5 NBA Draft sleepers in the NCAA Tournament

2. Neemias Queta, C, Utah State

Neemias Queta, who aims to be the first NBA player from Portugal, is a ball of physical tools.  At 6-foot-11, he has a 7-foot-5 wingspan that is likely the longest of any player in the tournament outside of UCF’s Tacko Fall. Queta also has good mobility for someone his size and frame, and while he isn’t going to be capable of switching on the perimeter, he does at minimum compare favorably to, say, Maryland’s Bruno Fernando, who also is a likely draft prospect.  While Queta’s offensive game is effectively limited to easier stuff around the rim, he’s shown some ability to seal his man in the post and also to make some easier hooks. Similarly, he’s still growing on the defensive end and makes some truly bad reads at times, but he does make slightly more advanced rotations than the normal ball of physical tools and he’s been rewarded with one of the highest block rates in the country as a result.

Queta’s ability to make a splash in this tournament, however, is complicated.  Utah State awaits a first-round matchup against Washington, and while Queta should have a height advantage over Noah Dickerson and Hameir Wright, 6-foot-8 and 6-foot-9 respectively, he has struggled at times with stronger bigs like those two.  Further, the matchup zone that Washington plays has a tendency to collapse hard on big men without much of an outside presence. And should he manage to make it through that, he’ll likely be rewarded with North Carolina, who, on top of being a much better team, likes to play Luke Maye 25 feet from the basket.  But still, as a high caliber player who went a little under the radar due to playing against the Mountain West Conference, Queta should benefit, even if he plays poorly, just from getting games against high profile opponents.