An NBA fan’s guide to watching the NCAA Tournament

The NCAA Tournament starts today and chances are you’ll be immersed in it to some degree. Here is what our NBA experts are watching for in the NCAA Tournament — chaos, overreactions, draft prospects, passion, and most importantly, basketball.

Enjoy what the NBA doesn’t give you

By Rory Masterson (@rorymasterson)

As much as we don’t know at all what to expect from college basketball this time of year, we also know exactly what to expect from college basketball this time of year. Indeed, the quality of play suffers immensely from a diluted talent pool, among other things, but that does drastically improve the likelihood of upsets, which are few and far between in the NBA. Over the past five years alone, there have been four No. 15 – No. 2 upsets, which, while not being the best for your bracket, end up becoming wonderful fuel for schadenfreude. The Florida Gulf Coast run in 2013, when the Eagles dunked all over Georgetown on their way to an eventual Sweet Sixteen in only their second year of full NCAA eligibility — I am loathe to draw amateur/professional comparisons here, but imagine if the Reno Bighorns, whose best players are probably Kendall Marshall and DeMarcus Cousins’ relatives, got to the NBA last year and beat the Celtics this year. That’s madness.

Upsets aside, the NCAAs afford NBA fans more opportunities to get lost in narratives largely divorced from, say, the repugnant state of your own favorite professional franchise or the inevitability of LeBron making it to the Finals. Watching 18- and 19-year-olds carry a university’s fanbase on their shoulders is a harrowing, thrilling experience that gets to the very primal roots of sports fandom, even if the games amount to 54-48 final scores and 30 percent shooting from the field. Getting NBA fans to join in on an “AIR-BALL” chant against an opponent would be nigh impossible, but college kids are chomping at the bit for such an opportunity.

Read More: 5 best NBA Draft prospects in the NCAA Tournament

Just think: every UCLA victory is a chance for LaVar Ball to stake the claim that he is the original Mr. Triple-Double, or that he originally put up the hoops at Rucker Park just so he and his sons could destroy them, or that he apprenticed as an alchemist before deciding to pursue something more lucrative. If you can look past the heavy-and-continually-mounting criticisms routinely (and correctly) levied against the NCAA and just enjoy the atmosphere of college basketball, it ends up not being all that bad.

On the other hand, just remember: if some previously-unknown kid gets hot and leads his team to the Elite Eight, your team (the Knicks) will inevitably draft him, setting your franchise back several more steps. Buyer beware.

The NCAA Tournament is becoming an international affair

By Trevor Magnotti (@illegalscreens)

In recent seasons, college basketball has become an alternative to professional contracts abroad for international basketball prospects. Long a haven for African and Australian talents such as Luol Deng and Andrew Bogut to gain exposure for an NBA future, a large influx of European talent has made its way to the states in recent years with the goal of pursuing the NBA through a more high-profile outlet. More and more players that normally would have stayed in Europe to try to work their way up professionally are coming to major college programs with the draw of playing time, and the NCAA Tournament. That’s resulted in one of the deepest international crops for an NCAA Tournament ever. George Rowland of Euroleague Adventures compiled a list of all of them, and there are over 100 players from all over the world on tournament rosters this year.

They come from all walks of life. There are the blooming favored sons, such as Arizona power forward Lauri Markkanen, who is one of college basketball’s best shooting big men. He hails from Finland, a Scandinavian country that’s only produced one other NBA-caliber player, Petteri Koponen. Kansas guard Svi Mykhailiuk holds similar clout in his home of Ukraine. Gonzaga’s Przemek Karnowski figures to be a staple in the middle of Poland’s national team roster for the next decade, and Louisville big man Anas Mahmoud will try to push Egypt to the next level.

There are the locals with international ties. Oregon guard Tyler Dorsey and USC guard Kurt Karis are both Americans with Greek parents, and Iowa State’s Nazareth Mitrou-Long is a Canadian with Greek ties. The usual crop of Canadians will again play a big role, as Florida State’s Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Oregon’s Dillon Brooks and Dylan Ennis will power likely deep tournament runs.

And then there are the truly special stories. Like New Orleans power forward Makur Puou, a refugee from South Sudan who played his high school ball at a school for orphaned children in the Chicago area. There’s Vanderbilt center Djery Bapitste, who came to the U.S. from Haiti and learned English from listening to George Strait songs. There are many players like Estonian forward Rauno Nurger of Estonia, who have been playing thousands of miles away from family and friends since high school.

If you want to watch teams with a variety of international flair, focus in on the West Coast Conference squads. Gonzaga and St. Mary’s each rely heavily on international players, more than any other squad in the tournament. Gonzaga has Karnowski at center, while French forward Killian Tillie provides support off the bench, and there are several more reserves from places like Japan and Denmark down the roster. St. Mary’s meanwhile, continues to use the Australian pipeline that brought Matthew Dellavedova and Patty Mills to the NBA. They have seven Aussies on roster, led by junior guard Emmett Naar and the excellently-named Jock Landale at center. South Carolina is also a strong pick, as Estonian big Maik Kotsar and Gabonese forward Chris Silva play big roles for the Gamecocks.

Much like the NBA, the NCAA Tournament is slowly becoming a global event. That’s reflected in both ratings and the rosters. You can now use the tournament to scout not only future NBA draft prospects, but future Euroleague and Olympic-level players are going to be on display as well.

A letter to NBA fans

By Chris Stone (@cstonehoops)

Dear NBA fans,

I know what you’re thinking. “Oh, no. Not the NCAA Tournament again. College hoops is a bastion of bad basketball.” As someone who watches a lot of it, I’ll admit that you’re right. The quality of the actual play on the court certainly isn’t up to muster relative to the NBA. The players aren’t professional and there are a ton of them spread over a ton of teams, which muddies the overall product. Plus, some of the recent trends that are dominating the NBA have only recently begun to shape the play of college basketball’s best teams.

So, why watch? Because the sport is still really fun. Rule changes in 2013 that encourage freedom of movement and a shorter shot block have created a game with more possessions and scoring. The old guard is slowly relenting, allowing the sport to more closely resemble professional leagues. There are also few sports elicit a similar passion. Colleges and universities are often the focal points of their localities. They breed loyalty to their athletic programs and hatred for their rivals. Where else can you find middle-aged superfans who are willing to drive from Wichita to Dayton to Providence all in the span of a few days just to watch their team try to make another miraculous run?

My recommendations: If you can, throw on your alumni hat and unabashedly root for your alma mater. If you don’t have a team to root for, pick one. Whether it’s Kansas because Frank Mason has had two random rap songs written about him or UCLA because Lonzo Ball is one of the most enjoyable players to watch in the sport, it doesn’t matter. If that doesn’t work, maybe take some of your disposable income and gamble it away on the most unpredictable sporting event of the year. At worst, settle in and watch the players who might one day lead an NBA franchise. Don’t know who those are? We’ve done prospect previews for each region so you know who to track.

The NCAA Tournament is best sporting event of the year. The combination of chaos, dream fulfillment and passion is unmatched. Let your basketball puritanism slide for a month. Sit back, relax and enjoy the Madness.

Sincerely,

Chris

No Cinderella at this year’s ball

By Brandon Jefferson (@pengriffey_jr)

One of the most fascinating things about every iteration of the NCAA Tournament is the small-school double-digit seeded team that rides upset after upset to national prominence. The Gonzaga Bulldogs played Cinderella so often that they’ve now developed into one of the top programs in the nation — they enter the 2017 NCAA Tournament as a one seed in the West region and have just one loss all year.

This year, there won’t be such a team. Sure there will be upsets early, there always are, but aside from the horribly-seeded Wichita State Shockers and Middle Tennessee State no double-digit seed is likely to make it out of the first weekend of the tournament.

It’s the year of the blue bloods in college basketball this season. Out of the 68 teams selected to the NCAA Tournament 38 of them come from one of the Power Six conferences (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, and Pac-12). 20 other leagues are usually one-bid leagues and that has held true once again. Some of the best mid-major teams were actually kept out of the tournament (Illinois State, Monmouth and Belmont to name a few).

Teams like Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, UCLA, Kansas, and Arizona have been the cream of the crop all season long. Even though three of those teams (UNC, UCLA and Kentucky) happen to be in the same region, it’s likely that the Final Four in Phoenix will feature at least three of those teams listed above.

If a team is to knock off these historical programs it’s going to be a school that the masses have heard of before March. Teams like Purdue, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, and West Virginia are more likely to be this season’s versions of bracket busters. The clock has already struck midnight on conventional Cinderella’s. With apologies to the Florida Gulf Coast’s and UNC Wilmington’s of the field, this is not their year.

For those that are fans of the underdogs this tournament is definitely going to leave you underwhelmed. For the people that complain that the lack of elite teams turns them off to March Madness this is the year that you’ll want to tune in. Cinderella teams make for great stories, but great basketball is a better one. With the best of the best likely squaring off in the Sweet 16 and on this is a tournament that will be remembered for quite some time.

Overreact to EVERYTHING

By Philip Rossman-Reich (@omagicdaily)

You have been busy watching the NBA. I get it. There are games every night seemingly from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m .ET, there is not much time to take in a college game. And, besides, the officiating and the lack of quality and the zone defense. UGH the zone defense.

No, the casual NBA fan is going to do all their Draft preparations in three weekends. Who does not like filling out a bracket and pretending to know everything about a full season’s worth of college basketball? Basketball is basketball after all.

And NBA fans will always find a way to see everything with a NBA eye to it. The top prospect for the upcoming draft will take the floor (except Markelle Futlz, the likely top pick and Dennis Smith, a likely top-five pick, they did not make the Tournament those scrubs) in meaningful games.

This is the perfect time to draw conclusions based one game. Small samples are always the best samples. They are usually free!

So when Malik Monk shoots 25 percent on 3-pointers and Kentucky loses in the second round, know that he is a terrible shooter and not an absolute flamethrower who has a J.R. Smith-like ability to get hot. When Jayson Tatum and Jonathan Isaac just stand in the corner and do not look like anything, know that is completely normal. They are not crazy, stretch-4, athletic wings.

When that 5-foot-11 dude drops 35 points in the first round to lead some mid-major school to an upset victory that ruins everyone’s bracket, just know he is going to be an All Star. Same for the senior — like say Derrick Walton, Jr. of Michigan — who goes on a crazy tear through the Tournament for a surprise run for some big power. That is normal and that is who that player is.

The same rules apply as they do for Twitter. You pick a side, you dig your heels in and the truth outside the NCAA Tournament be damned. This is the big stage. You better perform on the big stage. That is when the NBA fans are really watching and paying attention. So these 18- and 19-year-old kids have to do well now for us, on national TV.

NBA scouts do not think like this. NCAA Tournament performances are another data point for them. But they have done a lot of homework on most of these guys anyway. They have a good idea of what the Draft board looks like. It is not likely someone would significantly increase their stock — maybe Lonzo Ball can get “winning points” for UCLA making a deep run since Fultz is at home watching.

So take a deep breath. Enjoy the games. And just overreact to everything. It is more fun that way.

Root for chaos

By Jeremy Lambert (@jeremylambert88)

Living in Durham, NC, people just expect that I’m a huge college basketball fan. Those people are wrong. College basketball does very little for me. I don’t know where most of the schools are located and I can only name a handful of players because everyone tweets about them.

That said, when it’s tournament time, I’m watching every game. And I’m watching every game for chaos. I fill out my bracket on Monday despite watching less than five minutes of the regular season. Then, I forget it exists until the Tuesday after the National Championship game. I don’t care about my bracket, I care about chaos.

I want that No. 16 seed to upset the No. 1 seed. I want the No. 12 seed to make the Final Four. I want buzzer beaters, back-and-forth’s, bad referee calls, and goaltending deciding the game. For the majority of these players, this will be the biggest moment in their careers. They deserve something special to happen, even if they’re on the wrong side of it. There’s no fun in Duke or Kentucky or UNC dominating their regions en route to another National Championship. Give me UNC Wilmington threatening to screw up everyone’s bracket any day of the week.

That’s the real chaos I root for. The chaos that has people complaining on Twitter that the 13 seed defeated their sleeper Final Four pick. NEWSFLASH: I care about your bracket about as much as I care about your fantasy team. Unless you’re splitting money with me, stop tweeting every two seconds that your bracket is screwed.

I really don’t care about your bracket if you have 20 of them. You fill out one bracket, you’re cool with me. You fill out two brackets, you’re ok with me. You fill out three or more brackets and care about them all equally, then we are no longer friends. I don’t trust anyone who feels the need to fill out that many brackets. It shows indecisiveness and having too much free time. Never trust an indecisive man with too much time on his hands.

Next: 5 NBA Draft sleepers in the NCAA Tournament

In conclusion, I don’t root for or against teams or players. I root for the wildest and crazy stuff to happen. And I root against you and your bracket happiness.