CBS Sports is looking back at several of the defining college basketball players of the past and their Naismith Player of the Year victories. This edition of the series, sponsored by Citizen Watch, stars Texas legend Kevin Durant and his spectacular 2006-07 season.
Because of his brilliant, Hall of Fame-level NBA career over the past 11 seasons and counting, Kevin Durant's one-and-done campaign at Texas become a bit piece of his legacy. This isn't necessarily wrong, but it's because Durant's been an NBA MVP, an NBA champion and a key figure in the evolution of professional basketball that his college career has drifted to the background.
But hopefully, when Durant retires one day, his time at Texas will rightfully be remembered for the absurdly historic season that it was. Durant got to Austin as a lanky dynamo on offense, a fawn on the fringe of basketball greatness. He was a bucket-getter from game one, and almost immediately identified as the type of rare player who changed the way people looked at college stars.
So great was Durant's impact, that even today when there are 6-foot-9 or 6-foot-10 stretch 4s who have a natural shooting stroke, Durant is the comparison made by evaluators. He's become a benchmark, and a symbol, for this era of hybrid personnel.
In 2006-07, Durant averaged 25.8 points, 11.1 rebounds, 1.9 blocks, 1.9 steals and 1.3 assists in 35 games. He became the first freshman to win the Naismith Award while playing for a Longhorns teams that got a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Durant swept the major awards for NPOY that season, also becoming the first freshman to accomplish the feat.
His No. 35 jersey hangs in the Erwin Center. Despite playing just one season at Texas, he's considered the greatest talent to ever wear a UT basketball uniform.
Durant also came along just as modern metrics and websites, like KenPom.com, were embraced by some in the media. With this, Durant became one of the first freshmen of the modern era to define high-usage, high-efficient players. He shot 40.4 percent from 3 -- taking 203 shots from deep -- and 50.5 percent from 2. At 6-foot-9, he had 25-foot range and was basically unstoppable in on-on-one situations. Durant's offensive brilliance led him to being picked second that season in the NBA Draft.
He exemplified the best and worst of the one-and-done rule. Durant was way too skilled to spend a year in college, but he was also so good that it uplifted that 2006-07 season.
His most memorable performance, ironically, came in a loss. On Jan. 16, 2007, Oklahoma State beat Texas in three overtimes. This performance came around the sam time Durant on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Remember Mario Boggan? He won the game for the Cowboys, and the back-and-forth between Durant and Boggan turned this tilt into one of the best games in Big 12 history.
Durant finished with 37 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks.
With a pterodactyl-esque wingspan, an unblockable shot and a willingness to crash the boards, Durant was a unique player during his brief run in college. He changed the way people voted on Player of the Year awards. Picking a freshman was once seen as a taboo, as if first-year players didn't have the overall ability -- or paid their dues -- to validate being dubbed the best player in college basketball.
But thanks to the NBA's age minimum rule, which came into place two years before Durant got to Texas, college basketball has benefited from phenoms streaking across its galaxy. Durant was the best player in college basketball in 2006-07, and if you put an 18-year-old Durant on the floor in today's college game, he'd be the best among all other players this year, too.
