It was a big Thursday night in the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament, as many of the NBA Draft’s elite prospects were on display against one another. It was a consequential day for me, as I definitely did some shuffling on the personal board after the games concluded Thursday night. Here’s a rundown of the main four guys, in order of who I thought played the most impactful games.
Keaton Wagler (Illinois):
Box: 13 points, 12 rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block (one turnover)
The run Illinois made in the second half was largely because Wagler destroyed Houston’s blitzing coverages on him. Yes,
he shot it poorly. But Wagler operated like PG1 of the draft class. He out-toughed an insanely tough Houston team. I could not have been more impressed with his performance overall.
Brayden Burries (Arizona):
Box: 23 points, five boards and two assists
Burries came out hot and set the tone in Arizona’s molly-whopping of Arkansas. Burries shot seven-for-eleven from the floor, knocking down two threes and getting to the foul like eight times. He also spent a good portion of the night checking Darius Acuff, who scored 28 points, but went just eight-of-nineteen from the floor and made just one three. Burries turned it over late a couple of times, but the game was largely done by that point anyways. This is a name more people need to get familiar with.
Darius Acuff Jr. (Arkansas):
Box: 28 points, three rebounds, three assists
Acuff did everything he could to keep Arkansas attached here. Yes, the 28 points took a ton of effort and weren’t exactly efficient, but Acuff got to the line 14 times and genuinely carried the burden for the Hogs. His defense was still not very good, but he was pretty far down the board in terms of issues for Arkansas. They were DEMOLISHED by future Maverick Mo Krivas, along with Tobe Awaka on the inside for Arizona.
Kingston Flemings (Houston)
Box: 11 points, six rebounds, four assists and one steal
Nobody shot it well for Houston, which remains a constant theme under Kelvin Sampson in big games. However, watching Flemings on Thursday, it felt like a turning point. He had trouble getting to his spots, and given that Flemings isn’t a guy who bombs from three, it’s really problematic when he can’t get downhill. Illinois did a great job showing him bodies and making life hard, but Flemings was simply not good.
Board update
With that in mind, I wanted to update my guard board for the upcoming draft after Thursday night’s games.
- Peterson (Kansas
- Wagler (Illinois)
- Burries (Arizona)
- Flemings (Houston)
- Acuff (Arizona)
- Philon (Alabama)
Next up: Brown Jr. (Louisville), Tanner (Vanderbilt), Anderson Jr. (Texas Tech), Okorie (Stanford), Stirtz (Iowa)
Did you change your opinion of any of these guys? Let me hear it in the comments!
