New Headline: Elite Freshmen Shine Brightly in AP All-USA Stars!
Duke forward Cameron Boozer, BYU star AJ Dybantsa and Darius Acuff Jr. of Arkansas arrived this season as part of what could go down as one of the most heralded freshman classes in college basketball history. They lived up to their billing, too, and were announced as first-team AP All-Americans.
Boozer was a unanimous choice among the 61 voters that select the weekly Top 25 for The Associated Press, following in the footsteps of Cooper Flagg, who also was a unanimous choice as a freshman for the Blue Devils last season. Dybantsa was a first-team pick on all but four ballots, while Acuff was a first-team selection on 47 of the ballots. Yaxel Lendeborg of Michigan and JT Toppin of Texas Tech rounded out the five-member first team.
“He’s all about his teammates,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said of Boozer, who was the AP’s national player of the week twice during the season. “He’s not about numbers. He’s about winning.
And I think when your best player’s that way, it becomes contagious, and it has a big effect on the rest of the group. ” Such a team-first attitude was on display by all the first-team picks; each helped their team to the NCAA Tournament. Boozer took the Blue Devils to ACC regular-season and tournament titles and helped them earn the top overall seed.
Lendeborg also helped the Wolverines earn a No. 1 seed. Arkansas is seeded fourth, Texas Tech seeded fifth and BYU seeded sixth.
Continue to the original source for the full article.