Last time we focused on the freshmen, they had just played their first game and were not particularly impressive. What a difference a month makes. In the seventh game of the season, the freshmen duo of Austin Freeman and Chris Wright put on a show for the 8,000+ at the Verizon Center, leading the Hoyas to a 87-55 thrashing of Jacksonville.

Since that first William and Mary game, Freeman and Wright have been getting steadily more minutes, culminating in the last game, where they had 25 and 22 minutes, respectively. We are not far from the time when these two guys come in off the bench and there will be no drop-off in quality of play. In fact, in the most recent games, it has been the bench to jump-start the play for the Hoyas. Let’s look a little closer at the performance of the newest Hoyas.

One thing a team looks for from its bench is the ability to score points quickly. In five of the first seven games, Austin Freeman has come off the bench and made his first shot, four of those times being from downtown. Freeman has also showed a good understanding of the offense, getting some easy points on backdoor cuts and open layups. As the season continues, the Hoyas will begin to focus more on the motion offense, and if Freeman’s understanding continues to grow, he should have no problems fitting in.

Chris Wright’s maturation as a point guard is well underway. While in some aspects he has done well (five assists against Jacksonville), he still has some room for improvement (three turnovers). Fortunately, he has good role models on the team in Jonathan Wallace and Jessie Sapp. This also means that he doesn’t have to run the offense every time he is in the game, giving him a chance to put points up as well. Wright has been showing off his shooting ability recently, as he was 6-9 last outing, and in his past four games he is shooting 67% from downtown.

We should remember that Freeman and Wright aren’t the only freshman on the Hoyas. Omar Wattad got a few minutes against Jacksonville, and while his playing time was limited, he made some contributions - five points and two boards. It is good that Coach can get #31 into some games, since when January rolls around I don’t expect him to be on the floor too much. Unfortunately, Nikita Mescheriakov might not be able to get similar minutes for himself, since his suspension will end just one game before the Hoyas begin their Big East portion of the schedule.

When analyzing the progress of the freshmen, we should bear in mind the advice of Coach Thompson. Just like he preaches to his team, we should try not to get too high after a success or too low after a failure. There are certainly encouraging signs, but at the same time these guys are still freshmen, and mistakes are inevitable. The key will be seeing how well they learn from their mistakes, and if they grow from them. The Hoyas have a big game against Memphis next week, and not long after that, the Big East season begins. We will have to wait to see how the freshmen handle themselves in the upcoming month. And I think by then we will have a sense how good these freshmen, and this team, can really be.