Duke’s Cameron Boozer, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa and Arkansas’ Darius Acuff Jr. arrived this season as part of what could go down as one of the most heralded freshman classes in college basketball history.
They lived up to their billing, too, and were announced Tuesday as first-team Associated Press All-Americans.
Boozer was a unanimous choice among the 61 voters who select the weekly AP Top 25, following in the footsteps of Cooper Flagg, who also was a unanimous choice as a Duke freshman last season. Dybantsa was a first-team pick on all but four ballots, while Acuff was a first-team selection on 47 ballots.
Yaxel Lendeborg of Michigan and JT Toppin of Texas Tech rounded out the five-member first team.
“He’s all about his teammates,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said of Boozer, who was the AP’s national player of the week twice during the season. “He’s not about numbers. He’s about winning. And when your best player’s that way, it becomes contagious and it has a big effect on the rest of the group.”
Such a team-first attitude was on display by all of the first-team picks; each helped his team to the NCAA Tournament.
Boozer led the Blue Devils to the ACC regular-season and tournament titles and helped them earn the top overall seed. Lendeborg also helped the Wolverines earn a No. 1 seed. Arkansas is seeded fourth, Texas Tech fifth and BYU sixth.
“This has been the best year of my life, honestly. I’ve had so much fun,” said Lendeborg, the first Michigan first-team All-American since Trey Burke in 2012-13. “Just how much I’ve learned this year in general has really helped me out and is really molding me to be better in the future no matter what I’m doing in my life.”
Arkansas had not had a first-team pick since Sidney Moncrief in 1978-79. Dybantsa, the nation’s top scorer at 25.3 points per game, joins Jimmer Fredette and Danny Ainge as the Cougars’ only first-team selections.
“When I left the NBA to come to college,” BYU coach Kevin Young said, “one thing I noticed is just a lot of guys, their processing speed was way slower. AJ’s is extremely high. So I can tell him something in the game, or in a film session, and he’s going to carry it over.”
Toppin was a second-team All-American for the Red Raiders last season, when he helped them reach the Elite Eight. Now he’s the only first-team pick in Texas Tech history, even though his season ended in February with a torn ACL in his right knee.
“JT Toppin is genuine. He’s an unbelievable competitor. He’s real,” Red Raiders coach Grant McCasland said after the injury. “You know how much JT loves our team and how hard he competed and how much he cared about that group. To understand that this is difficult and JT has a long road, to watch him weep and see how much this meant to him is hard.
“I’m excited to see what comes of this because the joy comes in the morning. There’s also a lot of hope in this, and even for JT there’s a lot of hope that he’ll get better because of this.”
Second team
Braden Smith of Purdue, who needs two assists to break Bobby Hurley’s Division I career record, earned 12 first-team votes and was chosen a second-team All-American. Smith was a first-team pick last season and honorable mention in 2023-24.
The senior from Westfield, Ind., was joined on the second team by Big Ten rivals Jeremy Fears Jr. of Michigan State, a Joliet native, and freshman Keaton Wagler of Illinois. Joshua Jefferson of Iowa State and North Carolina freshman Caleb Wilson rounded out the team.
Third team
Gonzaga senior Graham Ike, an honorable-mention pick two years ago, earned third-team honors this season. He was joined on the team by Houston freshman Kingston Flemings, sophomores Christian Anderson of Texas Tech and Labaron Philon Jr. of Alabama and junior forward Thomas Haugh of Florida.
Honorable mention
Jaden Bradley and Brayden Burries gave Arizona two honorable-mention selections this season, and Bennett Stirtz of Iowa earned the honor for the second consecutive year after making it with Drake last season.
Kansas freshman Darryn Peterson, who missed time with injuries, also received honorable mention, which is given to the next 10 players and ties after the first three All-America teams. The others were Zuby Ejiofor of St. John’s, Rueben Chinyelu of Florida, Bruce Thornton of Ohio State, Michael Ajayi of Butler, PJ Haggerty of Kansas State, Ebuka Okorie of Stanford and Tyler Tanner of Vanderbilt.
