In a year when the Big Ten’s freshman class made much more of an impact than last season, picking a five-man outfit of rookie players was an arduous process. That difficulty exhibits that the future of the league is in good hands if the majority of these players stick around for several years at their respective schools. That’s probably wishful thinking for a couple of them, but here’s our RTC Big Ten All-Freshman Team.

D’Angelo Russell was the best freshman in the Big Ten this season. (Kyle Robertson, Columbus Dispatch)

• D’Angelo Russell, Ohio State (19.2 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 5.2 APG, 42.2% 3FG)
• Melo Trimble, Maryland (16.1 PPG, 3.1 APG, 1.3 SPG, 87.6% FT)
• James Blackmon Jr., Indiana (15.8 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 82.1% FT, 38.5% 3FG)
• Bryant McIntosh, Northwestern (11.4 PPG, 4.7 APG, 84.8% FT, 36.4% 3FG)
• Jae’Sean Tate, Ohio State (8.9 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 0.9 SPG, 59.8% FG)

Tate really came on once he became a starter, as his numbers jumped to 12.1 PPG and 5.5 RPG over the last 12 games. An undersized power forward, the Ohio native plays much bigger than his listed height of 6’4″. McIntosh was not the most highly-touted member of Northwestern’s five-man recruiting class this season but he admirably assumed the point guard duties right away. He has some defensive issues to improve but he is an adept passer with the ability to make shots from deep and score in a variety of other ways. Blackmon Jr. was one of many three-point bombers on an Indiana team that ranked third in the nation in shooting the three (41.0%). His numbers dipped late in the season ( 22-of-68 from three in his last 11 games), but he still led the Hoosiers in scoring 12 times on the year. In many seasons Trimble would have been the clear Freshman of the Year as he led Maryland to a highly-surprising 26-5 regular season mark. He’s not a pure point guard in terms of his passing abilities but his skill in finishing plays coupled with a respectable 39.1 percent mark from three-point land makes him a major reason why the Terps are back on the national scene.

Russell is our Big Ten Freshman of the Year, as he surpassed expectations from day one. Rated as the 30th-best recruit in the nation according to 247 Sports.com’s composite rankings, he easily outperformed those expectations. In his first 13 games of the season, he averaged 17.7 PPG and 5.3 APG as Ohio State went 11-2 and he received some attention as a potential All-America candidate. Once Big Ten play started, he only got better, increasing his scoring to 20.3 PPG and contributing 5.1 APG as he began getting some NPOY talk. He also obliterated the stat sheet by showing that he’s an elite rebounder from the guard position, averaging 6.3 RPG per game in conference play and going for over 10 boards on three occasions. He finished the regular season ranking second in the Big Ten in scoring, third in assists, fifth in three-point percentage, sixth in steals, and 17th in rebounding. Russell took the conference by storm this season, and in what will probably his only year playing under Thad Matta, did everything he could muster for a Buckeyes team that has otherwise experienced a disappointing campaign.

Brendan Brody (307 Posts)

Brendan Brody is in his fourth season covering the Big Ten for RTC. Email him at brendan.brody@gmail.com, or follow him on twitter @berndon4.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2015 at 4:21 pm by Brendan Brody and is filed under big ten, microsites. Tagged: Bryant McIntosh, D'Angelo Russell, indiana, Jae'Sean Tate, james blackmon jr, maryland, Melo Trimble, northwestern, ohio state. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.