The current college basketball class of freshmen is a special one, led by talents such as Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, Duke forward Cameron Boozer, BYU forward AJ Dybantsa, North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson, and Arizona forward Koa Peat. But TNT Sports’ Jamal Mashburn got a bit carried away with a comment praising the class during Saturday’s studio coverage of Big 12 basketball.
“I look at last year’s No. 1 overall pick in Cooper Flagg,” Mashburn said. “If I was to put him on that list, he would be sixth.”
“You would put Cooper Flagg behind all five of those?” TNT Sports host Adam Lefkoe asked, sounding stunned.
“Behind all five of them,” Mashburn, a former NBA All-Star and college basketball All-American, reiterated. “Just from a skillset and also elevation level of where they can get to. I personally think Caleb Wilson, he’s going to take a humongous jump at the pro level. I think he’s going to be a superstar.
“I just think that this freshman class, and you contribute everybody from last year, those guys will still be at the top of the list,” Mashburn continued. “I feel Cooper Flagg has some holes in his game.”
“If I was to put [Cooper Flagg] on that list [of current Freshman], he would be 6th.” 😳@jamalmashburn breaks down why this year’s top Freshman stand out to him 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/qGkknRPSgp
— TNT Sports U.S. (@TNTSportsUS) January 31, 2026
TNT Sports analyst Bruce Pearl, who was head coach at Auburn last season, also questioned Mashburn’s comments.
“One of the things you have the advantage of is you’re looking at Cooper Flagg right now, and how he’s come on in the NBA, and yet you still feel that strongly about it,” Pearl said.
“He just had 49 points the other night,” Lefkoe correctly noted.
“Do you see Caleb Wilson having 40-something points in the NBA next year?” Pearl asked.
“One thing I will say, I see Darryn Peterson having 40 at some point in his rookie year, AJ (Dybantsa) having 40, but over the long term, Caleb Wilson, in my opinion, is a piece that could be built around for a championship-caliber team,” Mashburn responded.
Flagg averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 blocks, and 1.4 steals for Duke last season as a freshman, while shooting 48.1 percent from the field, 38.5 percent on threes, and 84.0 percent from the charity stripe. He led the entire country in box/plus minus, measuring his overall impact on the court.
As a rookie in the NBA after being the runaway No. 1 overall pick by the Dallas Mavericks, Flagg is putting together similar production to his college season, and it’s on a big rise of late. He’s averaging 19.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.1 assists. On Thursday, he had 49 points and 10 rebounds, and he followed that up with 34 points and 12 rebounds on Saturday. He already has a terrific, well-rounded game in the NBA, and he’s nowhere close to a finished product yet at 19.
This is a remarkable class of freshmen, and there might be several NBA superstars to emerge from it.
But it’s silly to suggest at this very moment that Flagg should be viewed behind five college freshmen, or really any college freshmen, until we see these players doing what he’s already doing in the NBA. And he was a special NBA prospect — widely viewed as a shoo-in for the 2025 NBA Draft top overall pick before he even played a minute in college — who went on to be the consensus national player of the year last season in college basketball.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.