NCAA Basketball: Top 25 impact freshmen classes for 2022-23 season

2. Duke Blue Devils

The Blue Devils may have a new head coach in Jon Scheyer but the talent of the freshmen class once again is elite. Five players are ranked in the top-30 overall, while 247sports gives Duke three of the top-4 overall class of 2022 recruits.

No. 1 is Dereck Lively, a 7’1 big man that’s already an elite defender with his shot-blocking skills and positional movement, while also being a solid low-post scorer with a growing shooting game from the perimeter. He looks to be in the same line of great bigs such as Marvin Bagley, Vernon Carey Jr., and Mark Williams.

Also likely to start next to him is Kyle Filipowski, a 6’11 big man that can stretch the floor and is also a good defender. He’s a top-5 overall player who can score at a high level and if the pairing with he and Lively works out, could win them a national title. Three-star big Christian Reeves is also part of the class but he’s a long-term prospect and not likely to get minutes next season.

Who will get minutes is Mark Mitchell, a 6’8 forward and five-star prospect. He’s an outstanding defender and rebounder and if he can become a double-digit scorer could really make Duke into a hard team to stop. The other five-star in the group is Dariq Whitehead, ranked in the top-5 overall and is a quality shooter and scorer while also capable of being a defensive stopper as well.

Jaden Schutt is a four-star shooting guard and three-point shooting was a potential concern. If that remains the case, he could have a spot in the rotation. And Tyrese Proctor is a top-30 point guard who reclassified this offseason to join Duke. He gives the team another ball-handler and someone to back up Jeremy Roach at point guard.

A case can easily be made that this will be the most impactful class but I had to go with a historical group in the SEC who could be the reason why the program makes the Final Four for the first time in nearly 30 years.