The one-and-done era in college basketball truly began with the 2007 season. Since then, we've seen 14 regular seasons and 13 postseasons filled with outstanding individual performances -- and not all of them by freshmen.
Many players listed below (Stephen Curry, Anthony, Davis, Kevin Durant) went on to become NBA stars, while some (Jimmer Fredette, Jared Sullinger) hit their high point in college. So, who made the list?
Here are the 50 best individual player seasons of the one-and-done era.
1. Zion Williamson, Duke Blue Devils, 2019
He's not here because of recency effect. On the contrary, with everything going on, watching Williamson play basketball in a Duke uniform feels like it took place, oh, about eight lifetimes ago. No, Mike Krzyzewski's star tops this list because basketball is (still!) in large part a matter of 2-point production, and we've never seen a 2-point producer like this freshman. Williamson made about the same percentage of his attempts inside the arc as a dunk specialist like Udoka Azubuike, but the Blue Devils' phenom did so at a volume even higher than what we saw from previous Duke workhorses like Marvin Bagley or Jahlil Okafor. No one else has ever done that. Plus, Williamson's defense was consistently and egregiously underrated.
2. Stephen Curry, Davidson Wildcats, 2008
The work speaks for itself. Curry took a Southern Conference team to the 40th minute of an Elite Eight game against the eventual national champion. Connoisseurs of the Wildcats legend's career will debate whether his 2009 season was even better. That was the year he famously shifted to undisputed point guard, and the numbers that resulted are indeed ridiculous across the board. Still, it's hard to say no to a 2008 campaign that included a record-setting 162 made 3s (granted, with a friendly line). Put it this way, if this were a list of best two-season stretches, Curry would win going away.
3. Anthony Davis, Kentucky Wildcats, 2012
Name a greater individual season where the player in question averaged under 15 a game. Heck, Frank Kaminsky's team averaged, what, six possessions a game, and even he scored 19 per contest. Davis rightly earned Wooden Award honors just the same as a game-altering defender who happened to play within a talented and balanced rotation on offense. The fact that he averaged less than two and a half fouls per 40 minutes despite the "historically outstanding shot-blocking freshman" entry on his bio was a significant factor in UK's national title.
4. Kevin Durant, Texas Longhorns, 2007
He set the standard. It was the first season of this newfangled one-and-done thing, and, going into that year, it was supposed to be Durant and Greg Oden who were going to show us how this would all work. Oden was indeed outstanding, but he also had brushes that season with both injuries and foul trouble. Meanwhile, Durant soared. The Longhorns made a quick exit from the 2007 NCAA tournament, but over the course of 35 games, the freshman rained down makes on opponents from both sides of the arc. Durant was a harbinger of the new group of highly efficient featured scorers.
5. Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin Badgers, 2015
The arc of Kaminsky's college career is what every entering freshman outside the top 100 dreams about but (almost) never experiences. When he signed with Wisconsin, Kaminsky had offers from DePaul, Northwestern, Bradley, Southern Illinois and Northern Illinois. Four years later, he was national player of the year. Everything X's and O's guru Bo Ryan had learned over the course of his career was put to work on Kaminsky's behalf. Opponents, up to and including 38-0 Kentucky, could not beat him.
6. Kemba Walker, UConn Huskies, 2011
If you could choose to be one player for one month, you could do worse than setting your dial for Walker from the start of the 2011 Big East tournament to the close of that year's NCAA tournament. Connecticut went 11-0 over that stretch and, of course, won the national championship. His 33 points, 12 rebounds and six steals against Syracuse in the Big East semis were already the stuff of legend. Then Walker opened the NCAA tournament with an 18-12 points-assists double-double before scoring 33 and 36 in the round of 32 and the Sweet 16, respectively. Quite the run.
7. Buddy Hield, Oklahoma Sooners, 2016
We here at "Top 50 player seasons" headquarters share office space with "Best player at each jersey number" staff, and they tell us based on their experience that people still don't understand how amazing Hield's senior season truly was. Well, it was truly amazing. You don't often see a star shoot percentages close to 90, 50, and 50 on free throws, 2s, and 3s, respectively at hero-ball levels of usage. If that doesn't convince you, factor in that the guy got a standing ovation on the road at Kansas, for goodness sake. It was off the charts.
8. Ty Lawson, North Carolina Tar Heels, 2009
This goes down in the annals as the year when the ACC voters were smarter than the selectors for the All-American teams. Lawson was, correctly, named player of the year in the Atlantic Coast, only to be bumped down to second-team All-American status while Tyler Hansbrough earned first-team honors. Outrage! The junior was the perfect point guard for Roy Williams' fast-breaking "run the ball up the center of the floor all the way to the rim" attack.
9. Trae Young, Oklahoma Sooners, 2018
Young leading the nation in possession usage in 2018 sounds natural in hindsight, but it was actually a rather bold move by Lon Kruger in real time. While the freshman was a prize recruit, he was not top-10 material nor was he especially imposing as a physical specimen. Even so, Kruger saw something and he was exactly correct. Never mind the 25 missed shots in one game, Young was an assist factory who generated made free throws at will.
10. Jimmer Fredette, BYU Cougars, 2011
You can watch basketball for a very long time before you find another player who makes so many 3s while shooting mostly 2s. Fredette drained 124 3-pointers, which still ranks in the top 65 all-time as a season mark, yet tries from beyond the arc accounted for just 41% of his attempts. Since he averaged 28.9 points nine years ago, that mark has been topped by just two players: Campbell's Chris Clemons (2019) and Central Michigan's Marcus Keene (2017).
11. Blake Griffin, Oklahoma Sooners, 2009
Give Oklahoma credit, the program has seen some amazing individual seasons and two Wooden Awards over the past 11 years. Griffin recorded one of the most concentrated outbursts of domination the Big 12 has ever seen when he posted a 40-23 double-double (on 16-of-22 shooting) against Texas Tech in a mere 31 minutes.
12. Doug McDermott, Creighton Bluejays, 2014
McDermott is the only player in the past 25 years to make at least 850 2s and 250 3s over the course of a career. Part of that is having stuck around for four seasons, naturally, but his per-year stats were no less mind-boggling. As a senior, McDermott converted 45% of his 3s and 57% of his 2s while ranking No. 2 in the nation for percentage of shots taken.
13. John Wall, Kentucky Wildcats, 2010
He shot less than 33% on his 3s, but Wall was the high-velocity quartz movement for a 35-3 team that very easily could have won it all. The freshman recorded a 21-11 points-assists double-double in the third game of his career, and then proceeded to mix highlight-reel drives and dunks with deft lobs to DeMarcus Cousins at the rim all season long.
14. Brandon Clarke, Gonzaga Bulldogs, 2019
Clarke sat out a year after transferring from San Jose State and then more or less caught the entire basketball world by surprise. He dominated on both sides of the ball and played much larger than a listed height of 6-foot-8. Like Williamson that same season, Clarke converted better than 70% of his 2-point tries.
15. DeJuan Blair, Pittsburgh Panthers, 2009
One of the underrated joys of that long ago 2009 season was tracking how many entire teams would finish behind Blair individually in terms of offensive rebound percentage. That answer turned out to be 13, and included the likes of Iowa State, Nebraska and Colorado. Blair personally hauled in almost 24% of his team's missed shots.
16. Jared Sullinger, Ohio State Buckeyes, 2011
Sullinger was an unstoppable rebounder at both ends of the floor who recorded a 40-13 double-double in the first month of his college career. His season would end with 21 points and 16 boards in a losing effort against Kentucky in the 2011 Sweet 16. In between, the freshman was a model of consistency and production for a 34-3 OSU team.
17. Ja Morant, Murray State Racers, 2019
It's possible Morant is the proud owner of the best seven-turnover game in NCAA tournament history. Despite giving the ball away that many times in the 2019 round of 64, he also posted 17 points, 16 assists and 11 rebounds in Murray State's 19-point win over Marquette.
18. Draymond Green, Michigan State Spartans, 2012
We know now that Green is Green, but, to be fair to the versions of ourselves from eight years ago, he was recognized as a pretty big deal in 2012 as well. That was the year the senior won Big Ten player of the year honors as a lockdown defender who was also the laudably efficient featured scorer for a No. 1 seed. He was Green then, too.
19. Josh Hart, Villanova Wildcats, 2016
Hart's stats weren't necessarily eye-popping, because he was more or less coequal with Kris Jenkins in terms of carrying the load for arguably the best offense in the country. The junior was, however, the distilled essence of what might be called the Villanova Way. Whether it was assists, 2s, 3s or hockey assists, Hart would execute what was available.
20. Kevin Love, UCLA Bruins, 2008
Few players rated No. 1 in the nation out of high school have ever made a smoother transition to seemingly learning-curve-free dominance as college freshmen. One of the finest all-around rebounders of recent years, Love led UCLA to the Final Four as a No. 1 seed.
21. Trey Burke, Michigan Wolverines, 2013
He hit a rather important shot against Kansas in the 2013 Sweet 16, but, even before that game, Burke was having a season for the ages. In addition to being UM's featured scorer, the sophomore was the first, last and sometimes only source for assists on possibly the best offense of the John Beilein era (which is saying something).
22. Malcolm Brogdon, Virginia Cavaliers, 2016
Brogdon played a larger role in the offense than any Virginia player since Mike Scott, and it worked beautifully. The Cavaliers ripped through the ACC at a rate of 1.11 points per possession, thanks in part to the senior's unerring accuracy from both sides of the arc. The UVA defense was pretty good that year, too. Go figure.
23. Victor Oladipo, Indiana Hoosiers, 2013
The leap that Oladipo made from his sophomore to his junior year may never be explained, but it was a sight to behold. Suddenly, Cody Zeller had a teammate who was making 64% of his 2s, flying all over the court and harassing opposing offenses into exhaustion.
24. Derrick Rose, Memphis Tigers, 2008
After an outstanding freshman campaign, Rose outdid himself in the NCAA tournament. The point guard scored 27 in the Tigers' Sweet 16 win over Michigan State, and followed that up with a 25-point performance against UCLA in the Final Four.
25. Shabazz Napier, UConn Huskies, 2014
Napier averaged 21 a game in UConn's six-game run to the national title, a run made possible by the 24 points he put up in the round of 64 to carry the Huskies past Saint Joseph's in overtime. The senior had played alongside Kemba Walker as a freshman and learned all the correct lessons.
26. Delon Wright, Utah Utes, 2015
27. Marcus Smart, Oklahoma State Cowboys, 2014
28. Frank Mason III, Kansas Jayhawks, 2017
29. Michael Beasley, Kansas State Wildcats, 2008
30. Karl-Anthony Towns, Kentucky Wildcats, 2015
31. Obi Toppin, Dayton Flyers, 2020
32. Acie Law, Texas A&M Aggies, 2007
33. Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina Tar Heels, 2008
34. Carsen Edwards, Purdue Boilermakers, 2019
35. Markus Howard, Marquette Golden Eagles, 2020
36. Alando Tucker, Wisconsin Badgers, 2007
37. Evan Turner, Ohio State Buckeyes, 2010
38. Jerian Grant, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 2015
39. D'Angelo Russell, Ohio State Buckeyes, 2015
40. Derrick Williams, Arizona Wildcats, 2011
41. Jalen Brunson, Villanova Wildcats, 2018
42. Thomas Robinson, Kansas Jayhawks, 2012
43. Jeff Green, Georgetown Hoyas, 2007
44. James Harden, Arizona State Sun Devils, 2009
45. Grant Williams, Tennessee Volunteers, 2019
46. Jahlil Okafor, Duke Blue Devils, 2015
47. Russ Smith, Louisville Cardinals, 2014
48. Gordon Hayward, Butler Bulldogs, 2010
49. Udoka Azubuike, Kansas Jayhawks, 2020
50. Jevon Carter, West Virginia Mountaineers, 2018