One day into the men’s college basketball season, the early takeaway is this: It might be the year of the freshman.

First-year players shone in their debuts across the country, including in the two marquee games Monday night. First, Arizona freshman Koa Peat exploded for 30 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals to lead the No. 13 Wildcats past defending national champion and No. 3 Florida, 93-87, in Las Vegas. Peat, a five-star recruit, is the projected No. 8 pick in The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie’s 2026 NBA mock draft.

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Then, in the second game in Vegas, potential No. 1 pick AJ Dybantsa went for 21 points and 6 rebounds to carry No. 8 BYU past Villanova, 71-66.

Elsewhere down the schedule, more freshmen starred, including preseason All-American Darryn Peterson for Kansas, five-star freshman Caleb Wilson for North Carolina, and Arkansas’ bright pairing of Darius Acuff Jr. and Meleek Thomas. Our takeaways from the first 24 hours of hoops:

How good was Koa Peat’s Arizona debut?

Uh, incredible? Lost in the shadow of this year’s consensus big three freshmen — Dybantsa, Duke’s Cam Boozer and Kansas’ Peterson — was the fact that the entire 2025 recruiting class was highly regarded. Peat, a top-10 prospect, certainly lived up to that mantle in his debut. Peat’s 30 points were the most by an Arizona freshman in the modern era (dating to 1985), and he was the best player on the court the majority of Monday night. He also joined Jerryd Bayless as the only Wildcat freshmen to ever post a 25-5-5 stat line — and he did it in his very first game, on a neutral court, against the defending national champions,