This season's freshman class in college basketball isn't very well known or celebrated nationally relative to other star-studded classes that came before it. That's partly because the No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2023, Ron Holland, bypassed college completely, and partly because the two most famous players in the class, USC's Bronny James and Kentucky's D.J. Wagner, are famous mostly because their fathers are also famous basketball players.
Still, if you listened to a recent episode of the Eye On College Basketball Podcast, you might remember that I explained how, basically every season, a talented but mostly unknown freshman — unknown at least to everybody who doesn't consider themselves diehards — pops off early and establishes himself as an All-American candidate for a quality team. Two years ago, it was Auburn's Jabari Smith. Last season, it was Alabama's Brandon Miller. On Tuesday night, inside the Sanford Pentagon in South Dakota, Baylor's Ja'Kobe Walter performed in a way that suggested he could be that guy this season while finishing with 28 points and six rebounds in an 88-82 victory over Bruce Pearl's Auburn Tigers.
"I leaned on my teammates," Walter said afterward, according to the Baylor Lariat. "They just encouraged me — and the coaching staff, they [also] just encouraged me to keep going."
Walter's 28 points were the most for any debuting player in school history and the fourth-most for any player in a debut in the history of the Big 12. Simply put, the 6-foot-5 Texas native looked like a real candidate to emerge as the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft next June.
With the six-point win, Baylor remains No. 18 in Wednesday morning's updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. The Bears' next game is Thursday against John Brown. Their next contest against a power-conference school is Nov. 22 vs. Oregon State in Brooklyn.
Top 25 And 1 rankings
Rk | Teams | Chg | Rcrd | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Hunter Dickinson finished with 21 points and eight rebounds in Monday's 99-56 win over North Carolina Central. The Jayhawks' next game is Friday against Manhattan. | -- | 23-11 |
| 2 |  | Zach Edey finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks in Monday's 98-45 win over Samford. The Boilermakers' next game is Friday against Morehead State. | -- | 34-5 |
| 3 |  | Kyle Filipowski finished with 25 points and seven rebounds in Monday's 92-54 win over Dartmouth. The Blue Devils' next game is Friday against Arizona. | -- | 27-9 |
| 4 |  | FAU returns all five starters - among them leading scorer Johnell Davis - from a team that won the Conference USA regular-season title and league tournament before advancing to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament. The Owls open the season Wednesday against Loyola Chicago. | -- | 25-9 |
| 5 |  | Kam Jones finished with 20 points and four assists in Monday's 92-70 win over Northern Illinois. The Golden Eagles' next game is Friday against Rider. | -- | 27-10 |
| 6 |  | Damian Dunn finished with 18 points and three rebounds in Monday's 84-31 win over Louisiana-Monroe. The Cougars' next game is Saturday against Texas A&M Corpus Christie. | -- | 32-5 |
| 7 |  | Alex Karaban finished with 22 points and seven rebounds in Monday's 95-52 win over Northern Arizona. The Huskies' next game is Saturday against Stonehill. | -- | 37-3 |
| 8 |  | Trey Alexander finished with 20 points and five assists in Tuesday's 105-54 win over Florida A&M. The Bluejays' next game is Saturday against North Dakota State. | -- | 25-10 |
| 9 |  | Norchad Omier finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds in Monday's 101-60 win over NJIT. The Hurricanes' next game is Friday against UCF. | -- | 15-17 |
| 10 |  | Tramon Mark finished with 16 points and three assists in Monday's 93-59 win over Alcorn State. The Razorbacks' next game is Friday against Gardner Webb. | -- | 16-17 |
| 11 |  | Boogie Ellis finished with 24 points and eight rebounds in Monday's 82-69 win over Kansas State. The Trojans' next game is Thursday against Cal State Bakersfield. | -- | 15-18 |
| 12 |  | Jaedon Lee finished with 27 points and 10 rebounds in Monday's 83-57 win over Cal State Fullerton. The Aztecs' next game is Friday at BYU. | -- | 26-11 |
| 13 |  | Dalton Knecht finished with 17 points and three rebounds in Monday's 80-42 win over Tennessee Tech. The Vols' next game is Friday against Wisconsin. | -- | 27-9 |
| 14 |  | Hayden Hefner finished with 19 points and four rebounds in Monday's 78-46 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Aggies' next game is Friday at Ohio State. | -- | 21-15 |
| 15 |  | Michigan State missed 19 of the 20 3-pointers it took in Monday's 79-76 OT loss to James Madison. The Spartans' next game is Thursday against Southern Indiana. | -- | 20-15 |
| 16 |  | D.J. Wagner finished with 13 points and four assists in Monday's 86-46 win over New Mexico State. The Wildcats' next game is Friday against Texas A&M Commerce. | -- | 23-10 |
| 17 |  | Kylan Boswell finished with 18 points and five rebounds in Monday's 122-59 win over Morgan State. The Wildcats' next game is Friday at Duke. | -- | 27-9 |
| 18 |  | Ja'Kobe Walter finished with 28 points and six rebounds in Tuesday's 88-82 win over Auburn. The Bears' next game is Thursday against John Brown. | -- | 24-11 |
| 19 |  | Gonzaga returns three of the top seven scorers - among them Anton Watson, who averaged 11.1 points and 6.2 rebounds last season - from a team that advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament and adds prominent transfers Ryan Nembhard, Graham Ike and Steel Venters. The Zags open the season Friday against Yale. | -- | 27-8 |
| 20 |  | Ithiel Horton finished with 17 points and five rebounds in Monday's 88-56 win over Incarnate Word. The Longhorns' next game is Friday against Delaware State. | -- | 21-13 |
| 21 |  | Aidan Mahaney finished with 15 points and five assists in Monday's 107-28 win over Stanislaus State. The Gaels' next game is Thursday against New Mexico. | -- | 26-8 |
| 22 |  | Armando Bacot finished with 25 points and 13 rebounds in Monday's 86-70 win over Radford. The Tar Heels' next game is Sunday against Lehigh. | -- | 29-8 |
| 23 |  | Terrence Shannon finished with 16 points and five rebounds in Monday's 80-52 win over Eastern Illinois. The Illini's next game is Friday against Oakland. | -- | 29-9 |
| 24 |  | Eric Dixon finished with 15 points and six rebounds in Monday's 90-63 win over American. The Wildcats' next game is Friday against Le Moyne. | -- | 18-16 |
| 25 |  | Joel Soriano finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds in Tuesday's 90-74 win over Stony Brook. The Red Storm's next game is Monday against Michigan. | -- | 20-13 |
| 26 |  | Grant Nelson finished with 24 points and seven rebounds in Monday's 105-73 win over Morehead State. The Crimson Tide's next game is Friday against Indiana State. | -- | 25-12 |
