5 Breakout College Basketball Freshmen to Watch in 2025
Five college basketball freshmen making immediate impact outside power conferences: Lewis Walker, Alex Wilkins, Larry Johnson and more complete analysis.
In this current era of college basketball, we are seeing freshman come in a make a larger impact than ever for programs that fall outside of the power conferences. With NIL and the transfer portal, the larger schools are gobbling up the high-tier players at the lower levels, which opens up the opportunity for freshman to earn a large amount of playing time in year one.
Some are coming straight into these programs, while some turn down the opportunity to go to a larger school, but risk sitting on the bench. Others go to those larger schools and redshirt, then transfer in search of an opportunity to prove themselves.
Let’s dive into five freshman that are making massive impacts for their programs and building a brand for themselves in year one!
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Lewis Walker (6’6, 230lbs)
Lewis Walker is flying completely under-the-radar at North Carolina A&T as he is quietly one of the best freshman not just outside of the power conference ranks, but in all of college basketball.
Walker originally committed to UMass over many offers from strong programs including Missouri, Towson, Richmond, Arkansas State, George Mason, High Point, Wake Forest, and many more. After redshirting his first season, he entered the portal and committed to North Carolina A&T, which coincidentally was the first Division I school to give in an offer back in June of 2021.
Now, through 10 games he is averaging 18.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists while shooting 51.5% overall and 26.9% from three-point. He features a 128.5 offensive rating which is in the top-190 in the country, while his 66.1% true shooting percentage is in the top-80.
Walker has emerged as one of the best free throw shooters in all of college basketball. He has a 83.7 free throw rate which is 12th overall, he draws 7.4 fouls per game which is in the top-35, and he is shooting a remarkable 91.7% from the line which is in the top-50.
Unfortunately, Lewis Walker did leave the game against UNC Greensboro with a leg injury and sat out against non-division I Mid Atlantic Christian. We’ll see how long he has to sit out, but regardless he is going to be skyrocketing in popularity with the renown he’s gained through just ten games.
Alex Wilkins (6’5, 175lbs)
Coming out of high school, Alex Wilkins was a hot commodity. He held offers from a number of strong non-power conference teams including: Charleston, UC Riverside, Duquesne, Iona, Davidson, Chattanooga, Towson, Miami Ohio, and many more.
The 6’5 guard ultimately committed to Furman and he hasn’t missed a beat making his presence known. He’s averaging 16.8 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 4.8 assists while shooting 46.5% overall and 28.6% from three-point. Across 13 games, he’s scored less than ten points just twice. He’s so strong offensively that he is sixth in the nation with possession usage and he takes 33.6% of the Paladins’ shots when he’s on the court which is in the top-15.
He’s not just offensively a weapon, but he is a tremendous playmaker. He has a 35.5 assist rate which is in the top-40 compared to a 22.7 turnover rate. The ratio comes out to 4.8 vs 3.8 assists to turnovers. I’d love to see him cut those turnovers down more, but has he continues to develop I have no doubt it will.
Against the tougher competition, he’s continued to lead the team. Against Illinois State he finished with 25 points and five assists, then he had 26 points, four rebounds, and three assists against Richmond.
The Paladins are going to be competing at the top of the SoCon this season as they’ve won eight out of their last nine games, and Alex Wilkins has that flair to him that he could pull off a strong performance in the NCAA Tournament if they reach the Big Dance.
Larry Johnson (6’4, 200lbs)
People were questioning what the McNeese Cowboys were going to look like without Will Wade at the helm and Bill Armstrong has the Cowboys looking like there was no change as they are 10-2 as of the publication of this article. A large reason for that is freshman Larry Johnson.
Larry Johnson originally was a Creighton Bluejay, but he redshirt his freshman season and hit the portal where he ended up at McNeese. Coming out of high school he was ranked 57th overall in his class and was listed as a four-star recruit. He held offers from a ton of power conference programs, including: Illinois, St. John’s, Penn State, Missouri, and many more.
Johnson is averaging 16.6 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.5 assists while shooting 59.7% from the floor overall and 26.1% from beyond the arc. His 132.1 offensive rating is in the top-110, while his 27.6% possession usage is in the top-150. While he’s on the court, he’s taking 30.2% of the shots for the Cowboys which is also in the top-100.
While he’s not a great three-point shooter, he is a strong rebounder which makes up from his lack of shooting from deep. He has a 10.8% offensive rebounding percentage which is in the top-220 and a 13.5% defensive rebounding percentage.
For someone that was so highly regarded coming out of high school, it’s no surprise that Larry Johnson is having a ton of success in year one. He’s a prime example of why we will continue to see strong incoming freshman head to conferences that are outside of the power conferences to find playing time to held their development and brand recognition.
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Gavin Sykes (6’4, 195lbs)
Sykes was unranked in high school per 247 sports, but he had some strong offers from California, Vermont, Sam Houston, Montana, and others. ESPN did have him ranked as a three-star and the 23rd best prospect coming out of California.
Through 13 games, Sykes is averaging 17.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.1 assists while shooting 46.8% from the floor and 35.4% from beyond the arc. He currently has a 119.9 offensive rating, a 24.6% possession usage rate, and a 53.6% effective field goal percentage. He’s taking 32.6% of the shots when on the floor for Long Beach State which is 30th in the nation. Notably, he has just a 3.8 turnover rate which is ninth overall and he is committing less than one foul per game which is seventh in the nation.
Long Beach State is just 3-10, but Sykes hasn’t stalled once. He’s finished with less than ten points just once in the opener against San Diego State where he played just eight minutes. He finished with 19 points against No. 4 Iowa State, 20 points against UC San Diego, 30 points against San Diego, 24 points against UC Santa Barbara, and so on. Even with other teams layering their defenses against him, he’s finding a way to averaging close to 20 points per game. In fact, over his last six games he is averaging 23.7 points.
There’s a high percentage chance that you’ve never heard of Gavin Sykes, but you’ll be hearing more and more of him over the next few years as he develops and becomes household name.
Michael Cooper (6’3, 185lbs)
Michael Cooper was under-recruited coming into his first season in college basketball, but he’s exploded onto the scene in year one. He held offers from Chattanooga, Coastal Carolina, FIU, Eastern Michigan, Davidson, IU Indy, Bellarmine, Eastern Illinois, and Le Moyne.
Through his first 13 games, he is averaging 15.9 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists and nearly one steal per game while shooting 48.8% overall and 39.4% from three-point. He has a 122.8 offensive rating and a 25% possession usage. He’s taking 29.8% of the shots when he is on the court which is in the top-110 in the country. His 59.1% effective field goal percentage and 61.3% true shooting percentage are both in the top-250 as well.
Over his last four games, he is averaging 21 points, 5.3 rebounds, three assists, and 1.3 steals. During this stretch, they played a couple of tough teams in Miami Ohio and Marshall.
Wright State is just 6-7, but they are going to be sneaky in the Horizon League. They are already 2-1 in conference play with wins over Eastern Michigan and Green Bay while taking a one point loss to Youngstown State on the road. Cooper scored at least 18 points in each of these three games. He is well on his way to winning some award as a freshman and becoming a name that we are going to be seeing floated around quite a bit.