It was early in the final week before March Madness when BYU’s AJ Dybantsa opened his Big 12 Tournament run by scoring 40 points, breaking a freshman single-game record held by NBA great Kevin Durant.“I’m just trying to win games,” Dybantsa said afterward.By Selection Sunday, Darius Acuff Jr. had completed a three-game tear through the Southeastern Conference Tournament that secured Arkansas’ first title in 26 years.“Downhill was working all weekend and today,” he said.And that’s how this freshman class stocked with high-end NBA talent rolled all year, making the extraordinary look routine — so much so that the NBA is concerned about teams tanking to improve their chances at landing one of these talents in June.From Dybantsa and Acuff to Duke’s Cameron Boozer and Kansas’ Darryn Peterson as headliners, the potential class of draft prospects is considered among the deepest in years if all go the one-and-done route as expected.And they’ve arrived at the NCAA Tournament to play in the sport’s marquee event. It’s now the March of the freshmen, possibly all the way to the Final Four in Indianapolis.“I know most of those guys. They’re all having great years,” Acuff said during his SEC run. “They’re playing special. It’s great to see all the young guys playing great.”Start with the East Region, where top overall tournament seed Duke has the 6-foot-10, 250-pound Boozer (22.5 points, 10.2 rebounds) as the leading force in an often-withering inside-out attack.The East also has a potential top overall pick in Peterson, a 6-6 guard averaging 19.8 points even while being in and out of the lineup all year for the fourth-seeded Jayhawks; and a potential top-10 talent in 6-5 guard Mikel Brown Jr. from sixth-seeded Louisville.In the Wes …
