SAN DIEGO – No other freshman class in America has scored more points this season than the five active freshmen on the Arizona men’s basketball team. They have combined for 1,461 points, which leads the nation heading into the NCAA Tournament this week, according to data provided by USA TODAY Sports by Stats Perform.
Which is pretty darn remarkable for two big reasons:
1. This team is on fire. The Wildcats (32-2) have won nine consecutive games and will start the tournament here as a No. 1 seed against Long Island University on Friday, March 20.
2. This kind of youth movement goes against conventional wisdom these days. Isn’t older supposed to be better in the era of wide-open player transfers?
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Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd instead took a different approach than many others last year, veering away from the transfer portal, where more experienced players typically seek to earn more money from their names, images and likenesses (NIL).
“We were able to get involved with some freshmen that we felt could be just big-time impact players in college basketball, no matter what year or what class they were,” Lloyd told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday.
He had a strategy for it, as he explained Thursday.
Why Arizona built its roster this way
One reason Lloyd built his roster this way was because didn’t think there were going to be many “quality” transfers available in the portal.
Money was a factor, too.
“I thought it was going to be overpriced,” Lloyd said.
Then there was the Duke factor. Duke beat Arizona twice last year with several freshman players, including future No. 1 NBA draft pick Cooper Flagg. Duke even started three freshmen in the Final Four last year while other Final Four teams started mostly seniors. Lloyd noticed.
By the end of the season, Lloyd said the Blue Devils didn’t seem young.
“I just thought they were really good.”
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A Texas Christian University Horned Frogs cheerleader practices before the game during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on March 19, 2026 in Greenville, SC.
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Nebraska Cornhuskers fans cheer after defeating the Troy Trojans during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Paycom Center on March 19, 2026 in Oklahoma City.
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The Ohio State Buckeyes cheerleaders perform in the second half during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on March 19, 2026 in Greenville, SC.
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A view of Buddy the Street Dog as Queens University of Charlotte Royals guard Yoav Berman talks to the media during a practice session ahead of the first round of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Enterprise Center in St. Louis on March 19, 2026.
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The High Point Panthers band performs prior to a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament against the Wisconsin Badgers at Moda Center on March 19, 2026 in Portland, Or.
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High Point Panthers fans cheer prior to a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament against the Wisconsin Badgers at Moda Center on March 19, 2026 in Portland, Or.
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The Wisconsin Badgers cheerleaders preform during the first half of a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament against the High Point Panthers at Moda Center on March 19, 2026 in Portland, Or.
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The South Florida Bulls mascot performs during the second half against the Louisville Cardinals during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Keybank Center on March 19, 2026 in Buffalo, NY.
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The Texas Christian University Horned Frogs cheerleaders perform in the first half during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on March 19, 2026 in Greenville, SC.
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The Troy Trojans mascot dances on the floor during the second half against the Nebraska Cornhuskers during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Paycom Center on March 19, 2026 in Oklahoma City.
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The UCF Knights band performs during a practice session ahead of the first round of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Xfinity Mobile Arena on March 19, 2026 in Philadelphia.
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Nebraska Cornhuskers cheerleaders perform during the second half against the Troy Trojans during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Paycom Center on March 19, 2026 in Oklahoma City.
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A Wisconsin Badgers cheerleader performs during the first half of a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament against the High Point Panthers at Moda Center on March 19, 2026 in Portland, Or.
The risks of a freshman-heavy roster at Arizona
Arizona lists seven total freshman players on its roster of 16, including Bryce James, son of LeBron, who is redshirting this year but still drums up interest in his team by having the fourth-biggest social-media following in Division I basketball as of this month, according to Opendorse.
It’s the kind of roster construction that is reminiscent of a bygone era in college sports — recruiting big freshman classes, developing those players and sometimes even redshirting some of them. The problem for Lloyd is that it comes with risk.
The good ones will leave for the NBA after a year. Others might even transfer away in pursuit of more money.
Such freshman-heavy teams also often don’t work out this well, unless they include superstar NBA prospects like Duke freshman forward Cameron Boozer or Arkansas freshman guard Darius Acuff.
Consider the 13 teams that invested eight roster spots or more in freshman players this season, all more than Arizona, according to Stats Perform. Only two of those 13 earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament — SMU and Queens University. New Haven listed the most freshmen on its roster this season with 11 but finished with a 14-17 record.
Lloyd searches for top players overseas and has eight players from other countries, including freshman forward Ivan Kharchenkov from Germany, Aristode from The Netherlands and 6-11 freshman forward Sidi Gueye from Senegal.
Lloyd also has five transfer players, including senior guard Jaden Bradley, who came to Arizona from Alabama in 2023.
But 49.9% of the team’s scoring has come from five freshmen, who were part of a recruiting class that ranked No. 2 nationally behind fellow No. 1-seed Duke. These Arizona freshmen have scored even more than the four freshman contributors at Duke, which ranked second nationally in freshman scoring before the tournament with 1,417 points, more than half of which comes from Boozer.
The difference is Arizona’s freshmen aren’t projected to be high-lottery NBA draft prospects like Boozer. The Wildcats instead spread it around more between freshman guard Brayden Burries (15.9 points per game), freshman forward Koa Peat (13.6) and Kharchenkov (10.1).
Now comes the NCAA Tournament.
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Actors, athletes and icons: Famous alumni from every NCAA men’s tournament team
University of Akron: Yvette Nicole Brown, Alexa Bliss, Dominique Moceanu, The Black Keys and George Wallace
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Actors, athletes and icons: Famous alumni from every NCAA men’s tournament team
University of Akron: Yvette Nicole Brown, Alexa Bliss, Dominique Moceanu, The Black Keys and George Wallace
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Actors, athletes and icons: Famous alumni from every NCAA men’s tournament team
California Baptist University: Brent Kutzle, Dustin-Leigh Konzelman, Kay Warren, Rick Warren and Marissa Figueroa (not pictured)
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Actors, athletes and icons: Famous alumni from every NCAA men’s tournament team
University of Hawaii: Bette Midler, Larry Beil, Jason Elam, Ken Niumatalolo and Barack Obama, Sr.
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Actors, athletes and icons: Famous alumni from every NCAA men’s tournament team
High Point University: Austin Dillon, Tubby Smith, Donna Fargo, Cody Allen and Charles F. Price (not pictured)
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Actors, athletes and icons: Famous alumni from every NCAA men’s tournament team
Howard University: Chadwick Boseman, Thurgood Marshall, Anthony Anderson, Taraji P. Henson and Gus Johnson
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Actors, athletes and icons: Famous alumni from every NCAA men’s tournament team
Kennesaw State University: Bron Breakker, Jasmine Burke, ReesaTeesa, Larry Nelson and theRadBrad (not pictured)
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Actors, athletes and icons: Famous alumni from every NCAA men’s tournament team
University of Maryland, Baltimore County: Kathleen Turner, Duff Goldman, Stavros Halkias, Young Mazino and Scott Seiss
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Actors, athletes and icons: Famous alumni from every NCAA men’s tournament team
University of Pennsylvania: Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Elizabeth Banks, John Legend and Maury Povich
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Actors, athletes and icons: Famous alumni from every NCAA men’s tournament team
Prairie View A&M University: Megan Thee Stallion, Mr. T., Loni Love, Terry Ellis and Cecil Cooper
How will freshmen handle this environment?
Arizona senior forward Tobe Awaka had simple answer for this.
“Don’t try and reinvent the wheel,” he said Thursday at Viejas Arena in San Diego.
Lloyd doesn’t see a problem.
“I haven’t sensed that our freshmen don’t know what this is about,” Lloyd said. “And I told our freshmen, ‘Hey, you guys won a state championship?’ Yeah. Then let’s go win another state championship. And the way you win a state championship, you win a state championship game by game. This just happens to have the word ‘national’ in front of it. But it’s no different approach.
Ranking college basketball teams with most points by freshmen in 2025-26
As of March 17 in Division I, according to Stats Perform:
