Big Ten Frosh Among Nation’s Best

Nik Stauskas may have just made another 3.

John Gasaway of Basketball Prospectus has a post up at ESPN Insider (subscription) listing the top 25 freshmen in college basketball.

Here are the Big Ten guys mentioned, along with a snippet of his comments:

No. 3: Nik Stauskas, Michigan: “His numbers will correct downward, but the larger point is that for a second consecutive season, John Beilein has a freshman who arrived in Ann Arbor as a lightly regarded recruit, and who then promptly began stomping on opponents like Mothra. (Last time the freshman in question was named Trey Burke, …).”

No. 5: Sam Dekkar, Wisconsin: “Gordon Hayward? Robbie Hummel? What’s the right comparison for a 6-7 guy who can put the ball on the floor, hit 3s, and find the open man? Dekker comes off the bench for Bo Ryan and averages 20 minutes a game, which you could argue is a little low for being this high on the list. Then again, not many freshmen averaging 20 minutes have been called a ‘phenomenon.’”

No. 9: Glenn Robinson III, Michigan: “Robinson is a 6-6 wing who favors 2s over 3s by about a 3-to-1 margin, and from a player who is hitting on 60 percent of his attempts inside the arc, that’s a wise shot distribution. Like Stauskas, he lacerates opposing defenses that are already trying to contend with the likes of Burke and Tim Hardaway.”

No. 15: Gary Harris, Michigan State: “On defense, Harris guards the opposing team’s best perimeter player, and on offense he personally accounts for a (far) higher percentage of Michigan State’s shots during his minutes than any other Spartan. It’s easy to say Harris’ 62 percent shooting inside the arc is a big boost for the offense (and it is), but the freshman’s most valuable quality may be that he, unlike many of his teammates, doesn’t turn the ball over.”

No. 18: Yogi Ferrell, Indiana: “Meet this list’s only pass-first point guard. On a team that already had Cody Zeller, Christian Watford, and Jordan Hulls before he arrived, Ferrell doesn’t have to supply any additional scoring punch. All Ferrell has to do is facilitate and take care of the ball in Tom Crean’s up-tempo offense. That’s exactly what he’s done.”