It's college basketball, you're getting all these guys before they hit their potential. Every single team that made the Final Four this past tournament started or had major contributions from at least one freshman (Michigan started Nimari Burnett every game, but McKenny actually played more minutes). If you look at the All-Region teams from last year's NCAA tournament, of the 20 players selected 5 were freshmen. 3/5 Consensus First Team All-Americans were Freshmen, as were 3/5 Consensus Second Team All-Americans.In today's world, I find the 5* OAD model to have a clear ceiling. Always exciting as F because it usually entails a lot of lottery picks, stars of tomorrow, but ineffective because you're usually getting them well before they kit their potential.
20 year old Euro freshman that played pro ball not the same as US freshmen. Last year's team had plenty of age on it.
Mirk was 19 at the start of the season. He was born 5 months before Caleb Wilson and 3 months before Mikel Brown, Jr., who I am sure you would have had no trouble categorizing as a freshmen last season. He's actually younger than Brayden Burries, who was also categorized as a freshman last season.

