The Step Back’s 2018 NBA Draft Big Board: Pre-Tournament Edition

The NCAA Tournament starts this week, and it’s the last chance that we will get to see the 2018 NBA Draft’s top college prospects in action before June’s draft. This is the time where prospects will be on their biggest stage, and players will have the opportunity to either solidify their portfolio or greatly improve their draft stock with a big performance. A couple of under-the-radar prospects always jump 10-12 spots in June because of their play in March, and this year will likely be no different.

It’s always important to be measured about how much stock you put into how prospects perform in the NCAA Toournament. It’s valuable to see how these players handle the big stage, but the one-game playoff format is rarely kind to everyone, and it’s important to not over-react to the events of the next three weeks. Overall team performance and matchups play a big role, and are usually the reason that big names don’t make it far, rather than an individual player struggling. For example, it shouldn’t be a surprise to see Trae Young go nuclear against Duke in the 2nd round, but it also shouldn’t be surprising to see Oklahoma struggle with a more complete Rhode Island team in the 1st round, regardless of Young’s performance. Similarly, Mikal Bridges and Villanova shouldn’t have much trouble going deep in the tournament, and thanks to the presence of Jalen Brunson, Bridges could struggle and have it not be impactful to his team’s eventual finish.

The first weekend of the tournament is a tough one to keep track of, with so many prospects playing at the same time over the course of four days. This year, we even get to see multiple prospects face off in the First Four, with a very fun point guard battle between St. Bonaventure’s Jaylen Adams and UCLA’s Aaron Holiday. To stay ahead of who you need to watch, we’ve updated our Big Board once again to pick out the best teams for you to follow when Thursday rolls around.