While I would agree that his offensive stats improved as a soph, to me at least, the thing that made Posh stand out were steals. As a freshman, he everaged 2.6 steals per game, and the ball was not safe whenever Posh was in the vicinity.
As a soph that number declined to 2.1 steals per game, and while still very good, he didn't appear to be everywhere on the court at once. I'm guessing he put on between 15 and 20 lbs. No question his offensive game improved and the added strength maybe even helped when rebounding, but also lost some speed.
Just my opinion. PEople point to Dwight Gooden's 24-4 1985 record as the height on his career, and no doubt it was. I always thought he was more dominant in his rookie year of 1984 and the numbers don't bear that out EXCEPT on analysis despite the great 1985 season, in 1984 he averaged 11.4 Ks/9 and that declined radically to 8.7 in '85 and never came close to the '84 number.
Strikeouts are a sign of total dominance by a pitcher, as in "you can't touch me". In basketball blocks and steals have that effect too. Both can be deceptive numbers of total defensive performance but Posh as a frosh was a fantastic on ball defender who didn't have to play the passing lanes for steals. He could take it away on the dribble, in bounds, from behind, or when facing his man. After freahman year that capacity diminished, much like Gooden's strikeout rate.
Posh became a better play, except in the area that made him stand out. Same could be said of Gooden to some limited extent.