By Andrew Rovit ‘22, Sports Writer

Zion Williamson. Many people have heard this name because he is the dunking phenom who had over 1.4 million followers on Instagram before he even committed to play college basketball. The Spartanburg, South Carolina native is 6’7” and 285 pounds. Just to put that in perspective, if he were in the NBA, he would be the second-heaviest player. Also, at that weight, he is just a few pounds lighter than the average Duke Football offensive lineman. His athleticism and agility for someone his size are unheard of, making him an incredible player. Some people are even saying that he could be a top five basketball player of all time. Duke’s basketball success is not just about Williamson, though; they have five phenomenal freshmen players that have some people thinking that they are a better freshmen class than the famous University of Michigan’s Fab 5 in 1991.

Coming into the season, RJ Barrett was the number one college basketball recruit, even ahead of known star Zion Williamson. RJ was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, but in his early high school basketball days, he decided to play basketball at Monteverde Academy in Florida. Some notable alumni of Monteverde Academy include NBA stars Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and D’Angelo Russell. Many think that Barrett will be a top-three pick in the NBA Draft later this year because of his ability to drive the basketball and finish under pressure. He is one of the many key parts of the Duke basketball team.

Cam Reddish is another amazing freshman that Duke basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, recruited to join this loaded class. Cam is from Westtown School, a school just outside Philadelphia. He is known for being a lethal three-point shooter to help balance the physicality of RJ and Zion. But he is just as good as his two more celebrated teammates with his interior moves. Cam was ranked as the third-best college basketball recruit, so by landing RJ, Zion, and Cam, Duke controlled the three best recruits in the world. Even so, they got more talented recruits as well.

Tre Jones is another great athlete and an amazing point guard from Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is also the brother of former Duke star and Minnesota Timberwolves PG, Tyus Jones. Tyus played his lone season for the Blue Devils in 2014-15 in which he brought a national championship home to Durham and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. Tyus’ previous success at Duke was instrumental in Tre’s decision to attend Duke. Tyus even borrowed his teammate’s private plane to fly from Los Angeles to Indianapolis to watch Tre’s first Duke game and then flew back to LA for his NBA game the next day. Tre possesses a passing ability which is key in the success of the other freshmen players.

Joey Baker, from Fayetteville, NC, is the forgotten star freshman on this loaded Duke roster. He is still supposed to be in high school, but after seeing the talent in this group of freshmen, he reclassed to leave high school early and join the Duke team. Many college experts think that he should redshirt this season which would disqualify him from playing this season and give him an extra year of college basketball eligibility after his senior year. Though he is not made a decision yet, he is not as well known due to the fact that he is the only Blue Devil to not play yet this season. This is a result of inexperience and lack of the needed size to play competitively in the NCAA. Once he is ready to play for Duke, he will be contributing similarly to Cam Reddish and Alex O’Connell as three-point specialists.

After seeing this unbelievable freshmen class, many fans wonder, how can this team play its other players? Krzyzewski plays about ten players each game including the four freshmen mentioned and other sophomore and junior stars including Javin Delaurier, Marques Bolden, Jack White, and Jordan Goldwire. After hearing about and seeing flashes of this amazing team, fans have questioned: could this be the best college basketball team ever? That is highly debated, but it cannot be debated how talented this team is.