final Fours.";
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i++] = new Array("","10. Dwayne Washington, Syracuse","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i-1].body = "
One of the greatest schoolyard legends in New York City history, \"The Pearl\" elected to play his college ball upstate in Syracuse instead of downtown at St. John’s, and he was an immediate sensation.
Washington didn’t have a classic basketball body. A bullet of a head sat on a thick torso and legs that seemed too short for the rest of him so that he more resembled a seal than a point guard. But he could spin and dish and drive the baseline for reverse lay-ins or pull up outside and shoot the J.
Orange fans felt he would be special, and they knew it for sure in late January of 1984, the second half of his freshman season. Boston College, then ranked 16th in the country, came to the Carrier Dome to play unranked Syracuse. The Orange fought the Eagles dead even in a fierce contest to the final ticks of the clock, but the Eagles were at the line with four seconds on the clock and an opportunity to break a 73-73 tie.
But the shooter missed the free throw and Washington swooped in to grab the carom then turned up court. Just before the horn sounded, he let fly from half-court and canned the shot — worth just two points then, but, when the team only needed one, who cared? The Dome went crazy and a legend was born. Nineteen years later, the memory of Washington’s shot is so fresh that it appears as the fan-voted top moment in Syracuse basketball.
Washington never made it in the pros; taken first by the New Jersey Nets, he didn’t have the size or the quickness for the pro game. But he was a great college player and one of the very best freshman guards ever. He not only set a freshman scoring record at Syracuse, he also became the first freshman ever to lead the Big East in assists."; spt_BKC_fab_freshmen[i++] = new Array("spt_BKC_Fab_Freshmen","VOTE: Best freshmen ever?","","","","", "lv2", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); // END editorial data