1st Round TV schedule and announcers: Tuesday, March 15 6:40 p.m. (truTV): 16. Texas Southern vs. 16. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (Tom McCarthy/Steve Lavin/Avery Johnson/Jon Rothstein) 9:10 p.m. (truTV): 12. Indiana vs. 12. Wyoming (McCarthy/Lavin/Johnson/Rothstein) Wednesday, March 16 6:40 p.m. (truTV): 16. Bryant vs. 16. Wright State (McCarthy/Lavin/Johnson/Rothstein) 9:10 p.m. (truTV): 11. Notre Dame vs. 11. Rutgers (McCarthy/Lavin/Johnson/Rothstein) Thursday, March 17 12:15 p.m. (CBS): 11. Michigan vs. 6. Colorado State (Eagle/Spanarkel/Erdahl) 12:45 p.m. (truTV): 13. South Dakota State vs. 4. Providence (Nessler/Haywood/Washburn) 1:45 p.m. (TNT): 9. Memphis vs. 8. Boise State(Catalon/Lappas/Katz) 2:00 p.m. (TBS): 16. Norfolk State vs. 1. Baylor (Anderson/Jackson/LaForce) 2:45 p.m. (CBS): 14. Longwood vs. 3. Tennessee (Eagle/Spanarkel/Erdahl) 3:10 p.m. (truTV): 12. Richmond vs. 5. Iowa (Nessler/Haywood/Washburn) 4:15 p.m. (TNT): 16. Georgia State vs. 1. Gonzaga (Catalon/Lappas/Katz) 4:30 p.m. (TBS): 9. Marquette vs. 8. UNC (Anderson/Jackson/LaForce) 6:50 p.m. (TNT): 12. New Mexico State vs. 5 UConn (Eagle/Spanarkel/Erdahl) 7:10 p.m. (CBS): 15. Saint Peter’s vs. 2. Kentucky (Nessler/Haywood/Washburn) 7:20 p.m. (TBS): 12. Wyoming/Indiana vs. 5. Saint Mary’s (Catalon/Lappas/Katz) 7:27 p.m. (truTV): 9. Creighton vs. 8. San Diego State (Anderson/Jackson/LaForce) 9:20 p.m. (TNT): 13. Vermont vs. 4. Arkansas (Eagle/Spanarkel/Erdahl) 9:40 p.m. (CBS): 10. San Francisco vs. 7. Murray State (Nessler/Haywood/Washburn) 9:50 p.m. (TBS): 13. Akron vs. 4. UCLS (Catalon/Lappas/Katz) 9:57 p.m. (truTV): 16. Texas Southern/Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs. 1. Kansas (Anderson/Jackson/LaForce) Friday, March 18 12:15 p.m. (CBS): 10. Loyola-Chicago vs. 7. Ohio State (Harlan/Miller/Bonner/Jacobson) 12:45 p.m. (truTV): 15. Jacksonville State vs. 2. Auburn (Nantz/Raftery/Hill/Wolfson) 1:45 p.m. (TNT): 14. Montana State vs. 3. Texas Tech (Byington/Smith/Johnson/Shehadi) 2:00 p.m. (TBS): 14. Yale vs. 3. Purdue (Dedes/Antonelli/Ross) 2:45 p.m. (CBS): 15. Delaware vs. 2. Villanova (Harlan/Miller/Bonner/Jacobson) 3:10 p.m. (truTV): 10. Miami (FL) vs. 7. USC (Nantz/Raftery/Hill/Wolfson) 4:15 p.m. (TNT): 11. Rutgers/Notre Dame vs. 6. Alabama (Byington/Smith/Johnson/Shehadi) 4:30 p.m. (TBS): 11. Virginia Tech vs. 6. Texas (Dedes/Antonelli/Ross) 6:50 p.m. (TNT): 13. Chattanooga vs. 4. Illinois (Harlan/Miller/Bonner/Jacobson) 7:10 p.m. (CBS): 15. Cal State Fullerton vs. 2. Duke (Nantz/Raftery/Hill/Wolfson) 7:20 p.m. (TBS): 11. Iowa State vs. 6. LSU (Byington/Smith/Johnson/Shehadi) 7:27 p.m. (truTV): 16. Wright State/Bryant vs. 1. Arizona (Dedes/Antonelli/Ross) 9:20 p.m. (TNT): 12. UAB vs. 5. Houston (Harlan/Miller/Bonner/Jacobson) 9:40 p.m. (CBS): 10. Davidson vs. 7. Michigan State (Nantz/Raftery/Hill/Wolfson) 9:50 p.m. (TBS): 14. Colgate vs. 3. Wisconsin(Byington/Smith/Johnson/Shehadi) 9:57 p.m. (truTV): 9. TCU vs. 8. Seton Hall(Dedes/Antonelli/Ross) Now, once again, I have to figure out some way to stream truTV
Those, and the other 8 games on it. I learned it exists selection Sunday 1 year ago and hadn't thought about it since
Memphis is going to get demolished by Gonzaga if they get their first tourney win in their opening round under Penny
I remember these 2 games and this team: new ESPN doc on '97 Coppin State in the Tourney, just heard about it: https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports...0220308-iu4f5tvlnjh5vgjrqrng4tacmu-story.html Weber State and Harold "The Show" Arceneaux beating North Carolina a couple of years later, and Valpo with Rockets Legend Bryce Drew beating the Ol'Miss Confederacy are my favorite tourney upsets from back then.
I agree with this, but it will be very interesting to see how Duren does. He has been pretty phenomenal the last half of the season, when he doesn’t get in foul trouble. Gonzaga is exactly the type of team that Memphis does poorly against. Two bigs, great discipline, and ball movement, plus Penny is a lousy bench coach.
Roddy vs. Diabate, Branham vs. Williamson and more: The best NBA prospect matchups in the NCAA Tournament’s first round Selection Sunday has come and gone, which means it’s time to dig into all of the players and games that will feature in the upcoming NCAA Tournament this week. Obviously, a number of NBA fans will be checking into the tournament and experiencing college basketball for the first time this season, which means they might not know exactly where to look and what to watch for. I’ve got you covered. The first round of the NCAA Tournament doesn’t always give a ton of awesome one-on-one prospect matchups where great players figure to face off against each other and actually be responsible for stopping the other. Typically a lot of the best prospects are on the best teams facing lower-seeded teams. This year is no different. Chet Holmgren is the No. 1 overall prospect on The Athletic’s 2022 NBA Draft Big Board, and he’s on the No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga Bulldogs, facing an overmatched Georgia State frontcourt. Duke and No. 4 prospect Paolo Banchero face a Cal-State Fullerton team that is 164th in adjusted defensive efficiency, per KenPom. No. 3 overall prospect Jaden Ivey is facing a Yale team outside of the top 100 in defensive efficiency. Second-seeded Auburn and No. 2 prospect Jabari Smith Jr. are facing a Jacksonville State team without much size and a defense outside of the top 170 nationally. Top-10 prospect Johnny Davis and Wisconsin face a Colgate team outside of the top 200 in defense. Kansas and Baylor are similarly top-seeded teams with potential first-round picks who won’t face an interesting individual matchup until the second round. But that doesn’t mean there is nothing to look for in the opening round. In fact, there are a number of really great opportunities for prospects about whom scouts have some questions to prove themselves in a big way. I broke down the nine favorite matchups that I think will actually tell us a lot about the prospects at hand. To qualify here, the prospects need to actually have a chance to face off regularly against each other in a real way. For example, I like both Tari Eason from LSU and Tyrese Hunter from Iowa State, but I find it unlikely they face off against each other regularly, even if LSU switches a lot of its ball-screen actions. So I’m less inclined to list that, even if Eason will play a critical role as a help defender in slowing down Iowa State’s dribble penetration and midrange-heavy attack with Izaiah Brockington and Hunter. Here are the nine NCAA Tournament matchups I’m looking forward to evaluating the most in the first round. Player rankings listed are from my most recent draft Big Board. My hope is to do something similar to this for each round. 1. David Roddy, Colorado State | 6-foot-6, 255-pound forward | Rank: No. 72 vs. Moussa Diabate, Michigan | 6-foot-11, 210-pound forward | Rank: 50 and Hunter Dickinson, Michigan | 7-foot-1, 260-pound center | Rank: 85 Everyone I’ve seen speak of this matchup so far has mentioned Roddy vs. Dickinson, but I don’t know that Dickinson and Roddy will actually face off against each other all that often. Roddy is too important to Colorado State’s offense to risk foul trouble by putting him in an undersized matchup situation against Dickinson. And Dickinson isn’t mobile enough on the perimeter to deal with Roddy’s pick-and-pop game. It’s possible Colorado State coach Niko Medved tries to go small to give Michigan a different look (especially if it’s tight late or the Rams need a change of pace), but Roddy played about 70 percent of his minutes this year, per Pivot Analysis, with one of Dischon Thomas, James Moors or Adam Thistlewood on the court, all of whom Michigan could reasonably put Dickinson on (if Thistlewood plays). I’d imagine we see Michigan at least try Diabate on Roddy early. And boy, is that an absolutely fascinating matchup, a true contrast of styles and frames. Roddy is one of the most polished bowling balls you’ll ever see on a basketball court, a thick, low-center-of-gravity undersized big whose skill level, footwork and ability to handle the ball at his size are all outstanding. There isn’t really anyone else in the country who carves out space quite like him, with physicality yet graceful polish. He steps out to shoot 3s but also attacks closeouts with ease. He was the Mountain West Player of the Year this season, averaging 19 points, eight rebounds and three assists while shooting 57 percent from the field and 45 percent from 3. He doesn’t look like any NBA player currently in the league, but he’s a genuine prospect because it’s hard to find guys who are this skilled. Diabate is all twitchy energy and athleticism, in the best and worst ways. He has exceptional length and great lateral quickness, and he’s a disruptive force, utilizing his motor to make things happen all over the court. Roddy has faced guys like Arthur Kaluma at Creighton and regularly had to deal with San Diego State’s elite defensive big Nathan Mensah in some respect but hasn’t really faced a combo of this kind of twitch and length because there are very few guys quite like Diabate in college hoops. But the problem with Diabate could actually end up being lethal against Roddy. That twitchiness can lead to some befuddling moments where he’ll fall for pump fakes or get overaggressive and push out of position. Additionally, can he take advantage of Roddy potentially on offense? Can he just out high-point the ball? Can he and Dickinson score inside on Colorado State, which has been a bit of an issue for the Rams all year? Scouts are trying to get a handle on both Roddy and Diabate. How does Roddy match up in games against genuine NBA-level length and athleticism? Additionally, the Wolverines also have guys like Brandon Johns and Terrence Williams that they can toss onto Roddy. They’re both in the 6-foot-7 to 6-foot-8 range with stronger frames. How does he match up with that level of depth over the course of a full 40-minute game? In the case of Diabate, can he guard someone this polished and skilled effectively without getting in foul trouble? And if Medved adjusts and goes small, can Dickinson manage in space? There are a lot of little chess moves here and a lot to evaluate for some players about whom teams have some real questions. Good tournaments could push Diabate and Roddy into first-round conversations. 2. Malaki Branham, Ohio State | 6-foot-5, 180-pound freshman wing | Rank: 20 vs. Lucas Williamson, Loyola Chicago | 6-foot-4, 205-pound senior wing | Rank: NR This is probably my favorite, pure one-on-one matchup of the first round. Branham, the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year, has been an outstanding offensive guard since the start of conference play, averaging 16 points per game while shooting 52.3 percent from the field and 47 percent from 3. More of a slasher than pull-up artist, Branham isn’t a wildly explosive athlete, but he does a great job of getting defenders off balance and driving in a straight line using long strides and finishing at the rim with his length. Part of why he’s able to get to the rim is that opponents now really have to account for the threat of his jumper, especially off the catch. Scouts love his mix of length and scoring prowess and see him as an eventual first-round pick, be it in 2022 or 2023. Having said that, Branham really needs to improve at a drastic level on defense. Ohio State is about seven points per 100 possessions worse defensively, per Pivot Analysis, when Branham is on the court versus when he’s off it, and you can actually really feel why that’s the case. The tape matches the numbers. Branham’s focus on defense can waver, especially off the ball. He needs to be fully engaged against Loyola Chicago because Ohio State desperately needs whatever defense it can get on the floor. That’s a particular problem against Williamson, one of the toughest, most experienced guards in college basketball. He was on the Loyola Final Four team back in 2018 as a sixth-man freshman, and he’s still here doing exactly what his team asks of him. Williamson is never going to beat himself, and he’s really developed over the years as a pull-up shot creator, averaging 14 points and shooting nearly 40 percent from 3. On top of that, he’s going to get right in your face and make your life miserable on the defensive end. He’s aggressive, and he’s about as disruptive a guy as you’ll find. The back-to-back Missouri Valley Defensive Player of the Year, Williamson has been right on the edge of my top 100 for the entire season despite being a 23-year-old senior and will assuredly be on that list by the time players decide to return to school as opposed to entering the 2022 draft. I think Williamson is one of the most underappreciated players in the country, a genuine star whose numbers would look way better if he didn’t play on one of the slowest-paced teams in the tourney. If Branham can score on Williamson, it would say a lot to scouts about how ready he is on the offensive end to be a contributor and potentially set him up with a first-round grade from many teams before the pre-draft process starts. This is an enormous test for him and will tell scouts a lot of what they need to know.
Spoiler 3. Keegan and Kris Murray, Iowa | 6-foot-8, 225-pound sophomore forwards | Rank: 7 (Keegan) and 56 (Kris) vs. Tyler Burton, Richmond | 6-foot-7, 215-pound junior wing | Rank: 80 Keegan Murray is the best player on this list, a likely top-10 pick in this class. And moreover, he’s been on fire to close the season. Over his last 13 games, Murray has averaged just under 26 points while shooting 56 percent from the field and 49 percent from 3. He’s arguably the most unstoppable scorer in college hoops, and he’s a disaster matchup for nearly every team in the country. Beyond that, Iowa happens to have a clone physically in Kris, his twin brother. Over the back half of the season, Kris Murray has emerged as a genuine draft prospect in his own right, with a number of scouts raising the question to me wondering if he would be willing to be a second-round stash guy as opposed to returning to Iowa next season to try to break out in the same way Keegan did this year. Kris shoots 40 percent from 3 and consistently, along with Keegan, just causes a ton of mismatch problems for opposing teams. There aren’t a ton of teams that have a great option for guarding an athletic 6-8 guy who is strong but can shoot and handle the ball. Iowa has two of them. Richmond does at least have a couple of players who can match up physically, but I worry about athleticism. Nathan Cayo will likely get a lot of the assignments on Keegan Murray, but don’t be surprised to see Burton end up getting some looks too. Burton has emerged over the course of the season as a player in whom NBA teams are legitimately interested. He’s turned into a high-level shooter, making 38 percent of his 3s while averaging 16 points and eight rebounds per game. Mostly, things come for him as a floor spacer moving off the ball and creating shots off movement. He’s not a great ballhandler. Mostly, he’s just trying to shake loose or let guys like Jacob Gilyard create shots for him off spot-ups. His mechanics are good, even if he doesn’t exactly have a “quiet” shot. He takes his shots off the hop, and his prep is absolutely outstanding. He just really leaps forward and has an active lower half. I don’t think he’s a particularly good defender at this stage, though. He makes plays and jumps passing lanes regularly, and occasionally, his athleticism allows him to make a flash play. But he gets lost off-ball a little more than you’d think, and his on-ball prowess is not all that strong. That’s why guys like Cayo and Nick Sherod will end up playing on the Murrays a bit in this game. The key for Burton, though, will be showing that he can hold up at the point of attack, slow down Kris and Keegan, stay attached and contest and then make shots when his chances come. Playing in a game against a potential top-10 pick will put a lot of eyeballs on him and give him a shot to really spike up the board. I think Iowa wins this one pretty easily because Keegan Murray goes for 25 to 30 points, but if Richmond keeps it close, it’ll be because Burton makes some timely shots. 4A. Blake Wesley, Notre Dame | 6-foot-5, 180-pound guard | Rank: 35 vs. Caleb McConnell, Rutgers | 6-foot-7, 225-pound wing | Rank: NR This is the matchup that will get scouts to the First Four in Dayton. Wesley is one of the players NBA scouts are having the toughest time getting a handle on. Is he the guy who evaluators saw early in the season, a dynamic half-court shot creator who can read and react to on-ball defenders, break down defenses and make things happen out of ball screens? He dropped 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting against Illinois and had 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting while making a game-winner against Kentucky. He had 22 against Louisville and 18 against North Carolina. Or, is he more the guy we saw in the second half of the season, where in his final 14 games, Wesley shot 36.7 percent from the field, under 30 percent from 3 and generally seemed to struggle with the increased defensive attention? During that span, he showed flashes of the same high-level talent but was far too inconsistent to truly be considered a surefire one-and-done. He’s going to get tested in a big way in the First Four against Rutgers. McConnell is probably the most versatile perimeter defensive player in the country. The Big Ten’s Defensive Player of the Year, there is not a more switchable defender in college hoops, capable of taking on a wider variety of assignments. Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell puts him on the most dangerous, best opponent every single night, and his track record is terrific. His hands are constantly up, and he stays big using his size. He’s disruptive with his hands, getting 2.2 steals per game. He’s a terror with rear-window contests after fighting through ball screens, and he sprints back all the time in transition. He digs down on ballhandlers and has a timely sense of trapping opponents. This is, in theory, the worst kind of defender for Wesley to have to manage. McConnell is definitely a guy scouts will want to get in for workouts and into a G League system because he’ll up the competition level, but his offensive game is just a bit too far behind where it needs to be for him to truly be an NBA Draft prospect as a 23-year-old. But as a college player, it’s hard to find a more impactful guy who averages six points per game. If Wesley can fight through what McConnell will present against him, it will be some of the best tape of his season and could play a huge role in solidifying him as a first-round pick. If not, it might be a good indication that it’s worthwhile for Wesley to head back to school and continue to iron out his jumper. This is going to tell us a lot.
Spoiler 4B. Alabama’s perimeter players vs. the winner of Notre Dame/Rutgers Keon Ellis, Alabama | 6-foot-6, 180-pound wing | Rank: 31; JD Davison, Alabama | 6-foot-3, 195-pound guard | Rank: 37; Jahvon Quinerly, Alabama | 6-foot-1, 175-pound guard | Rank: NR; Jaden Shackelford, Alabama | 6-foot-3, 200-pound guard | Rank: NR Regardless of who wins the aforementioned Rutgers-Notre Dame matchup, we get a fun game. We either get to see Wesley in a fun, uptempo game against Alabama that will be littered with big prospects, or we’ll get to see Alabama’s guards take on tough guard and perimeter defenders like McConnell, Paul Mulcahy and Geo Baker. Ellis is the prize of the Alabama perimeter pool, a 6-foot-6, 3-and-D wing who made the SEC’s All-Defense team in addition to scoring 12 points per night and shooting 36 percent from 3. He’s kind of a tailor-made fit for the NBA, in my view. Davison should probably head back to Alabama for his sophomore year to continue working on his skill level and shooting, but his athletic upside exceeds that of nearly any other guard in college basketball. Still, if he could parlay a few good tournament games together, we’ve seen crazier things happen than teams taking swings late in the first round on project, upside guards. Getting to see McConnell guard either one of these guys for stretches would be enlightening. And on the other end, I imagine Ellis would be used regularly against Wesley to try to slow him down. Quinerly and Shackelford will absolutely get G League chances but are seen more as players who have to improve defensively. Quinerly was recently benched due to poor defensive play, per Nate Oats. He has legitimate ball skill and can really handle it, but poor defense plus 28 percent from 3 with a 21.4 turnover rate isn’t really a recipe for NBA success. Shackelford is purely a 3-point gunner at this stage, but he gets them up at such volume that he’ll have some NBA interest. I’d venture Rutgers would run out McConnell on Quinerly in an effort to shut down Alabama’s offense at the point of attack. Notre Dame would just be an offensive fire fest, as both Alabama and Notre Dame have top-30 offenses and defenses outside of the top 80. 6A. Justin Lewis, Marquette | 6-foot-7 second-year wing/forward | Rank: 26 vs. Leaky Black, North Carolina | 6-foot-8, 200-pound senior wing/forward | Rank: NR This is your typical scoring polish versus defensive length and athleticism matchup. Lewis is still a teenager for about a month longer but has some of the best footwork you’ll see on an advantage wing scorer for that age. He’s not the kind of guy you’re going to run ball screens for, but if you reverse him the ball, he can knock down 3s at a 35 percent clip or jab step to freeze his opponent, attack a closeout and then hit opponents with all sorts of fun spins and reverse pivots to get post-ups or midrange jumpers or layins at the rim. It’s a pretty multi-dimensional offensive game for the college level. He averaged 18 points while shooting 45 percent from the field and 41 percent from 3 in Big East play and has a great mix of power at 240 pounds and grace with his ability to drive and attack. Plus, he has a 7-foot-1 wingspan that he uses to get a high release point and grab rebounds. On the other side, you have Leaky Black, who got to North Carolina as the third member of a heralded recruiting class with Coby White and Nassir Little. Something of a point forward, his offensive game has just never quite developed beyond his passing acumen because he’s not a confident shooter. Even this season, where he’s made 35 percent of his 3s, he’s still only taking one per game because it’s clear he’s just not quite ready to pull the trigger all the time even when open. But where he has drastically improved over his time at North Carolina is on the defensive end. Early in his career, Black was a playmaker who was effective at making things happen with his length and jumping passing lanes occasionally; now, he’s just solid across all capacities and is capable of taking on tough assignments while captaining the defense and always being in the right spot rotationally. He was deservedly named to the All-Defense team in the ACC and will present a real challenge for Lewis because of how long and athletic he is. He’s been successful on a wide variety of players, from Duke’s Paolo Banchero to bigger wings like Dereon Seabron at NC State to even guards like Mike DeVoe at Georgia Tech. Lewis should be able to move him around a bit on those reverse pivots because Black has a bit of a higher center of gravity, but my bet is that Lewis is going to have to make a lot of contested shots to be successful in this game. If he finds a way to make it work, he’ll really help himself. 6B. Caleb Love, North Carolina | 6-foot-3, 195-pound sophomore guard | Rank: 62 vs. Darryl Morsell, Marquette | 6-foot-4, 205-pound senior guard | Rank: NR Lewis is the best prospect in this Marquette-North Carolina matchup, which makes his game against a tough defender in Black a much more important evaluation. But Love versus Morsell might have a bigger impact on the game, and it’s going to be a really fun matchup to watch. Love is a creative combo guard who can really handle out of ball screens and get open looks. A five-star prospect who was seen as a likely one-and-done entering his freshman year, Love had a terrible season, shooting 32 percent from the field and 26 percent from 3. But you know what happened after that? Love took the summer and got better. The overall field goal percentage isn’t much better at 37 percent, but that is largely because he can’t finish inside and thus takes a ton of exceptionally difficult shots. But here’s the thing: Love is an outstanding shooter. He’s made 45 percent of his catch-and-shoot looks, as well as hit his pull-up chances at a 46.3 effective field goal percentage. On top of that, Love has improved a lot as a pick-and-roll distributor, increasing his assists while decreasing his turnovers. There are scouts who are still interested in Love as a bench scorer at the next level given his ability to change pace off the bounce and shoot. This week, he’s going to have to deal with Morsell, and that won’t be enjoyable at all. Morsell won the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year last year and would have been in the Big East’s All-Defense team if the league had named a team. He particularly excels at dealing with fighting through ball screens and playing tough and physical at the point of attack on combo guards and wings. Morsell has established himself as an intriguing NBA option who, similarly to the aforementioned Williamson, will be on my top 100 at the end of the year when the underclassmen pull out of the draft. If he can keep improving the jumper, there is a real case for him to be a better prospect than Love given that defensive acumen. If Morsell can force Love into one of those 4-for-16 games that he has a bit more often than you’d like to see, that could be the difference in Marquette pulling off what would be a relative upset based on seeding and betting line.
Spoiler 8. Baylor Scheierman, South Dakota State | 6-foot-6, 205-pound junior wing | Rank: 93 vs. Justin Minaya, Providence | 6-foot-7, 210-pound senior wing/forward | Rank: NR Scheierman is a player scouts have really wanted to get their eyes on against high-level competition throughout the season. His numbers are outstanding and translate well within teams’ analytics models. He’s a high-volume 3-point shooter who takes about five per game and makes them at 48 percent. He makes catch-and-shoot 3s at over 50 percent and makes pull-up jumpers — many of which he is willing to take from the midrange — at a 45 percent clip. The numbers say he is an elite shooter. On top of that, he essentially runs point for the Jackrabbits and distributes at a really high level. He dishes out five assists versus only 1.9 turnovers per game. He has mastered the Summit League, and based on those numbers as a 21-year-old, he looks like a legitimate draft pick. His performances against good teams have been much more hit or miss. Against Washington, he went 5-for-15 from the field and turned it over four times. Alabama’s athleticism seemed to bother him earlier this season, and he shot just 3-for-12 from the field (although he did make up for it with 18 rebounds). Scouts are desperate to see him in another matchup like this, just to see another sample of what he looks like against potential NBA size and length. Against Providence, he’ll get that chance to showcase for scouts that he can perform against high-level length and athleticism. Minaya is one of the 10 best defenders in college basketball. A long 6-foot-7 wing, Minaya is one of the many brilliant transfer decisions from Providence coach Ed Cooley this past offseason. He’s an incredible, switchable on-ball defender who has taken the assignment on a ton of great players in the Big East this year. He was arguably the most egregious snub by the group that makes up the Naismith National Defensive Player of Year award watchlist. Anyone who has seen him will tell you he is elite on that end. In this game, he’ll get the Scheierman assignment, presumably, and use his length and size to disrupt the big guard and speed him up. If Scheierman can prove it against Minaya and lead South Dakota State to an upset, don’t be surprised to see him explode onto the scene as a potential top-50 prospect for analytically inclined teams. If he struggles a bit, maybe it’s worthwhile for him to return to school for another year and keep working through his game. But this is the perfect opportunity for Scheierman. It’s a game against a Providence team that plenty of people think is ripe for the picking in an upset, and against a player in Minaya who allows him to showcase exactly what scouts would like to see from him. 9. Max Christie, Michigan State | 6-foot-7, 190-pound freshman wing | Rank: NR vs. Hyun-jung Lee, Davidson | 6-foot-7, 210-pound junior wing | Rank: 43 These two are probably the guys I’ve been most incorrectly high on throughout the year. Frankly, I still probably have Lee too high as a top-50 guy. He should be outside of the top 60 at this point despite the fact that he is an outstanding shooter. The problem is just that he can’t really get comfortable doing anything else. You can kind of negate his size advantage by playing smaller players on him, and he’s still not quite strong enough to take advantage as a ballhandler. As a defensive player, he’s still not good enough. He’s probably more in the No. 75 range right now. I’ve had Christie rated as a first-rounder for a large portion of the season and still believe, eventually, he will be that player for Michigan State. I’m more just of the opinion that it will likely be 2023 as opposed to this year, which is why I’ve taken him off the board right now. I’d still probably take Christie in the top 40 even though he’s struggled to such a substantial extent, believing that my coaching staff would continue to develop him. I just don’t know that Christie turning pro is actually what’s best for Christie. He has a 49.8 true-shooting percentage and is shooting 32.5 percent from 3 despite being renowned as a shooter. Still, you can see the talent emanating from his body every time he takes the court. He’s smooth and polished, and he moves like an NBA wing both on and off the ball. He creates easy-looking pull-up jumpers. When he gets stronger and gets more comfortable handling the ball, he’s going to be a significant problem. My guess is it’s next year.
Didn’t Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Texas Southern win their conference championships? I don’t think they should be in the play-in games. Winning a conference (tournament) championship should lock up a spot in the regular tournament. Play-in games should be for the “bubble” teams.
Resume matters too. The reality is they play in one of the worst conferences who get smoked . The bubble teams are by far better than these teams and having them be in the play-in doesn't make much sense. Atleast by winning the conference even though its extremely bad, they're actually in the tourney and get a shot, which is all you can ask for
