-Someone Might Be Gaining On You

For the first time in 10 years, the top preps can't skip right to the league. Since they have to stay around, why not make freshman year the best of their lives?

The cool kids might be back at Florida and Kansas, but the new kids are the ones getting all the attention elsewhere. One-and-done is the new black in college hoops, and plenty of teams are dressed to kill. Due to circumstances beyond their control, the members of one of the most talented classes in hard-court history will spend the next few months slumming in study hall, deferring an NBA payday for one shot at cutting down the nets in Atlanta.

The Kevin Garnett decade is over. The impact freshman is back.

And in some unlikely places. "The thing about our class is, we didn't all decide to go to Duke or UConn," says center Spencer Hawes, who fielded interest from both before choosing neither. North Carolina hoarded a top-10 trio—Ty Lawson, Brandan Wright and Wayne Ellington—but other future lottery picks scattered themselves throughout the country. Hawes, staying close to home, is at Washington. Forward Thaddeus Young chose Georgia Tech over UNC and Kentucky. Top-ranked small forward Kevin Durant settled in Texas. And the grand kiddie of them all, seven-foot Greg Oden, who easily could have been 2006's No. 1 pick, made the boldest move of all, instantly throwing Ohio State, traditionally an afterthought, into the middle of the national title discussion in the process.

Okay, so the superfrosh aren't on campus of their own volition. Who knows how many would be sitting through Psych 101 if the NBA hadn't closed its draft to anyone under 19 and whose graduating class hadn't been out of high school for a year? When asked about the new rule, the kids of the Class of '10 offer politically correct responses along the lines of "School will be good for me." But behind closed doors, they tell a different story. "If you snuck a microphone into any group of guys at the All-Star games last year," Hawes says, "you wouldn't have found anybody who liked the rule."

College coaches, of course, are all for it. They just wish they could get the kids to stay longer. Washington's Lorenzo Romar would like to see twoyear college commitments—surely for altruistic reasons. "A lot of kids want to run off and join a rock band or eat candy all day," Romar says, referring to the preps who want to move on as quickly as possible. "That doesn't mean it's good for them."

The urgency of the moment has staffs working feverishly to integrate frosh into their systems, hoping to maximize the time they have with them. Texas coach Rick Barnes had Kevin Durant in the weight room with a trainer all summer (Durant has gained more than 20 pounds). Barnes knows that if a one-year player is special enough to sign, he's special enough to invest whatever you have in him. "Every school faced the possibility that Durant could be one-and-done," he says. "And they all would have made room for him."

Barnes may not have to get too comfortable with the new way. Sonny Vaccaro—the sneaker rep with a penchant for advising the top prep stars not to go to college—is lobbying shoe companies to sponsor a traveling team of high school grads to tour Europe. And David Stern himself wants to set up a development academy for preps to ensure that they're well prepared for their inevitable jump to the league.

For now, though, rules are rules. If this year is one of a kind, not only for the influx of talent but for its dispersal … well, we may as well enjoy it.

But keep focused. Blink and you'll miss it.

MASTER OF THE HOUSE

The hazing of Spencer Hawes began a month before classes started and 3,000 miles from campus. At the Entertainer's Basketball Classic in Harlem's Rucker Park this summer, the emcee didn't care that in earlier times, Washington's newest Husky already would have been an NBA millionaire, or that he was Knick Nate Robinson's guest at the playground classic. Caring only about Hawes' look, the emcee dubbed him "You Rang." Let Hawes explain: "Like Lurch from The Addams Family. I'm not real proud of it."

He's not real bothered by it, either. Hawes may be seven feet tall, but what creepy butler could score inside with either hand, shoot the three, dish it like McNabb and run a 5:22 mile? "We want him to do everything," says coach Lorenzo Romar. "Score, rebound and defend. And he's such a good passer, plus we can run the offense through him." Romar, who got a head start with Hawes this summer as coach of the U18 national team, is sure Hawes can handle it all. "He's not arrogant," Romar says. "What he has is a fun confidence." One writer predicted that Hawes would be not only Pac-10 Freshman of the Year but Player of the Year. When Hawes met the guy, he said, "Man, you're putting a lot on my shoulders." But Hawes is quick to add, "I'll take it over the alternative: being unknown."

No chance of that. The UW staff is prepared to squeeze the most from its big man this season. They know that by next spring, the league will be ringing.

BABY BLUES

They follow the rules. They observe the decorum. This is the South, and players in Chapel Hill are expected to behave like gentlemen. Freshmen don't speak to the media until they're spoken to, and that's not until they've played a game. Started with Dean Smith. And if it was good enough for Jordan …

But there's no gag order on Tar Heels fans, and they won't shut up about their freshman ballers. Can you blame them? Just look at the YouTube videos. Whirligig point Ty Lawson spinning through the lane, setting up Oak Hill teammates for slams and even throwing one down himself (he's 5'11"). Two-guard Wayne Ellington draining jumper after jumper on his way to 31 points in a junior national game. Power forward Brandan Wright rejecting a shot, dribbling out on the break, dishing to a Brentwood (Tenn.) Academy teammate and getting it back for a dunk. "They're all competitive," says Tyler Hansbrough, Carolina's star soph forward. "They all challenge us."

And if Roy Williams has his way, they will soon be challenging everyone for a national title. Hansbrough leads a returning cast that includes forward Reyshawn Terry and guards Bobby Frasor and Wes Miller, but the three rookies, all McDonald's All-Americans, bring a muchneeded depth to last season's surprise team. Although Wright's length and potential would have made him the highest NBA pick of the trio last summer, Lawson should make the first impact this fall. "He's really quick," says Hansbrough, who adds that comparisons to former-Heel/current-Bobcat Raymond Felton are on the mark. "He pushes it up the floor. He'll fit in right away with our fast-paced game."

With so many fresh legs, Williams will surely pick up the pace even more. And that means the buttoned-up Heels will be dressing down foes before too long.

TOAST OF TEXAS

Sometimes youth isn't wasted on the young. The freshmen on the Texas basketball team are definitely kids (trading tips on acne treatments during commercial breaks of Martin) who definitely act their age (trading rips during games of Madden). But they're also wise enough to have a pretty good idea of what they're in for this season, when as many as five of them will be on the floor at once. "We'll have some bumps," says center Matt Hill, who's 6'9" (7'1" if you count his Afro). You get the feeling that won't stop this crew from enjoying every minute, though.

The new platoon is led by Kevin Durant, a 6'9" jumping jack who just might give Greg Oden a run for No. 1 pick status next spring. Think T-Mac with midterms. Had Durant been eligible for the draft this past June, says coach Rick Barnes, he'd have gone ahead of Longhorns star LaMarcus Aldridge, who, you may remember, was taken second. Versatile enough to play anywhere, Durant is undeniably the jewel of Austin's newest class. "Taking nothing away from LaMarcus," Barnes says. "Kevin is the best recruit we've ever had."

He's a decent lobbyist, too. When he went shopping last season, he noticed UT was stocked with players who were imminently heading to the NBA. He used the impending vacancies as a potent lure to get fellow prep stars to join him. There was no shortage of guys who were willing to follow. Before long, the Horns had hooked a McDonald's All-American point guard, D.J. Augustin, a lateblooming big in Hill and explosive swingman Damion James, after he was released from his letter of intent by Oklahoma.

Add to the mix 6'10", 315-pound center Dexter Pittman, shooting guard Harrison Smith and defense-first Justin Mason ("He's going to be like Royal Ivey," says Durant, referring to a past Longhorn stopper), and there are the makings of a serious bunch. Right now, though, they're more a fun bunch than anything else.

"We're like brothers," says James, a multitalented, multitatted jokester. "We do everything together." From classrooms to locker rooms to dorm rooms, the Romper Room 7 have moved as one since alighting on campus in June. Durant's new buds have smoothed his relocation from Maryland. "At first I was homesick," says the 225-pounder. "But when I went home for a visit, I was Texas sick." Once Durant and his classmates grow up, Texas will be just plain sick.

Which freshman will grow up fastest?

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