If you are an NBA fan, March Madness is a great chance to get introduced to some of the future stars of professional basketball.
March Madness is that special time of the year where everyone is filling out brackets and doing all they can to hide the fact that they’re watching basketball at their job. However, if you’ve been slacking on your amateur sports viewing prior to this year’s NCAA Tournament fret not, for this article will tell you all about the names you need to know and watch for.
Given that we are in the age of one-and-done, it should come as no surprise that all five of the players on this list are freshmen. In their (likely) lone season of college ball, this quintet has risen to become the cream of the crop and will be selected in the lottery of the 2017 NBA Draft.
Making up this group are two versatile 6’8″ forwards, a sweet-shooting athletic scorer, and two point guards capable of taking over games in the blink of an eye. If you want a glimpse of what the future of the NBA is going to look like watch these five players the next few weeks to get a sneak peek.
5. De’Aaron Fox — University of Kentucky
The latest lead guard for Kentucky is a throwback in a sense. When John Calipari was revolutionizing recruiting by piling up on five-star freshmen, it was John Wall of Raleigh, NC that finally jumpstarted his team from a group of talented kids to championship contenders. De’Aaron Fox has had that same type of impact in his first season in Lexington.
Fox, an athletic lefty that can change the game on both ends of the court, hit the ground running for the Wildcats this season. In his collegiate debut, he posted a double-double and before December rolled around he had already bested that with a triple-double against Arizona State. Despite Kentucky losing to UCLA, Fox outplayed fellow freshman phenom Lonzo Ball all game, and his 24-point, 10-assist game against North Carolina capped off a stellar first month for the 6-foot-5 point guard.
However, an ankle injury against South Carolina would hit the breaks on his breakout. Fox would miss only two of the Wildcats’ 11 final regular season games, but he just didn’t look the same post-injury. That all changed last week.
There was no player better during the SEC Tournament than Fox, who took home the MVP honors, and he looked more like the player we had seen at the beginning of the season. Fox’s 28 points against Alabama in the semifinals was a SEC Tournament record for a Kentucky freshmen. For a left-handed player, Fox is comfortable attacking the lane from either direction. He’ll often finish with his left at the rim, yet before he gets there he is creative enough to maneuver the ball and his body in different ways.
The main weakness in his game is his inability to hit perimeter shots. For the season, Fox shot 24.9 percent on 3-pointers. His form isn’t bad, but he struggles to be consistent with his release point. So the same looking shot could swish one time and then clank off the side of the backboard on the next attempt. During his red-hot SEC Tournament, he was surprisingly accurate from beyond the arc — on a limited sample, he made three of his five attempts.
Kentucky is primed to make another deep run in March and potential rematches against North Carolina and UCLA will make for great television. If Fox is able to keep playing like he’s been to start the postseason his name will surely be one of the first called this June at Barclays Center.
4. Malik Monk — University of Kentucky
The second member of Kentucky’s star-studded backcourt is another name to watch for in the NCAA Tournament. Malik Monk might have had an even more impressive start to the season than his teammate Fox did. Just take a look at his stat lines from the Wildcats’ first three games against ranked opponents: Michigan State — 23 points, 8-of-17 from the field, 7-of-11 on 3-pointers, and 6 rebounds; UCLA — 24 points, 10-of-19 from the field, 4-of-8 on 3-pointers, and 5 steals; UNC — 47 points, 18-of-28 from the field, 8-of-12 on 3-pointers, and the game-winning 3-pointer.
The 47-point performance (a Kentucky freshman record for most points in a game) really elevated him in the eyes’ of the basketball world. He looked utterly unstoppable and the Tar Heels had no answers for him. Monk was making shots off pin down screens, pull-up jumpers, catch-and-shoot 3-pointers, running off multiple screens and draining jump shots. Name a shot and Monk drilled it.
His play tapered up-and-down for the remainder of the year — if his shot was falling he was guaranteed to drop at least 20 points — but never fell off in the way that Fox’s did. Monk is not only a microwave-style scorer, but he is one of the best athletes in all of college basketball. He’s had numerous highlight dunks and just as many near-misses at highlight slams.
Monk’s shortcomings are just that, short. His height (6-foot-3), leaves questions as to whether or not he could excel as a shooting guard in an NBA where height and wingspan (Monk’s measured in at 6-foot-3.5 at Kentucky’s preseason combine) are the first things every team looks at. Bradley Beal’s name often gets brought up since he is also a 6-foot-3 shooting guard, but Beal has Monk beat in wingspan by four and a half inches.
Monk would fit best next to a bigger guard, which would allow him to defend the smaller of the two backcourt opponents (like how he’s fit in at Kentucky with Fox). If all a team is asking out of Monk is to get buckets then they surely won’t be disappointed with his production. For the season, Monk is knocking down 40.3 percent of his 3-pointers on nearly seven attempts per game. Put simply, this man knows how to put the ball through the net.
3. Josh Jackson
Josh Jackson might be listed as a 6-foot-8 forward for the Jayhawks, but Jackson has a game more tailored to playing with the basketball in his hands than on the wing. Jackson has been excellent in his first season with Kansas. He’s meshed well with the two leaders of the team (Frank Mason III and Devonte Graham) and has shown that he has the ability to affect the game in multiple ways.
Despite their lack of size, both Mason and Graham are highly-effective and highly-efficient scorers. Both can play on or off the ball and have the ability to score at the rim or further away from it. That’s where Jackson’s skills come in handy. Jackson is a terrific athlete, but his feel for the game is a grade above most freshmen. Jackson has the requisite talent to run an offense and be able to create open or easy looks for his teammates. His size helps as he is able to see over defenders and zip passes into tight windows before the defense is able to close them off.
Jackson is also a handful to deal with in the paint. He has the combination of size, length and athleticism that makes him capable of finishing over, around, under, and through defenders at the rim. Mistime a block attempt and the defense will find themselves on the latest Jackson poster. Jackson’s comfort handling the ball helps here as it’s hard for a defender to keep the Kansas freshman in front of them. Usually, the defenders he faces off against have one of his three “S” traits (size, skill and speed), but it’s rare that he is matched up against another player that combines them all together like he does.
Though he may play with a guard’s game and understanding, Jackson is more than capable as a defender and a rebounder. The Jayhawks will often use Jackson as the main defender on the opposing team’s best player and he has taken that task head on as a freshman. He finished the regular season as the team’s second-highest rebounder, his 7.2 rebounds per game trailed only Landen Lucas’ 8.4,
Like Fox, Jackson isn’t the biggest of threats from the perimeter. His form looks a lot worse off than Fox’s, but Jackson is a streakier shooter (37.7 percent on 3-pointers entering the NCAA Tournament) and once he hits a few from beyond the arc he could be well on his way to having a great shooting night. Jackson’s lack of an outside threat is what has caused him to have the style of play that he does. He needs the ball in his hand to be effective because without it teams can largely ignore him.
A bigger issue for Jackson is some of the news he has made off the court in Lawrence in just one year. He was suspended for the team’s quarterfinal round loss to TCU in the Big 12 Tournament in relation to an ongoing investigation into vehicle vandalism. Jackson’s name has been attached to a couple other incidents at Kansas and NBA teams will surely do their research to find out just what exactly the Jayhawk has and has not done. In sports, the best ability is availability. While injuries have not been a problem for Jackson, getting suspended is hardly anything to ignore.
2. Jayson Tatum
Jayson Tatum has been the hottest player in the NCAA during the conference tournaments. Tatum was one of the main reasons that Duke was able to become the first team in ACC Tournament history to win four games in four days and capture the championship.
Tatum is a do-it-all wing player. He can dribble, pass and shoot at high levels. He really got things going when Mike Krzyzewski adjusted his lineup and played Tatum as a small ball power forward. Every night Tatum would start the game with an advantage. If the opponent remained big, that meant a slower man for Tatum to drive by. If the opponent went small that meant a shorter defender that Tatum could score over in the post.
He’s the quintessential good at everything, great at nothing prospect. There are not many holes in his game, especially for a 19-year-old. He’s shown the complete package while in Durham and despite a slow start he has moved into pole position in terms of being the Blue Devils’ top dog. When Duke needs to get points it puts the ball in either Tatum or Luke Kennard’s hands. Over the last week, Tatum has started to show that he’s also capable of making things happen when the ball isn’t in his hands.
Tatum has been getting trained by renowned NBA trainer Drew Hanlen since high school and it’s very easy to watch Tatum play and see it transitioning to NBA. In particular, he has a move that he favors when he posts up. He’ll back down his defender a few times and right when the defense expects him to back down further his spins towards the baseline and uncorks a one-legged fadeaway jumper over the top. Most college defenders are left rooted in place and can’t even contest Tatum’s shot.
Going back to high school, Tatum has always been one of the top prospects in his class. His season at Duke has only helped to reaffirm what people had previously thought of him. His move to the four has opened his game in college, but at the next level, he will mostly play on the wing. If he continues to be dominant offensively he will need to adjust and teeter his game to compensate for a lack of high-level athleticism. He’s capable of making athletic plays, but he’s not a top-tier athlete for someone his size.
With Duke capable of making a deep run, Tatum will have several more games to make a lasting impression on scouts. His run in the ACC Tournament has jumped him a few spots higher than he had been during the season. Good or bad expect Tatum’s name to be one of the ones most frequently mentioned as the college season enters the stretch run.
1. Lonzo Ball
Lonzo Ball has completely turned around the UCLA program in his one season as a Bruin. There just haven’t been many of those types of players in recent years who have had an impact on a team the way that Ball has. He’s infectious to play with and his preferred uptempo pace of play has made the Bruins the most entertaining team to watch in college basketball this year.
Ball was a consensus top recruit following a senior season where he and his two younger brothers (LiAngelo and LaMelo) led their local high school (Chino Hills) to an undefeated season. The talk coming into his freshman year was whether he would have to adjust his game to UCLA and college, or if UCLA would adjust to him. With the NCAA Tournament approaching it’s clear that UCLA has changed to accustom Ball.
On the season, Ball averaged 14.6 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.7 assists per game. Since 1992 no freshmen has ever compiled similar averages and the only player to match that type of production was Jason Kidd in his sophomore season at California (16.7 PPG, 6.9 RPG and 9.1 APG ). The greatest part about the evolution of Bruins basketball is that despite all the flair that comes with the new look, they are playing basketball the right way. Ball’s court vision is supreme, but it’s his ability to turn the simple pass into a great look that has really helped the team around him reach it’s potential.
If you are open Ball is going to give you the basketball, in fact, it’s more likely than not that the basketball will be coming at you before you even realize that you are open. That’s how good Ball is.
Ball is also one of the best shooters in college basketball. Granted, a majority of his shots are of the catch-and-shoot or spot-up variety (and are usually taken from 25-30 feet or deeper). He’s made 41 percent of his 3-pointers and teams must respect his shot or watch him drain 3-pointer after 3-poiner. His form is funky and has been well dissected at length, but if the shots are going in it doesn’t matter what the shooting motion looks like — go look at Reggie Miller’s shot in slow motion if you disagree.
Next: Lonzo Ball is unconventionally brilliant
Throughout the season, only Washington’s Markelle Fultz has been able to play at a comparable level to Ball. Yet, Fultz’s Huskies didn’t have a 14-game win improvement in his first season like UCLA has done with Ball running the show. Ball is a transcendent talent and is worth tuning in whenever the Bruins are on television. he upsets and loyalty to alma maters is usually what brings in the millions of viewers, but this year the added bonus of a player like Lonzo Ball is going to be what people around the world keep tuning back in for.