How have Kentucky’s freshmen stacked up with other top recruits in college basketball?

This hasn’t exactly been the “Year of the Freshman” in college basketball.

A Kentucky program that often relies on newcomers to thrive is instead leaning largely on upperclassmen, and the same can be said for pretty much every other team in the country.

While the NBA Draft boards are still heavy on freshmen, not many are producing at a truly elite level in the college game.

A few days ago, longtime college basketball analyst Jeff Goodman posted the results of a survey asking 30 of the sport’s insiders to make their picks for the top players in the nation so far this season.

A total of 25 players were mentioned and slotted, in order of votes received, into five different All-American teams. Only two freshmen were on the entire list.

Alabama’s Brandon Miller was third in the overall voting and part of the first team. Baylor’s Keyonte George was 19th in voting and placed on the fourth team. And that was it.

Other than Miller, every other player named to the first, second and third teams in that survey were seniors or juniors. Of the 25 players mentioned, 20 were upperclassmen. (Purdue junior Zach Edey is the clear national player of the year favorite).

So, it’s been the older guys — not the star recruits — who have carried the sport this season. Here’s a look at how some of the top prospects from that 2022 recruiting class have fared in their college careers, starting with the Wildcats.

Kentucky’s freshmen

The UK recruiting class of 2022 featured four players from the high school ranks: McDonald’s All-American stars Chris Livingston and Cason Wallace, and under-the-radar prospects Ugonna Onyenso and Adou Thiero.

Cason Wallace: The standout of UK’s class so far, Wallace enters the weekend averaging 12.3 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.0 steals per game. He’s third on UK’s team in points (behind Oscar Tshiebwe and Antonio Reeves) and second in minutes (behind Tshiebwe). He’s also fourth in the Southeastern Conference in steals, seventh in assists and tied for seventh in three-point percentage (40.8). Wallace’s role has also grown as the season has gone on, and he’s now the team’s starting point guard. He has a chance to become the Calipari-era leader in steals per game. His current average of 2.04 is just off first-place Nerlens Noel’s record of 2.08 steals per game, and his three-point percentage would rank just outside of the Calipari era top 10 (Devin Booker is currently 10th at 41.1 percent). Wallace has been named the SEC freshman of the week each of the past two weeks and scored 24 points against Arkansas on Tuesday night.

Chris Livingston: One of only two Cats to play in all 24 games this season — Reeves is the other — Livingston has become part of Calipari’s starting lineup and is buying into a role that places more value on gritty play than personal stats. He’s averaging 5.6 points and 3.0 rebounds in 17.7 minutes per game. Those numbers aren’t going to approach any all-time UK freshman top 10 lists, but Livingston’s playing time has been higher than a few other recent McDonald’s All-American freshmen, and his current role is not one that lends itself to gaudy stats. He was the No. 12 recruit in the final 247Sports composite rankings for 2022, and — of the top 25 players on that list — Livingston is 20th in points per game.

Ugonna Onyenso: Mentioned as a possible redshirt when he joined the program in late August, the 7-footer from Nigeria instead played immediately and has flashed immense potential as a shot-blocker. Despite playing two or fewer minutes in eight of his 15 games, he still leads the Cats with 1.1 blocked shots per game. Going into the weekend, he had played only four minutes total since Jan. 7.

Adou Thiero: A player without a star ranking when UK extended a scholarship offer last spring, Thiero has also shown plenty of upside during his time on the court, though his role has lessened greatly in recent weeks as Calipari has shortened the rotation. Thiero is averaging 2.6 points and 2.0 rebounds in 10.6 minutes per game, but he’s played in only 10 games this season. Like Onyenso, he is viewed as a longer-term player for Kentucky’s program.

Nation’s best freshmen

Any discussion of the nation’s top freshmen begins with Brandon Miller, who leads projected-No. 1 seed Alabama with 19.0 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. He’s shooting 44.4 percent from three-point range and is the nation’s leading scorer among all freshmen. He’s also leading the SEC in points and is tied for third in the league in both rebounds per game and three-point percentage. He was the No. 14 overall recruit in the final 247Sports composite rankings for 2022.

Every prominent list of the country’s top freshmen has Miller in the No. 1 spot. To illustrate just how impactful he’s been this season, Miller is the only freshman mentioned in the KenPom player of the year standings (fifth overall). He’s seventh in the Torvik player of the year ratings. The next-best freshman on that list is UCF forward Taylor Hendricks at No. 37 overall. Miller is also the only freshman in the top 75 nationally in scoring.

The most recent CBS Sports ranking of the game’s top freshmen — heading into this weekend — had Duke’s Kyle Filipowski at No. 2, Kansas guard Gradey Dick at No. 3, Baylor’s Keyonte George at No. 4 and Ohio State’s Brice Sensabaugh at No. 5.

Filipowski, the No. 4 recruit in the 2022 class, leads the Blue Devils with 15.5 points and 9.3 rebounds per game.

Dick, the No. 22 recruit in the class, is averaging 14.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game, shooting 42.5 percent from three-point range for a national title contender.

George, the No. 8 recruit in the class and a major UK recruiting target at one point, leads Baylor with 17.5 points and is also averaging 4.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game. He’s one of the most dynamic scorers in the country and plays for a team likely to be a high seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Sensabaugh — a 6-foot-6 wing — has been one of the most surprising stars out of the 2022 class. He was No. 65 in the final 2022 rankings but is leading the Buckeyes with 17.3 points per game, while shooting 46.6 percent from long range. Among NCAA freshmen, only Miller and George are averaging more points per game. Alabama and Georgia Tech also received official visits during Sensabaugh’s recruitment.

Other freshmen often mentioned among the standouts of their class include Cason Wallace (10th in the final 2022 rankings), Arkansas’ Anthony Black (17th), Houston’s Jarace Walker (11th), South Carolina’s GG Jackson (sixth), UCF’s Taylor Hendricks (67th), Indiana’s Jalen Hood-Schifino (23rd) and UConn’s Donovan Clingan (56th).

Other top 2022 recruits

Many of the top prospects from the class of 2022 have been hampered by injuries, beginning with Arkansas guard Nick Smith Jr., who ended the recruiting cycle as the nation’s top-ranked player.

Smith has played in just five games due to what has been described as a knee issue — even leaving the team for a few weeks to rehab elsewhere — though Razorbacks Coach Eric Musselman said Wednesday that Smith has now returned to practice and could be back on the court relatively soon.

No. 2 recruit Dariq Whitehead (Duke), No. 9 recruit Amari Bailey (UCLA) and No. 13 recruit Cam Whitmore (Villanova) have also missed considerable time due to injury.

Of the top 20 prospects from the 2022 class, former No. 1-ranked player Dereck Lively II has been the lowest scorer, with just 4.7 points in 17.8 minutes per game. Lively was arguably Kentucky’s biggest recruiting target at one point in the cycle. It should be noted that the 7-1 center has always been viewed as a longer-term, high-upside prospect, however, and Lively is averaging 2.4 blocked shots per game, which is 11th nationally and tops among freshmen.

The NBA Draft

Even with upperclassmen dominating the college game, projecting the next level is still all about the young guys.

The latest 2023 NBA mock draft from ESPN dropped last weekend, and every single player in the lottery was either a college freshman or a freshman-aged prospect playing elsewhere.

In fact, four of the top five players were guys who could technically be playing college basketball as freshmen but chose different routes to the NBA.

French phenom Victor Wembanyama is viewed as a generational talent and projected as the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft. Former high school star Scoot Henderson is widely regarded as the No. 2 pick. (Henderson had a UK offer but chose to play two seasons in the G League rather than attend college). Overtime Elite twins Amen and Ausar Thompson are ranked third and fifth, respectively, by ESPN. And Brandon Miller currently holds the fourth spot in the mock draft, the only college player in the top five.

The rest of the lottery: Nick Smith Jr. (No. 6), Jarace Walker (No. 7), Keyonte George (No. 8), Cam Whitmore (No. 9), Anthony Black (No. 10), Gradey Dick (No. 11), Cason Wallace (No. 12), Kyle Filipowski (No. 13) and Michigan’s Jett Howard (No. 14).

The first non-freshman player from the college ranks in the ESPN mock draft is Pepperdine sophomore Maxwell Lewis at No. 17. The first upperclassman is Iowa junior Kris Murray at No. 18. And the first senior is Houston’s Marcus Sasser at No. 31, the first pick of the second round.

Kentucky senior Oscar Tshiebwe — the reigning national player of the year — is projected by ESPN as the No. 58 and final pick in this year’s NBA Draft.

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