Ranking the freshman seasons of former number one high school recruits

SYRACUSE, NY - FEBRUARY 23: Former Syracuse Orange player Carmelo Anthony (C) receives his jersey from athletic director Daryl Gross (L) as his number is retired during a ceremony at half time during the game against the Georgetown Hoyas at the Carrier Dome on February 23, 2013 in Syracuse, New York. (Photo by Nate Shron/Getty Images) /

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Dan Gadzuric. Mandatory Credit: David Taylor /Allsport /

Ranking the freshman seasons of former number one high school recruits: 22. Dan Gadzuric

Freshman stats: 8.6 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 53.7 fg%

The youth movement was a real one in 1998. At the high school level, both Al Harrington and Rashad Lewis were considered the best players in the nation. And while they had just about every college in the world clamoring and drooling all over them for their services, they both made the move to jump straight to the NBA.

The next highest player in that class, and the person we’ll be focusing on, will be center Dan Gadzuric. At 6’11” he was your prototypical big man in the late 1990s. Still, even with the promise he showed as a high school player, Gadzuric had little to no impact during his time at UCLA. Especially his first season.

Gadzuric would go on to average 8.6 points and 5.7 rebounds. His game overall was a simplistic one but not very effective. Unlike most players on this list, Gadzuric wasn’t good enough to make the leap to the pros after his first season. Instead, he stuck around all four years and made moderate improvements. Overall, Gadzuric simply wasn’t that good of a player in comparison to what many were expecting from him.

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