The 2016-17 college basketball season will be the "Year of the Freshmen," featuring what could be the best class we've ever seen. Over the next two weeks we will get familiar with the best of the best, examining who they are and where each of the top 10 prospects in the 2016 ESPN 100 came from.
Read more: No. 10 Duke's Frank Jackson | No. 9 Kentucky's Malik Monk
No. 8 Michigan State's Miles Bridges | No. 7 Washington's Markelle Fultz
No. 6 Kentucky's De'Aaron Fox | No. 5 Kentucky's Bam Adebayo
No. 4 UCLA's Lonzo Ball | No. 3 Duke's Jayson Tatum
No. 2 Kansas' Josh Jackson | No. 1 Duke's Harry Giles
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- De'Aaron Fox emerges from the locker room with the sleepy, heavy-eyed gaze of a teenager who woke up 10 minutes ago. He yawns, rolls his head and stares at the ceiling of the Joe Craft Center as if he's never heard of 10 a.m.
He's long but lean, still a few months from adding 15 pounds to a frame that will be enhanced by weight training and the meals prepped by the private chef at Kentucky's Wildcat Coal Lodge housing complex.
Once the offseason pickup game begins, he's spry, bouncy and determined.
And fast. Faster than everyone in the gym.
One moment he's on the left side of the practice floor. Then, the elusive point guard who will lead Kentucky's talented fleet in 2016-17 teleports to the rim and scores. On a later possession, he twirls his finger, and his teammates rotate as he creates a crease in the defense and finds Brad Calipari, a walk-on and John Calipari's son, in the right corner for an open 3-pointer.
It's his show. It's his team.
It's not difficult to see how the 6-foot-3 freshman's frame, length, will, burst and speed remind those around the program of a legend and NBA point guard who came to Lexington in 2009 with the same size and traits.
"[He's a] very talented kid, can pass the ball, shoot the ball," said three-time NBA All-Star and Washington Wizards point guard John Wall. "I actually saw him play in Houston last season when we played the Rockets."
It's one thing for fans in barbershops and bars to suggest a freshman stud reminds them of a professional star who once led the Wildcats to the Elite Eight before securing the No. 1 slot in the 2010 NBA draft. But Wall's acknowledgement of the conversation only enhances the credibility of the comparison and enlarges the spotlight Fox will play under this season.
"I mean, being compared to someone like him, it's a huge honor," Fox said. "I see similarities, but I still feel like we play differently. With speed and athleticism, I think we're really similar. ... I feel like he handles the ball better, and I feel like I shoot the ball better."
This year, Fox will replace Tyler Ulis -- a second-round pick by the Phoenix Suns in the 2016 NBA draft -- as Kentucky's point guard.
Kentucky point guards become rock stars when they excel: Ask Wall, Ulis, Marquis Teague and Brandon Knight. They also become the subject of a Big Blue Nation social media onslaught if they fail to play like lottery picks.
Ask Andrew Harrison.
Fox understands the stakes. He does not, however, only aim to emulate Wall. He hopes to learn from him.
The duo connected after Wall tweeted about the Katy, Texas, native's highlight reel last year.
Tough !!RT @EvanDaniels: This is an impressive reel on De'Aaron Fox from Las Vegas @JasonScheer | Video: http://t.co/bQvUmlOyON
— John Wall (@JohnWall) August 9, 2015
Since then, they've formed a relationship, one nurtured through biweekly text messages.
"He says, 'Just stay up, you're young, you're a freshman so never get down on yourself,'" Fox said.
In recent months, Wall -- Calipari's first point guard at Kentucky -- has advised the freshman, No. 9 on Chad Ford's Big Board for 2017 NBA draft prospects, to prepare for the coach's tutelage and, at times, his wrath.
"He told me to just go in really open-minded," Fox said. "He told me Coach [Calipari] is gonna get on me a lot so go in and be ready to be criticized."
And scrutinized.
Fox now plays point guard at Kentucky, a program that's reached the Final Four in four of the last six seasons. The current Wildcats enter the season as the No. 2 team in the AP poll and the SEC favorite.
Fox said the praise doesn't worry him.
"I don't really see it as pressure," Fox said. "At the end of the day, we're just going out and playing basketball."
Those who know Fox doubt he'll crumble.
In 2012, he scored 50 points in a win during the third game of his freshman season at Cypress Lakes High School in Katy, Texas. As colleges began to call and inquire about Fox, Cypress Lakes coach Emmanuel Olatunbosun worried about his young star.
He warned Fox about the deluge that would soon arrive. The colleges that would visit. The reporters who would request interviews.
Fox told Olatunbosun he did not fear the crush. Yeah, right, Olatunbosun thought.
"He looks at me and says, 'Coach, I'm not gonna change,'" Olatunbosun said.
Three days later, Fox hit the game-winner in another victory.
He could become the aggressor in pressing moments for his high school team. But he also understood his role as a maestro and leader. If he dominated each possession (he could) he risked alienating his teammates. So on the court he was the hero and the sidekick. In practice, Fox would often defer to teammates. He'd pass on open layups to put other players in a position to score.
Olatunbosun asked Fox why he played that way in practice. Why didn't he dominate? Why didn't he slash and score and dunk the way he did in games? Fox told him he had to make other players feel confident. If he took over, they might feel insignificant, he said.
"Two other kids on that team got scholarships (Devin Anderson at NAIA Friends University and Josh Nebo at St. Francis, Pennsylvania)," Olatunbosun said. "I would say that had a lot to do with him. He wouldn't score in practice. Ultimately, it was the right thing to do. He would not ball hog. He knew when to go and when not to go."
That's the next starting point guard for Calipari, a coach who recruited six of the top 40 assists leaders in the NBA last season. But Fox will face grown men in the SEC and throughout college basketball, a leap for any freshman, even a projected lottery pick.
Like those who played with his talented predecessors, however, Fox's teammates (many underclassmen), trust his leadership. That's significant for a young team.
"He plays a lot like John Wall," Kentucky freshman Bam Adebayo said. "He's just left-handed. There you go. Little John Wall."
Calipari said Fox is a "special" athlete, but he can't imagine any player, including Fox, outrunning Wall, perhaps the fastest player in the NBA.
Fox and Wall do share an ability to see the game in slow motion even as they pace across the court like an auctioneer mumbles, the coach said. Calipari wants Fox to mimic Wall, who used his speed to attack opponents.
"Everyone says he's as fast as John Wall," Calipari said before pausing. "Stop. See, John Wall used his speed as a weapon. And it was his No. 1 weapon. Wasn't just a weapon, it was the weapon that he used to beat you. De'Aaron doesn't see himself that way and I'm trying to get him to just fly, man. Go at people, try to get to that rim and then, if it's not there, let's play."
Few will want to play Fox and a roster full of matchup problems.
His performance at point guard, however, will impact a unit with the promise to become the nation's most powerful offense, more probable if the Wildcats can shoot and execute against the zone schemes they'll see often in 2016-17.
Fair or not, the comparisons to Wall will persist all season. Fox's skills and capabilities, coupled with Wall's compliments, suggest they're not crazy.
"I think he's more of a scoring guard than I was," Wall said. "I'm really excited to see what he's going to do this season."