NCAA Basketball: Top 50 “One and Done” players since 2000
By Bryan Mauro
30. Rodney White – Charlotte 49ers
18.7 Points, 6.5 Rebounds, 1.5 Assists
To see a player from Charlotte on this list speaks to how good of a player White was. Charlotte has the least amount of basketball tradition of any school on this list. White was selected as the national freshman of the year. The forward was the best player to ever play for head coach Bobby Lutz. White led the 49ers to the NCAA tournament that season. White shot just under 50% from the floor and 35% from three-point range in his one season. He was a matchup nightmare for everyone, especially for the era he played in. When he played many big men did not shoot three-point shots and White had the potential to be deadly from beyond the arc.
29. Hassan Whiteside – Marshall Thundering Herd
13.1 Points, 8.9 Rebounds, 5.4 Blocks
Whiteside is the one outlier on this list, as he was not a highly ranked recruit and was under the radar until he put up a near triple double against Ohio. That earned Whiteside national recognition and his face on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The big man would go on to record three triple-doubles on the season and ended the year with 182 blocks. His block record has since been broken, by Anthony Davis. He is also the career leader in blocks for Marshall in both a single season and a career. The big man broke Shawn Bradley’s freshman block record.
28. Brandon McCoy – UNLV Rebels
16.9 Points, 10.3 Rebounds, 1.8 Blocks
McCoy is one of two Rebels on the list. The freshman big man put up one of the more dominating seasons in the Mountain West conference and due to the team’s record and the time zone they play most of their games in, not many people were around to watch it. In his very first college game McCoy scored 25 points to go along with 18 rebounds. Even though the opponent was not a very good team in Florida A&M, the former Rebel dominated that game. McCoy went head to head with another member of this list, DeAndre Ayton and put up an astonishing line of 33 points and 10 rebounds. If McCoy would have chosen another college to play at, he may have been more well-known.
27. Eric Gordon – Indiana Hoosiers
20.9 Points, 3.3 Rebounds, 2.4 Assists
The shooting guard chose Indiana amid a lot of controversy. He initially committed to play for Bruce Weber at Illinois, but once Kelvin Sampson took over at Indiana, he switched teams. Gordon was the greatest freshman scorer in Indiana history at the time of his departure. The guard was a catalyst in many of the games Indiana would win his freshman year. When he was scoring at his normal rate and shooting the ball well Indiana won 17 of their first 18 games. He was mired by a long slump at the end of the year that carried over into the NCAA tournament. Indiana struggled to win those games. Gordon was named the Big Ten Freshman of the year and was given first team all-conference honors.
26. D’Angelo Russell – Ohio State Buckeyes
19.3 Points, 5.7 Rebounds, 5 Assists
The point guard came to Ohio State and the nation saw a player who was nothing but flashy. Russell is another player who was great at filling a stat sheet and it showed when he became the first Ohio State freshman to record a triple double. The guard was so good in his one year that he was given three awards two by the USBWA and one by the Naismith Hall of Fame. The Oscar Robertson trophy which is their player of the year, The Wayman Tisdale award for the National Freshman of the year. The Jerry West Award is given every year by the Naismith Hall of Fame to the best shooting guard in the country, not just freshman.