Did Anthony Davis and MKG Ruin Our Freshman Perception?

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That is the question Gary Parrish poses in his latest article. Two seasons ago Anthony Davis and MKG, like Wall, Bledsoe, and Cousins before them, made the leap to college basketball like it was nothing. Davis was a defensive force from game 1 and developed on the offensive end exponentially as the season rolled on. MKG was an unstoppable work horse who would never give up on a play and provided the heart and soul for a young Kentucky team. With the greatest class of freshman entering college basketball in a decade perhaps we just expected too much too fast. Yes, guys like Julius Randle and Aaron Gordon can dominate because of their physical ability but it may take a little longer for players like Andrew Wiggins and Andrew Harrison to adapt. Like Kentucky, Kansas dropped their second game of this season over the weekend and Gary Parrish sees similarity between the two teams:

Kansas' best lineup is as follows:

Freshman Frank Mason

Freshman Wayne Selden

Freshman Andrew Wiggins

Sophomore Perry Ellis

Freshman Joel Embiid

That looks a lot like Kentucky's best lineup, which is:

Freshman Andrew Harrison

Freshman Aaron Harrison

Freshman James Young

Freshman Julius Randle

Sophomore Willie Cauley-Stein

I bring this up because I spent Friday night watching Kentucky lose to Baylor and Saturday afternoon watching Kansas lose to Colorado, and a lot of the things that bothered the young Wildcats also bothered the young Jayhawks, most notably confusing zone defenses employed by Baylor's Scott Drew and Colorado's Tad Boyle. If nothing else, those two games in a span of 24 hours made me realize that Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist -- and a veteran sprinkled here and there -- spent the 2011-12 season making something look easy that just isn't easy. That Kentucky team, highlighted by two incredible freshmen, has distorted what we think is reasonable to expect from talented teams that are young, and I freely admit that I'm among the biggest guilty parties in this regard.

I think it is so much easier to remember both the Wall team and the Davis team as they were in March rather than where they were in early December. Both Kentucky and Kansas should be major factors this March but let's give both teams some time to go through some growing pains. Perhaps this group is more 2011 than 2012. That season Brandon Knight and the rest struggled to click all season long following a roster turnover and they dropped games to less talented Georgia, Bama, and Ole Miss. Once they got it figured out they went on to knock off the two best teams in the tournament in Ohio St and UNC before coming up short in the Final Four. I still think we can expect this team to be great but for now and perhaps in the future we may need to all realize that this process just takes some time. Like Parrish says it's a good thing there is plenty of it between now and March. Do you think Davis and the Kidd have ruined our perception of freshman success?

[CBS Sports: Colorado is good and Kansas is ... young and still developing]