Wendell Carter Rumors | Hoops Rumors

NCAA Tournament Filled With Draft Prospects

March 11th, 2018 at 8:45pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The NCAA tournament bracket was unveiled on Sunday and NBA draft prospects can enhance their resumes by leading their teams on a deep run. A majority of the projected first-rounders in Jonathan Givony’s current rankings on ESPN.com will be in action during March Madness.

Here’s a look of some of those storylines:

No player will be more closely watched than the projected top pick, Arizona freshman center DeAndre Ayton. He has remained eligible despite an FBI probe into his recruitment. The Wildcats, who won the PAC 12 tournament, were seeded No. 4 in the South region and will play Buffalo in the first round. A potential second-round matchup against Kentucky looms. The Wildcats have two players slotted as mid-first-rounders — swingman Kevin Knox (No. 12 overall) and combo guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (15).
Duke and Michigan State were ranked 1-2 at the start of the season and faced each other in November, with the Blue Devils prevailing. They could see each again in the Sweet Sixteen, a Midwest showdown that would feature a handful of first-round prospects, Duke’s frontcourt duo of Marvin Bagley III (4) and Wendell Carter Jr. (6) and shooting guard Grayson Allen (30), and Michigan State forwards Jaren Jackson Jr. (3) and Miles Bridges (11).
How good is Texas center Mohamed Bamba (5)? We could get a better idea if the Longhorns get past Nevada and face rugged Cincinnati, the South’s No. 2 seed which also features small forward Jacob Evans (24).
Alabama’s Collin Sexton, currently the top-rated college point guard at No. 8, will try to build off his big SEC tournament performance in the East Region. If the Tide gets past their opener, they’ll likely face top seed Villanova and its No. 10 prospect, small forward Mikal Bridges.
Oklahoma point guard Trae Young (9) and his team faltered down the stretch but still got in as the Midwest’s No. 10 seed. If they upset Rhode Island, the Sooners would likely face the Blue Devils in the next round.
Texas A&M big man Robert Williams (15) could improve his stock if his team, slotted No. 7 in the West, can get by Big East tournament runner-up Providence and then upset No. 2 seed North Carolina in the next round.
Miami (Fla.) shooting guard Lonnie Walker IV (13) might move into the Top 10 if he carries his team, seeded sixth in the South, into the Sweet Sixteen and beyond.

And-Ones: NCAA Investigation, Max FAs, Playoffs

February 23rd, 2018 at 4:32pm CST by Luke Adams

The FBI’s investigation into college basketball recruiting has resulted in the discovery of documents and bank records that meticulously detail apparent loans and payments issued from agency ASM Sports to current and former college players, Pat Forde and Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports report. As the Yahoo duo writes, the documents show an “underground recruiting operation” that appears to violate NCAA amateurism rules and could impact many of the top college basketball programs in the country.

While the FBI’s probe is more likely to shake up those NCAA programs, there could be a domino effect on the NBA. According to Forde and Thamel, current college players like Michigan State’s Miles Bridges, Alabama’s Collin Sexton and Duke’s Wendell Carter Jr., all of whom could be lottery picks this June, are among those linked by the documents to benefits for either the athletes or their family members. We’ll be following the investigation to see whether it impacts eligibility for those top prospects, as it did for USC’s De’Anthony Melton.

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

In the wake of Sports Illustrated’s report that described the Mavericks‘ business offices as a hostile environment for women, the NBA is establishing a confidential hotline for league and team employees to report concerns about workplace misconduct. Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press has the details.
Tom Ziller of SBNation identifies nine 2018 free agents who should be candidates for maximum-salary contracts, including a pair of restricted free agents.
Count LeBron James among those who isn’t fully on board with the idea of reseeding playoff teams one through 16 and removing conferences from the equation. Pointing out that the Western and Eastern Conference have both enjoyed successful runs at various times over the last few decades, LeBron suggests that making such a change would change “the landscape of the history of the game,” per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.
While James is opposed to significant changes to the playoff format, he was on board with the All-Star changes, as was his good friend Chris Paul. The Rockets guard didn’t play in Sunday’s event but said “from my seat it looked good.” As Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle writes. Paul was happy to spread around the credit for the format changes.