Friday was an thrilling night time of hoops. The San Antonio Spurs gained an extra time thriller towards the New York Knicks 130-126. The Candy Sixteen didn’t disappoint, with nice wins for Duke and Tennessee coming all the way down to the wire. Basketball followers are in heaven proper now with the NBA playoffs looming, and school hoops reaching its largest stage.
The Elite Eight is about, with surprises like NC State, Clemson and Alabama every having an opportunity to achieve the Remaining 4. Heavy hitters like Duke, Purdue and UCONN are taking part in a few of their finest basketball as they give the impression of being to win a nationwide championship. As the sphere whittles down, the variety of draft prospects does too.
On this sequence, Pounding the Rock will take a look at NBA draft prospects to look at in every spherical of the NCAA Match. The Spurs have the potential for getting two first spherical picks (Toronto owes San Antonio a top-6 protected choose) and two second spherical picks (their very own, and one other belonging to the Los Angeles Lakers.)
Kyle Filipowski, 7’0” Middle, Duke
Common season stats: 16.6 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 1.5 bpg, 51.2%/35.8%/66% (55.8% EFG)
The Duke huge man, Kyle Filipowski, was essential to their win over the primary seeded Houston Cougars. Filipowski had 16 factors, 9 rebounds and a pair of assists, together with some huge pictures down the stretch. Duke is loaded, however their finest participant stands out as the versatile huge man inside.
Filipowski is a tough-minded stretch huge who can end inside. He’s shot a a lot increased proportion from deep in his sophomore season, and has a fairly stroke from exterior. He’s a bodily participant on the inside who has the flexibility to play exterior – a extremely valued skillset within the NBA proper now.
Filipowski is probably going a mid-first spherical choose, making him considerably of an unlikely candidate for the Spurs. There’s all the time a situation through which they commerce again to get extra belongings, and take somebody like Filipowski to bolster their entrance line. Powerful gamers with a aggressive gene and capturing contact are fairly good bets on the subsequent stage. Filipowski doesn’t essentially play a place of want for San Antonio, however has the traits of an NBA participant.
Stephon Fortress, 6’6” guard, UCONN
Common season stats: 10.8 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 2.9 apg, 46.8%/28.1%/75.6% (50.2% EFG)
I don’t sometimes wish to cowl gamers greater than as soon as in these sequence, however Stephon Fortress has been so good. In UCONN’s dominant win over San Diego State, he had 16 factors and 11 rebounds.
Fortress is a flexible participant who has been requested to do so much for UCONN in his freshman season. He has the dimensions to play on the ball or off, which he’s needed to do within the Huskies system. In a draft the place a surefire star guard has but to emerge, Fortress is an efficient wager on a participant with excessive upside, but additionally the malleability to suit inside plenty of schemes. San Antonio wants gamers with lots of potential who may match round Victor Wembanyama. Fortress seems like that kind of participant.
Mark Sears, 6’1” guard, Alabama
Common season stats: 21.4 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 4.1 apg, 50.6%/42.9%/85.9% (59.8% EFG)
Regardless of being the most effective groups within the SEC, the Alabama Crimson Tide have develop into considerably of a Cinderella in March. With out a huge time NBA prospect, the Tide aren’t essentially an enormous draw for NBA followers. They’ve reached the Elite Eight with sturdy capturing performances, led by their beginning guard, Mark Sears.
Sears is an undersized scoring guard who can gentle it up from deep. He was one of many higher Bama gamers on final 12 months’s group with Brandon Miller. Within the match, he’s scored 30, 28 and 18 factors in his three video games. Within the second spherical towards Grand Canyon, he shot 5-11 from deep, main Alabama to the win.
Sears tasks as a second spherical prospect as a result of his age and measurement. If San Antonio misses out on a guard within the first spherical, they may prioritize a scorer like Sears within the second spherical, or with an undrafted free agent provide to offer their Summer time League roster and G League squad a scoring increase. Getting somebody with Sears’ abilities within the developmental system, hoping they’ll develop into a rotational guard who areas the ground may make sense for SA late within the draft.
