Duke superstar Cameron Boozer is currently in the midst of what might be the greatest freshman season in college basketball history. He's putting together a better statistical year than Cooper Flagg did a year ago, and doing things that haven't been done by a freshman since Kevin Durant, while surpassing the future Hall-of-Famer at the same time.
He's the best player on the best team in college basketball, a runaway favorite for the Wooden Award as the National Player of the Year.
And despite that, Boozer is typically viewed as the No. 3 prospect for the 2026 NBA Draft. When conversations are happening around the No. 1 pick, it's about whether it should be Kansas guard Darryn Peterson or BYU wing AJ Dybantsa.
Boozer is usually left out.
That doesn't appear to be sitting right with The Athletic's Sam Vecenie, who, while recently projecting Boozer to go No. 3 to the Atlanta Hawks, spoke up about being comfortable with taking the Duke star with the No.1 pick if he were in charge of a franchise:
Said this on the mock we did last week but I'd feel pretty good about taking Cam Boozer at No. 1 overall. Totally get that it's out of line with the consensus view of NBA teams, but he's just the best player at the end of the day.
— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) March 4, 2026
Cameron Boozer deserves to be considered for the No. 1 pick
It's probably not a coincidence that Vecenie sent that tweet out on a night that both Dybantsa and Peterson struggled.
Dybantsa went 7-of-21 from the floor in BYU's blowout road loss to Cincinnati, the fourth loss in five outings for the Cougars.
Peterson, who has faced widespread criticism this year for his unavailability, went 3-of-18 from the field in Kansas' road loss to Arizona State.
Spurts of inconsistency aren't rare for freshmen. But that's what makes Boozer's season all the more special.
Boozer has been remarkably consistent and essentially impervious to off nights. He's only had six games this entire season that he shot under 50% from the field, and four of those happened during his first month of college basketball.
You know what you are going to get from Boozer every single night. He's a double-double machine. He's going to find ways to make a sizeable impact regardless of the defense that you throw at him.
He's the safest bet of the trio at the top of the draft to become an NBA All-Star.
Dybantsa and Peterson might have a higher ceiling as superstars, but whoever drafts Boozer in June is going to be extremely happy with that decision for the next decade or more.