NCAAB

College Basketball's Elite 8 Freshman During the 2016-17 Season So Far

Brett Oswalt  —  @bRo14thekid Jan 4th, 2017
Which youngsters have been the most valuable to their team at this point when using advanced statistics?

As we entered the 2016-17 college basketball season, there was a lot of talk around the top freshmen and NBA draft prospects of first-year college hoops players. The list of notables included Harry Giles and Jayson Tatum of the Duke Blue Devils, Josh Jackson of the Kansas Jayhawks, Lonzo Ball of the UCLA Bruins and Markelle Fultz of the Washington Huskies.

There were others atop ESPN's top 100, but those players made up the cream of the crop. Have they performed like it so far?

According to scouts, they very well might be. However, by the numbers, that might not be the case.

Here are the elite eight freshmen -- ranked by win shares per 40 minutes -- from eight to one.

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