2023 March Madness: Why no true freshman is starting for a team in Final Four for first time since 1998

HOUSTON — When San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher first rose to fame in college basketball during the early 1990s, it was because he helped recruit the “Fab Five” to Michigan as an assistant under Wolverines coach Steve Fisher. During the group’s first season on campus playing for Fisher and Dutcher, the Wolverines reached the national title game starting five true freshmen.

Now, as Dutcher prepares to lead SDSU into a Final Four showdown against FAU more than 30 years later, he is doing so with a starting five featuring four seniors and a junior.

That juxtaposition places college basketball’s age race into focus as the sport prepares for its first Final Four since 1998 without a single true freshman starter. UConn starting forward Alex Karaban is a redshirt freshman after he enrolled last spring and spent a few months getting a head start with the program. Donovan Clingan also plays 13.2 minutes per game for the Huskies as a true freshman but does not start.

Aside from Clingan, it’s unlikely that another true freshman will log substantive minutes during the Final Four as the No. 4 seed Huskies, No. 5 seed Aztecs, No. 5 seed Miami and No. 9 seed FAU battle to hoist the national championship trophy on Monday night at NRG Stadium.

“To be a freshman and play at our place, you have to be very good,” Dutcher said.

Kansas won the national championship last season with five starters who were each in at least their third season with the program. Baylor won it all in 2021 with a starting five consisting exclusively of juniors and seniors. Neither team had a freshman in its rotation at the Final Four. 

Both flamed out in the second round of the NCAA Tournament this year while starting freshmen.

“The reality is, if you can get great talent you take it,” Dutcher said. “But then it’s hard to win with them because it takes a while for them to make the adjustment to the college game. It’s just a fact of what we’re doing.”

In the 10 Final Fours spanning 2006 to 2015, an average of 3.4 of the 20 starters between the four teams were true freshmen. The high point of six freshman starters came at the 2015 Final Four. Duke won it all with true freshmen Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow and Jahlil Okafor in the starting lineup.

But as the number of Division I men’s basketball…