Since the dawn of professional and collegiate sports, athletes have been going pro at progressively younger ages. Starting in the 1880s to the early 1930s, many athletes wouldn’t go pro or collegiate until they had reached their mid-20s. Nowadays, athletes can hit the big leagues before they even reach adulthood. While there are thousands of athletes I could choose to write about, I’m going to write about the University of Arizona basketball phenom, Kylan Boswell.
Boswell is currently a sophomore combo guard at Arizona, but the most interesting part is he’s barely 18 and a half. Boswell’s freshman season was near-perfect for a college freshman guard: 4.6 points per game, 1.6 rebounds per game, and 1.6 assists per game, and a Pac-12 Tournament Championship to round off the resume. Boswell also played 13 minutes of Arizona’s 59-55 loss to Princeton in the March Madness Tournament, making him the youngest male to ever play in the tournament. The cherry on top of his stellar season was he did it all at 17 years old, which is younger than most high school seniors – and some juniors.
After this breakout season-long performance, Boswell’s talent was noticed by USA U19 Head Coach Tad Boyle, who selected him as one of the starters for the FIBA U19 World Cup, and Boswell stepped up to lead, averaging 9.2 points and 3.7 rebounds a game. Arizona Head Coach Tommy Lloyd noticed this leadership and improvement, moving Boswell into a heavier rotation, with high chances of starting some games in the upcoming 2023-2024 season, Arizona’s last in the Pac-12 Conference.
During the 2023 offseason, Coach Lloyd’s and the Arizona program’s charisma drew in commitments from three big performers in college basketball: North Carolina’s star guard, Caleb Love, San Diego State’s dominant forward, Keshad Johnson, and Alabama’s playmaking guard Jaden Bradley. Though the additions of Love and Bradley pose a threat to his playing time, Boswell showed he still deserved a major role in the rotation after posting 7 points, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists in a loss to Blue Team in Arizona’s Red-Blue Showcase Game on September 30th.
The Arizona Wildcats begin their basketball season on October 20 with an exhibition game against the Lewis-Clark State Warriors. This is sure to be an exceptional game for Boswell, as his abilities have only improved since last season.
