Duke may not be going to the Final Four, but Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett did receive a solid consolation prize by being named to the AP All-America First Team.
The All-American teams were revealed on Tuesday, and the first team has a decided Duke flavor. Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett, two of Duke’s fabulous freshmen, were named to the first team along with Murray State’s Ja Morant, Michigan State’s Cassius Winston, and Tennessee’s Grant Williams.
The accomplishment for the Duke freshmen is very rare as Williamson and Barrett are just the second pair of freshmen teammates to be named first-team All-Americans in NCAA history.
Of the other first teasers, the most notable names are Morant and Winston. Morant put on a show at Murray State and recorded the first triple-double in the NCAA Tournament in seven years, putting himself in position to be a high lottery pick in June’s NBA draft. Winston is the leader of the Michigan State squad that upset Duke in the NCAA Tournament and was also named the Big Ten’s Player of the Year.
The second All-America team is headlined by a pair of high-scoring guards in Carsen Edwards, who broke Stephen Curry’s single-tournament scoring record for Purdue, and Marquette’s Markus Howard. The rest of the second team includes two more potential lottery picks, Texas Tech’s Jarrett Culver and Gonzaga’s Rui Hachimura, along with Wisconsin’s double-double machine, Ethan Happ.
Hachimura’s teammate at Gonzaga, Brandon Clarke, headlines the All-America third team along with Kentucky’s P.J. Washington and Kansas forward Dedric Lawson. A pair of Virginia teammates, Kyle Guy and De’Andre Hunter, round out the All-America teams for 2019.