2025 March Madness: Excitement Time.

What games or players are you interested in?

Cooper Flagg, Duke

Kon Knuepel, Duke

Khaman Malauch, Duke

Tyrese Procter, Duke

VJ Edgecomb

Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton

Tahaad Pettiford, PG, Auburn

Johnnie Broom, C, Auburn

Danny Wolf, C, Michigan

Jase Richardson, PG, Michigan State

Kam Jones, G, Marquette

Alex Karaban, SF, UConn

Solo Ball, 2G, UConn

Liam McNeely, SF, UConn

Jeremiah Fears, PG, Oklahoma

Asa Newell, PF, Georgia

Andrew Carr, C, Kentucky

Kobe Brea, 2G, Kentucky

Amari Williams, PF, Kentucky

Jaxon Robinson, SF, Kentucky

Egor Demin, G/F, BYU

Carter Bryant, F, Arizona

Last year, you also had some analysis for some of those players.

Also, can you post when and what channel some of these players' teams games are, as they happen?

12:15 p.m.: No. 9 Creighton vs. No. 8 Louisville (CBS)

12:40 p.m.: No. 13 High Point vs. No. 4 Purdue (TruTV)

1:30 p.m.: No. 14 Montana vs. No. 3 Wisconsin (TNT)

2 p.m.: No. 16 SIU Edwardsville vs. No. 1 Houston (TBS)

2:50 p.m.: No. 16 St. Francis or Alabama State vs. No. 1 Auburn (CBS)

3:15 p.m.: No. 12 McNeese vs. No. 5 Clemson (TruTV)

4:05 p.m.: No. 11 VCU vs. No. 6 BYU (TNT)

4:35 p.m.: No. 9 Georgia vs. No. 8 Gonzaga (TBS)

6:50 p.m.: No. 15 Wofford vs. No. 2 Tennessee (TNT)

7:10 p.m.: No. 10 Arkansas vs. No. 7 Kansas (CBS)

7:25 p.m.: No. 13 Yale vs. No. 4 Texas A&M (TBS)

7:35 p.m.: No. 11 Drake vs. No. 6 Missouri (TruTV)

9:25 p.m.: No. 10 Utah State vs. No. 7 UCLA (TNT)

9:45 p.m.: No. 15 Omaha vs. No. 2 St. John’s (CBS)

10 p.m.: No. 12 UC San Diego vs. No. 5 Michigan (TBS)

10:10 p.m.: No. 14 UNC Wilmington vs. No. 3 Texas Tech (TruTV)

Friday, March 21 (First Round)

12:15 p.m.: No. 9 Baylor vs. No. 8 Mississippi State (CBS)

12:40 p.m.: No. 15 Robert Morris vs. No. 2 Alabama (TruTV)

1:30 p.m.: No. 14 Lipscomb vs. No. 3 Iowa State (TNT)

2 p.m.: No. 12 Colorado State vs. No. 5 Memphis (TBS)

2:50 p.m.: No. 16 Mount St. Mary’s or American vs. No. 1 Duke (CBS)

3:15 p.m.: No. 10 Vanderbilt vs. No. 7 St. Mary’s (TruTV)

4:05 p.m.: No. 11 North Carolina or San Diego State vs. No. 6 Ole Miss (TNT)

4:35 p.m.: No. 13 Grand Canyon vs. No. 4 Maryland (TBS)

6:50 p.m.: No. 16 Norfolk State vs. No. 1 Florida (TNT)

7:10 p.m.: No. 14 Troy vs. No. 3 Kentucky (CBS)

7:25 p.m.: No. 10 New Mexico vs. No. 7 Marquette (TBS)

7:35 p.m.: No. 13 Akron vs. No. 4 Arizona (TruTV)

9:25 p.m.: No. 9 Oklahoma vs. No. 8 UConn (TNT)

9:45 p.m.: No. 11 Texas or Xavier vs. No. 6 Illinois (TNT)

10 p.m.: No. 15 Bryant vs. No. 2 Michigan State (TBS)

10:10 p.m.: No. 12 Liberty vs. No. 5 Oregon (TruTV)

As for player analysis, I usually don't make them until I watch the NCAA games but based on what little I've seen so far, I've been impressed with V.J. Edgecomb. He can play either guard spot as he's equally adept on the ball as off

Flagg is a defensive demon who has a high IQ meaning he's a good passer always knows where to be on the floor

Procter is a sleeper. I'm surprised that the scouts don't have him higher on their list but I'm a sucker for lead ball handlers

I liked what I saw out of Karaban in last season's NCAA's but he hasn't seemed to improve much

Thanks.

Golden State needs to draft him, based on his name.

Also, I still can't believe Duncan Robinson wasn't drafted by the Spurs.

What improvements would you want?

Haha good one

I remember Jase's dad being drafted by the Warriors 24 years ago

What improvements would you want?

Better perimeter defense and more consistent shooting

What should I watch today?

What should I watch today?

I watched the Duke and Baylor game. Proctor has yet to disappoint. I see a lot of Jared McCain in him and still think he should be rising up the boards

While I was mostly watching Flagg and Proctor, I couldn't help but notice how well Maluach and Kon Knueppel looked. I always thought that Knueppel was just a knock down shooter but he's got a drive and dish game to go with it. I'll be curious to see how he measures out at the combine. He doesn't look 6'7" which would allow him to play the 3 spot in the NBA. He looks a lot closer to 6'5" which would mainly put him at the 2

Maluach is the perfect center for today's NBA aside from not being able to shoot 3's. He shoots his free throws well and positions himself well on both ends of the floor, usually in the dunkers spot on offense and ready to catch lobs in the halfcourt and rim run on fast breaks

Made sure to watch V.J. Edgecomb and he didn't dissapoint. Smooth jumper to go with the slashing to the hoop game. NIce dunk on a lob from their point guard. Sort of the opposite of how I went in watching Knueppel. Whereas I thought Knueppel was just a shooter who shocked me with his overall game, I thought Edgecomb was just a slasher who didn't shoot well but his jumper looked decent. Good form even when it didn't go in

I recorded the Colorado State so I can watch Nique Clifford then I'm also gonna watch the Illinois game to get a good idea of Kasparas Jackaciuonos is about

Thanks. Keep me updated on what else you will watch, later this week.

It will hep me try not to miss some stuff.

Illinois and Kentucky was interesting. Jackaciuonis is decent but wasn't wild about the careless turnovers. If he's gonna be a primary ball handler in the NBA, he'll have to cut down on those. I did like his jumper and ability to find his cutters when he's not turning the ball over

I really liked Amari Williams and Kobe Brea for Kentucky. Not sure why they aren't higher up on the draft radars. Brea reminded me of Hawk's GM Landry Fields from his playing days with Stanford and the Knicks. Great at cutting to the hoop and moving without the ball. Clean jumper and doesn't force anything. Good all around team player

Williams is a big man who can guard all 5 spots. I liked how he got some steals and went full court for a couple dunks. Can knock down jumpers from deep as well as do the typical roll to the basket and catch lobs for dunks

Was also impressed with Jackaciuonis' teammates, Tomaslav Ivisivic and Kylan Boswell. Boswell is a heady lead guard while Ivisivic can knock down jumpers and is a great passer out of the post. They are most likely back with the Illini next year but will be on the draft radar for 2026

Will Riley is their small forward who has been getting a lot of run as a possible 1st round pick but I wasn't impressed. Wish they could've won so I could get one more look at him but we'll just have to see how his workouts go

When was the last time all 4 #1 seeds made the Elite Eight?

When was the last time all 4 #1 seeds made the Elite Eight?

Good question. Better yet, when was the last time all #1 seeds made the Final Four?

I'll post my bracket later today. Most of the time, I pick a lot of # 1 seeds to make the final four, and it doesn't happen.

This year it actually happened. Haha.

As for Alabama vs. Duke, seemed like it was more of a team win by Duke, with their lesser known players playing well.

I did like some of the Alabama guards, in terms of their decision making. They didn't have good games, but I meant in terms of how they read the defense and what they tried to do.

Mark Sears and Lebarron Phillan are two to keep an eye on come mock draft time. Sears was a senior so he's in for sure. Not sure if Phillan will declare or not

ESPN needs to get rid of the ticker during the NIT Championship game.

How can I concentrate on the game when they show scores from other sports, and I start thinking of fantasy sports?

Auburn looked to have a decent lead over Florida. Now it's close.

Auburn looks like the 2018 Denver Nuggets, when they were playing Minnesota in the last regular season game for the 8th seed.

Denver kept fumbling and taking bad shots in that game.

Way to go!! Well except for the last two but good job nonetheless

Auburn looked to have a decent lead over Florida. Now it's close.

Walter Clayton keeps impressing more and more as the tournament goes on

Johnnie Broome of Auburn really reminds me of Carlos Boozer. Still shocked that Boozer dropped to the 2nd round, especially considering that his position of power forward still existed back in 2002. With a few exceptions like Bam Adebayo if the Heat continue to start Ware at center, Paolo Banchero, Evan Mobley, Julius Randle, Jaren Jackson Jr., Zion Williamson, AD, John Collins and maybe Pascal Siakam and Jalen Johnson although both those guys may have considered more as small forwards a quarter century ago, the power forward position has pretty much became extinct

Getting back to Broome, he could be a 2nd round steal although he most likely slots as a center in today's NBA. Should be interesting to see where he falls in the draft

Agree, I liked Walter Clayton.

I can't call Jaren Jackson Jr. a power forward. I'll go with the Charles Barkley motto: "You know what they call forwards that don't rebound? Small forwards."

He averages 5 rebounds a game. Jackson Jr. and Markkanen have been the most disappointing power forwards this year for rebounding.

Even Zion is a little underwhelming, considering how athletic he is.

I like Jalen Johnson, hopefully we see more healthy seasons from him.

For discussions sake, pick a year X years ago and name good power forwards from that year. Let's see how the count compares to your above list.

Also, does Markkanen make your list? I think for this year on Utah, both Markkanen and Collins could be power forwards.

Did you like anyone from the NIT?

The thing with Markkanen is that they always slot him at the 3 spot. He's a 4 in today's era except for the fact that on the last two teams that he's played for, the other forward qualifies more as a 4 so they slot him at the 3

For the list, are we talking about players from a certain draft or players who were already in the NBA?

I put the blame on Cleveland's ownership. First of all, I think Cleveland also thought they could re-sign Boozer for cheap after year two, instead of after year 3 when his value probably would have been even higher, as he would have shown what he could do for a longer time period.

So I think Cleveland thought they could also re-sign him to a cheap contract, and underestimated the market.

They had probably looked at Utah and thought no one would go there. Especially considering that the Jazz signed RFA offer sheets for outside FAs Jason Terry and Corey Maggette, and lost them both.

So they probably thought Utah as a location and organization would always have problems with FAs, and wasn't a real contender for them.

I also meant that maybe they could have re-acquired Miller after getting the # 1 pick or something. BUT, Cleveland might have had the worst record anyways even with Miller. They had already gotten rid of Wesley Person and Lamond Murray. So they had already stripped other talent. So maybe even if they still had kept Andre Miller, it still wouldn't have been enough to change the win total that much. Because generally only All-Stars can affect wins by that much. The rest are players that need to be in the right fit to support a team.

So a PG on a team that stripped itself of even more offensive players, that already was 27th in offense the year before, was still going to struggle.

I mean pick any year you want post 1999. In that year, who would be your list of good power forwards from that year? So any PF that played that year, whether rookie or otherwise, that played in the league.

I mean pick any year you want post 1999. In that year, who would be your list of good power forwards from that year? So any PF that played that year, whether rookie or otherwise, that played in the league.

I'm gonna go with 2002-2003

Rasheed Wallace

Troy Murphy

Chris Webber

Robert Horry

Elton Brand

Amare Stoudemire

Karl Malone

Antonio McDyess

Joe Smith

Tim Thomas

Carlos Boozer

Antonio Davis

Jermaine O'Neal

Kenyon Martin

Antoine Walker

Juwan Howard

P.J. Brown

Tim Duncan

Mo Taylor

Brian Grant

Seems like almost all these starting PF's were good. That must have been the deepest position in the league at the time

Was Tim Thomas a PF or SF?

Was Jermaine O'Neal a C or PF?

For Tim Duncan, I would say after David Robinson retired, he was a center. I know he didn't want to be labeled as one, but when you are taller than the starting center on your team, and you're a 7 footer, you're a center.

How about one more exercise. How many averaged 10 rebounds per game then, and how many in 2024 - 2025? Also for 2024 - 2025, you can have one more goalpost at 8.5 rebounds per game.

Yuck, I used a football analogy in a basketball thread.

I should have said "you can have one more hoop at 8.5 rebounds per game".

2002-2003 was Robinson's final season but I still had Duncan as a PF after that as they had Rasho Nesterovic take over for the admiral

O'Neal was a PF alongside Jeff Foster at C

Tim Thomas played both. I think you may be right about 2002-2003 as the Bucks traded Big Dog to Atlanta so i think TT filled his spot at SF

UC Irvine was in the NIT Finals against Chatanooga. They lead for most of the 2nd half, but missed FTs and it went into OT.

Then they missed FTs in overtime and lost the game.

Myles Che, who played for UC Irvine, ironically played for Chatanooga the year before.

Che looks pretty good. I'd either use a pick in the 50s on him, or invite him to summer league.

Oh, seems like he just entered the transfer portal. I wonder why.

Players entering the transfer portal can simultaneously enter the NBA draft. Is it possible he's entering the draft?