In the era of the unrestricted transfer portal, revenue-sharing, and NIL, the average age of successful men’s basketball programs has continued to rise. But Duke continues to win with an age-old recipe: Build a program around star freshmen. 

This year’s roster, which won the ACC tournament and is a projected one-seed in the Division I NCAA men’s basketball tournament, is no different. The Blue Devils’ freshman phenom is 6-foot-9 forward Cameron Boozer, a likely choice for the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. 

The trend arguably started sometime after the NBA implemented the one-and-done rule in 2005, which required all men’s basketball players to be at least 19 years old and one year removed from high school to declare for the draft. Former Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski was known for embracing the era of one-and-dones, from Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett to Jayson Tatum and Kyrie Irving. Star freshmen were the bread and butter of the recruiting wars throughout the one-and-done period, and Krzyzewski led his teams to two national championships.

In 2023, a year after Krzyzewski retired, a federal judge ruled the NCAA’s one-time transfer restriction violated antitrust laws. In the subsequent years, the combination of name, image, and likeness and the unrestricted transfer portal created what many considered to be “unrestricted free agency” at the college level. The most valuable recruiting asset was no longer coming from high schools; it was instead coming from the transfer portal. As a result, teams got older and started to build new rosters every year. 

Duke, under new head coach Jon Scheyer, could’ve gone on with that philosophy. Instead, the Blue Devils have continued to embrace the fountain of youth. The Blue Devils haven’t completely eschewed the transfer portal and NIL era, however. They’ve got major, if quiet, donors and businesses helping with NIL and revenue-sharing. But the team has used those resources mostly to continue building its program around younger players.

Last year, star freshman Cooper Flagg led the Blue Devils to the Final Four, where Duke was reportedly the only program with a starting five boasting an average age under 20. The entire starting lineup for the Blue Devils ended up securing NBA draft picks; Flagg went No. 1 overall. 

This past offseason, Scheyer retained the core of his remaining players. He then recruited five freshmen. The class, led by Cameron Boozer, ranked first in the nation. Boozer is the only D-I freshman in 30 seasons to score at least 700 points in a regular season. He leads the ACC in scoring and rebounds, and he was voted both the ACC Player of the Year and the ACC Rookie of the Year. 

Going into the ACC tournament, their starting five included another freshman, guard/forward Dame Sarr; two sophomores, guard/forward Isaiah Evans and center Patrick Ngongba; and junior guard Caleb Foster. This season, freshmen Cayden Boozer, Cameron’s twin brother, and Nikolas Khamenia have also been coming off the bench (due to injuries, Cayden was part of the starting five during the ACC tournament).

Now, Boozer and the Blue Devils will head into another NCAA tournament with the intention of proving that embracing the fountain of youth can still win you a championship.

When UCLA’s women’s basketball team took the floor in the Big Ten championship against Iowa, the starting five didn’t include any underclassmen. Seniors Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, and Gabriela Jaquez, along with graduate students Charlisse Leger-Walker and Gianna Kneepkens, led the program to a Big Ten conference tournament championship. They destroyed the Hawkeyes in a jaw-dropping 96–45 win, during which all five starters scored in double digits.

It’s not a new trend that women’s college basketball programs have historically skewed older. The WNBA requires domestic players to be 22 years old and to have completed their graduation or be four years removed from high school graduation to be eligible for the WNBA draft.

But UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close, in her 15th year with the Bruins, has had to adjust her recruiting strategy in recent years. The new era of NIL, revenue-sharing, and the transfer portal has led to many schools emphasizing recruiting more older players through the transfer portal than younger players out of high school. 

“I have a responsibility to keep our program at a championship level, and I don’t think I can do it with just freshmen anymore,” Close told Yahoo Sports earlier this season.

Now, UCLA is a Big Ten champion and projected one-seed, with a chance to capture an NCAA championship.

All five starters have the experience that comes with age, but many of them have the recent, shared experience of coming up short, too. Rice, Betts, and Jaquez were all part of the UCLA squad that made it to the Final Four last year (Leger-Walker was a Bruin but did not play last season). They lost to the UConn Huskies in the semifinal round—an 85–51 blowout Close hopes the returning players learn from.

“I’d never been No. 1 in the country for 14 straight weeks,” Close told The Orange County Register in February. “We’d never been to the Final Four. … I think that all of us, from our players to me as the head coach, are better equipped and have a little more of a proactive strategic mindset this year.”