It turns out that players making money in college is actually good for the sport. Who would’ve thought? Well, everyone except the NCAA, but I digress.
With NIL keeping players in college longer, no longer desperate to flee for a payday in professional basketball, experience has become more important than ever in college basketball. Nothing illustrates that reality more than this bizarre fact.
On Monday night when Florida defeated Houston 65-63 to win the National Title in San Antonio, it was the first national championship game since 1989 to not feature a single freshman.
No freshmen played in the national championship game for the first time since 1989.
— Jared Berson (@JaredBerson) April 8, 2025
Both teams played eight players with Florida head coach Todd Golden trusting his fate to three seniors, two sophomores, and three sophomores, and Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson giving minutes to three seniors including sixth-year J’Wan Roberts, two juniors, and three sophomores.
In the transfer portal era of college basketball, it pays to get old and stay old. While Auburn also included freshman Tahaad Pettiford in its rotation, Duke is the team that could have truly bucked this trend of age and experience. While they were surrounded by veteran transfers like Sion James and Mason Gillis, and three-year Blue Devil Tyrese Proctor, Jon Scheyer built his team around three freshman and future NBA first-round draft picks, Kon Knueppel, Khaman Maluach, and Wooden Award winner Cooper Flagg.
However, perhaps fittingly, Duke melted down over the final minutes of the second half, allowing an 11-1 run in the final 1:14 seconds to blow a comfortable lead. Now, that was a fluky result and if you asked Jon Scheyer, he likely would’ve built his team exactly the same way. Still, it adds some validity to the claim that experience matters in March (and April).
In fact, Scheyer has doubled down on that exact strategy, landing the No. 1 recruiting class in 2025, headlined by five-star Cameron Boozer and his twin brother Cayden. Even Sampson still sees the value in high-end high school talent with the No. 2 ranked class. It feels like a near certainty that Scheyer will eventually win a national title at Duke, and even more likely that if he does, he’ll have a star freshman on his roster. However, the rest of the sport is moving in a different direction, and Monday night proved that going all-in on experience can pay off with a banner and a ring.