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Duke forward Cameron Boozer averaged 22.5 points and 10.2 rebounds during his freshman season.<\/p>\n
Cameron Boozer was at the\u00a0center of everything for Duke\u00a0this season.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-9, 250-pound forward proved tough enough to score through physical play. Rangy enough to space the floor and shoot from outside. Deft enough as a passer to find teammates, whether against constant double teams coming for him as the top name on every scouting report or while running the entire offense from up top.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just want to affect winning in whatever way you can,\u201d Boozer said.<\/p>\n
The high-end NBA prospect did that all season for a team that won 35 games, reached No. 1 in the\u00a0AP Top 25 poll, claimed the top overall seed for\u00a0March Madness\u00a0and reached the NCAA Tournament\u2019s Elite Eight. Now he\u2019s The Associated Press men\u2019s college basketball national player of the year, only the fifth freshman to earn the honor and the second in a row for a Duke program that keeps adding to the longest list of winners in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just goes to show more about what our team has done, just because I think that really helps awards like this, having great team success,\u201d Boozer told the AP. \u201cIt\u2019s really just not me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boozer,\u00a0named unanimous first-team AP all-American last month, received 59 of 61 votes from AP Top 25 voters in results released Friday. BYU freshman AJ Dybantsa, another potential top NBA pick, received the other two votes after averaging a national-best 25.5 points per game.<\/p>\n
A short list<\/p>\n
Boozer, son of Duke and longtime NBA player Carlos Boozer, ranked averaged 22.5 points (ninth in Division I) and 10.2 rebounds (12th) while finishing tied for the national lead with 22 double-doubles. He also averaged 4.1 assists while posting efficient shooting numbers at 55.6% overall and 39.1% from 3-point range.<\/p>\n
He joins\u00a0fellow Blue Devils star Cooper Flagg last year, another Duke player in\u00a0Zion Williamson (2019), Kentucky\u2019s Anthony Davis (2012) and Texas star Kevin Durant (2007) as freshmen to win the AP award. Each went No. 1 or No. 2 in the NBA draft that year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very grateful just that I\u2019m even in those (NBA) conversations,\u201d Boozer said. \u201cI think a lot of people dream of being where I am. Sometimes you\u2019ve got to take a step back and just remember that once upon a time, you were a kid dreaming to be here. So, I think it\u2019s very special.\u201d<\/p>\n
His coaches think the same of him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been fortunate enough the last two years to have two of the best freshmen to ever play in college basketball back-to-back,\u201d Duke associate head coach and former Blue Devils player Chris Carrawell said. \u201cAnd Cam is right up there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boozer is Duke\u2019s ninth AP winner, each coming from a different player. UCLA is the next closest with five winners, though that included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1967 and 1969) and Bill Walton (1972 and 1973) as two-time selections.<\/p>\n
UCLA, Ohio State and Duke rival North Carolina are the only other programs with as many as three different players to win the award.<\/p>\n
Big-game successes<\/p>\n
Boozer arrived at Duke alongside twin brother Cayden after the two led Miami\u2019s Columbus High\u00a0to four straight state championships. By late February, the Blue Devils were starting a four-week reign\u00a0atop the AP Top 25\u00a0that would carry to March Madness. Boozer \u2014 who said he looks at winning as a skill \u2014 routinely posted top performances in Duke\u2019s biggest games, including during a rugged nonconference slate.<\/p>\n
He matched a season high with 35 points in a November win\u00a0against Arkansas. He followed with 29 points against defending national champion Florida. He also had big performances\u00a0at Michigan State\u00a0(18 points, 15 rebounds) and flirted with a triple-double (18 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists)\u00a0in a February win against Michigan.<\/p>\n
Along the way, he pushed through bumps and shoves. He closed\u00a0Sunday\u2019s season-ending loss to UConn\u00a0with 27 points and his right eye swollen from a first-half blow.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no agenda other than figuring out a way to win,\u201d Wolverines coach Dusty May said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen him play a number of times this year where there\u2019s six guys in the paint, and it\u2019s not as if he\u2019s jumping 40, 50 inches off the floor. His desire to rebound the ball, to set physical screens, to play to his advantages, is as impressive as any freshman that I can recall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Managing pressure<\/p>\n
The other challenge was managing the scrutiny that comes from expectations for greatness. A missed shot. A turnover. The 3-for-17 shooting\u00a0while battling rising frustration and Virginia shot-blocker Ugonna Onyenso\u00a0in the ACC title game.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe does a great job of flushing it and not letting it dwell on him too much,\u201d Cayden said. \u201cThat\u2019s something he\u2019s always been able to do since we were younger. Obviously, I talk to him when he needs me to. And I sometimes just understood that, hey, he\u2019s going through something, give him some space for a little bit and he\u2019ll figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cameron said getting away for time alone and putting down the phone helps. He points to prayer and even a recent effort to read more.<\/p>\n
The rest of the time, though, he\u2019ll throw himself into becoming a better player. There\u2019s comfort in that routine, the results yet to fail him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think just being prepared alleviates pressure,\u201d Cameron said. \u201cBeing ready for a game, watching film, working out, knowing you put your time in, being confident in yourself \u2014 I think all that takes away a lot of the pressure that people talk about. At the end of the day, pressure really is what you put on yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Duke forward Cameron Boozer averaged 22.5 points and 10.2 rebounds during his freshman season. Cameron Boozer was at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,87690,6,12],"class_list":{"0":"post-696940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cameron-boozer-associated-press-player-of-the-year","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-nba-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116343776294367055","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}