Duke’s Cameron Boozer joins Cooper Flagg on list of freshmen to win player of the year
Son of NBA star Carlos Boozer led Blue Devils to 35 wins
Other freshmen winners went No 1 or No 2 in NBA draft
Cameron Boozer was at the center of everything for Duke this season.
The 6ft 9in forward proved tough enough to score through physical play. Rangy enough to space the floor and shoot from outside. Deft enough as a passer to find teammates, whether against constant double teams coming for him as the top name on every scouting report or while running the entire offense from up top.
“You just want to affect winning in whatever way you can,” Boozer said.
The high-end NBA prospect did that all season for a team who won 35 games, reached No 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, claimed the top overall seed for March Madness and reached the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight. Now he’s the AP’s men’s college basketball national player of the year, only the fifth freshman to earn the honor and the second in a row for a Duke program that keeps adding to the longest list of winners in the country. Sarah Strong of UConn was named the women’s player of the year.
