5 NBA Draft sleepers in the NCAA Tournament

5. Miye Oni, SF, Yale

Miye Oni is the best player on the best team in an Ivy League that hasn’t had a player drafted since 1995, but this year has three separate players (Oni, Cornell’s Matt Morgan, and Princeton’s Devin Cannady) that could easily find their ways onto NBA rosters.  A fluid ball handler and shooter at 6-foot-6, Oni is a versatile and efficient scorer. He’s shifty and has good control over his momentum, allowing him to get around players when he needs to, but also pull up if needed. He’s comfortable finishing with either hand and does so at a respectable 60 percent clip.  And while there may be some warts to his game as a careless passer and inconsistent defender, those are easy to overlook given his scoring ability.

But more crucially for Oni, his best opportunity to show what he can do may be more about the opponent Yale will play, as they drew an LSU team in disarray with Coach Will Wade’s suspension as part of the ongoing Adidas scandal.  LSU was upset early by Florida in the SEC Tournament, giving up a total of 49 points on 34 shots to Andrew Nembhard, Jalen Hudson, and Keyontae Johnson, the three Florida starters around Oni’s height. They don’t have a clear wing-defender on their roster, and their relatively immobile bigs don’t do them any favor either.  Oni has already had good performances against two other Power 5 opponents like Miami (29 points) and Cal (16 points on 8 shots in a blowout), and a third such game under the lights of the tournament could push his name into the mainstream.