NIL hasn’t been all bad. Now that players can get paid, college basketball has effectively killed off any competing professional leagues, including the NBA’s G League Ignite experiment. That’s brought the best one-and-done players back to college, and this year’s class is legendary.
That includes Caleb Wilson, who was playing as well as any freshman in the country before the hand injury he suffered against Miami last week. Wilson was averaging 19.8 points and 9.4 rebounds a night while being one of the most impactful defensive players in the country. Yet, since he’s gone out, Wilson has been surpassed in ESPN’s Freshman of the Year rankings.
Caleb Wilson passed by Arkansas guard Darius Acuff in Freshman of the Year race
Now, Wilson technically held serve at No. 4 in Jeff Borzello and Myron Medcalf’s rankings, but with his absence, he was unable to capitalize on Kansas guard Darryn Peterson’s considerable fall from No. 2 to No. 9. Peterson may be the most talented player in the country, and is still the favorite to go No. 1 in this summer’s NBA Draft, but he’s be comically unreliable. He’s routinely pulled himself out of games under dubious circumstances, including missing a showdown with then No. 1 Arizona with “flu-like symptoms.”
There’s no chance that Peterson can win Freshman of the Year, and with his slide, the door would have opened for Wilson. Duke’s Cameron Boozer still holds the top spot ahead of AJ Dybantsa, but Wilson had every opportunity to surpass both down the stretch.
First, after UNC beat Duke in the first meeting, coming from 13 down in the second half, Wilson and the Tar Heels will have the chance to go for the sweep in the final game of the regular season.
Wilson carried UNC through the first half of the last meeting, putting on an absurd shot-making display. If he were able to go 2-0 against Boozer and the Blue Devils in the regular season, that would go a long way to swaying voters to his cause. That’s still on the table, but he may have too much ground to make up, and could struggle to get up to speed once he returns to 100 percent.
As for Dybantsa, BYU just lost its second-leading scorer, Richie Saunders, for the season with an ACL injury. That has forced Dybantsa to carry the offense, and against Arizona on Wednesday night, he put up 35 points. Still, it was the Cougars’ sixth loss in nine games as they continue to fade into Big 12 obscurity.
It’s not a guarantee that Wilson would have surged to the top spot amongst this freshman class, but his injury has cost him any chance, and allowed Arkansas guard Darius Acuff Jr. to capitalize with a 49-point outing against Alabama on Wednesday. Acuff jumped Wilson to the No. 3 spot in the rankings.