Cameron Boozer second straight Duke freshman to win AP award
Duke forward Cameron Boozer (12) drives during an NCAA tournament Sweet 16 game against St. John’s on March 27 in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Cameron Boozer was at the center of everything for the Duke men’s basketball team this season.
The 6-foot-9, 250-pound forward proved tough enough to score through physical play. Rangy enough to space the floor and shoot from outside. Deft enough as a passer to find teammates, whether against constant double teams coming for him as the top name on every scouting report or while running the entire offense from up top.
“You just want to affect winning,” Boozer said, “in whatever way you can.”
The highly rated NBA prospect did that all season for a team that won 35 games, reached No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll, received the top overall seed for the NCAA Division I tournament and reached Elite Eight round before being done in by the University of Connecticut’s big rally and last-second 3-pointer. Now he’s The Associated Press men’s college basketball player of the year, only the fifth freshman to earn the honor but the second in a row for the Blue Devils, who keep adding to the longest list of winners in the country.
“It just goes to show more about what our team has done, just because I think that really helps awards like this, having great team success,” Boozer told the AP. “It’s really just not me.”
Cameron Boozer, named a unanimous All-America first-team selection last month, received 59 of 61 votes from AP Top 25 poll voters in results released Friday. BYU freshman AJ Dybantsa, another potential lottery pick in the NBA draft, received the other two votes after averaging a national-best 25.5 points per game.
Boozer, whose father is former Duke and longtime NBA player Carlos Boozer, averaged 22.5 points (ranked ninth in Division I this season) and 10.2 rebounds (12th) while finishing tied for the national lead with 22 double-doubles. He also averaged 4.1 assists while posting efficient shooting numbers at 55.6% overall and 39.1% from 3-point range.
He joins fellow Blue Devils star Cooper Flagg last year, another Duke player in Zion Williamson (2019), Kentucky’s Anthony Davis (2012) and Texas star Kevin Durant (2007) as freshmen to win the AP award. Each went No. 1 or No. 2 in the NBA draft that year.
“I’m very grateful just that I’m even in those (NBA) conversations,” Boozer said. “I think a lot of people dream of being where I am. Sometimes you’ve got to take a step back and just remember that once upon a time, you were a kid dreaming to be here. So I think it’s very special.”
His coaches think the same of him.
“We’ve been fortunate enough the last two years to have two of the best freshmen to ever play in college basketball back to back,” Duke associate head coach and former Blue Devils player Chris Carrawell said. “And Cam is right up there.
Boozer is Duke’s ninth AP winner, each coming from a different player. UCLA is the next closest with five winners, though that included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1967 and 1969) and Bill Walton (1972 and 1973) as two-time selections.
Duke rival North Carolina, Ohio State and UCLA are the only other programs with as many as three different players to win the award.
Boozer arrived at Duke alongside twin brother Cayden after the two led Miami’s Christopher Columbus High School to four straight state championships. By late February, the Blue Devils were starting a four-week reign atop the AP Top 25 that would carry them to March Madness.
Cameron — who said he looks at winning as a skill — routinely posted top performances in Duke’s biggest games, including during a rugged nonconference slate.
He matched a season high with 35 points in a November win against Arkansas. He followed with 29 points against 2025 national champion Florida. He also had big performances at Michigan State (18 points, 15 rebounds) and flirted with a triple-double (18 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists) in a February win against Michigan.
Along the way, he pushed through bumps and shoves. He closed Sunday’s season-ending loss to UConn with 27 points and his right eye swollen from a first-half blow.
“There’s no agenda other than figuring out a way to win,” Wolverines coach Dusty May said. “I’ve seen him play a number of times this year where there’s six guys in the paint, and it’s not as if he’s jumping 40, 50 inches off the floor. His desire to rebound the ball, to set physical screens, to play to his advantages, is as impressive as any freshman that I can recall.”
The other challenge was managing the scrutiny that comes from expectations for greatness. A missed shot. A turnover. The 3-for-17 shooting while battling rising frustration and Virginia shot-blocker Ugonna Onyenso in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game, which the Blue Devils won to add a league tournament crown to their regular-season championship.
“He does a great job of flushing it and not letting it dwell on him too much,” Cayden said. “That’s something he’s always been able to do since we were younger. Obviously I talk to him when he needs me to. And I sometimes just understood that, hey, he’s going through something, give him some space for a little bit and he’ll figure it out.”
Cameron said getting away for time alone and putting down the phone helps. He points to prayer and even a recent effort to read more.
The rest of the time, though, he’ll throw himself into becoming a better player. There’s comfort in that routine, with the results yet to fail him.
“I think just being prepared alleviates pressure,” he said. “Being ready for a game, watching film, working out, knowing you put your time in, being confident in yourself — I think all that takes away a lot of the pressure that people talk about. At the end of the day, pressure really is what you put on yourself.”
Be the first to comment