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Several NCAA hopefuls have freshman outlook

National champions in college basketball have come in all shapes, sizes and ages in recent years.
Since 2000, veteran teams such as Michigan State and Maryland have snipped the nets, but so, too, have clubs laden with underclassmen such as Syracuse in 2003 and Florida, last year's winner.

This season's NCAA tournament features a boatload of outstanding freshmen who figure to have a big say about who gets to the Final Four. A new NBA rule mandating that a player be out of high school for a year before becoming draft-eligible has many would-be pros playing in college this season.

Among the freshman stars who make this rookie class one of the best in years: Ohio State's Greg Oden (61.4% field goal percentage) and Mike Conley Jr. (6.3 assists a game); Texas' Kevin Durant, the nation's fourth-leading scorer (25.6 points a game) and D.J. Augustin (6.7 assists a game); and North Carolina's Brandan Wright (66% from the field) and Ty Lawson (5.5 assists a game).

Several others came on strong as the season wound down.

Included are Arkansas' Patrick Beverley, who helped the Razorbacks reach the Southeastern Conference final; Oregon's Tajuan Porter, who helped the Ducks to the Pacific-10 title; Villanova's Scottie Reynolds, the Big East rookie of the year; and Davidson's Stephen Curry, the son of former NBA player Dell Curry.

Durant is well aware of how another fabulous freshman, Syracuse's Carmelo Anthony, willed the Orange to the title.

"I've seen Carmelo take them all the way as a freshman," he says. "He paved the way for all the freshmen to lead their teams to a championship, so I really look up to him."

See more at www.usatoday.com