Zion and Ja make the cut, but what about other stars of this NCAA Tournament?
The NCAA Tournament’s first week delivered several lopsided games and a chalk-fest heading into the Sweet 16, with 14 of the remaining teams holding no worse than a No. 4 seed.
Still, there were star performances on both an individual and team levels.
In the spirit of teams vying for a Final Four berth by the weekend, here are the top four in both categories so far, in no particular order.
Individuals
Carsen Edwards
The Purdue guard followed up his 26-point, seven-rebound game in the first round to torch defending champion Villanova with 42 points and six boards. That game featured nine 3-pointers.
Ja Morant
There were questions about the hype surrounding the Murray State sophomore. Well, Ja Morant quickly lived up to it with a game for the ages in the first round against Marquette. He became the eighth player in tournament history to record a triple-double. Then, against Florida State, he scored 28 points and nailed his first five 3-point attempts.
Zion Williamson
Like Morant, the South Carolina native Zion Williamson has provided several highlight-reel plays in this tournament. He’s likely going No. 1 in this year’s NBA Draft and he’s lived up to the billing all season long, especially in the postseason.
Against UCF, the Duke freshman phenom cranked out a double-double with 32 points and 11 rebounds, and showed off some flashy handles and tight-window passing.
His drive in crunch time helped the Blue Devils avoid an upset loss against the Knights. That performance came after scoring 25 points on 12-of-16 shooting against North Dakota State.
Brandon Clarke
Entering the tournament, lots of attention was put on Rui Hachimura, who has had an excellent tournament so far, but it was Clarke who had a historic performance in a round-of-32 victory over Baylor.
He scored 36 points with five blocks to join exclusive company. Clarke became just the third player in tournament history, joining Shaquille O’Neal and David Robinson, to score 35 points and have five blocks in a game.
Teams
Oregon
After going on an eight-game winning streak to finish the regular season and capture an improbable Pac-12 Conference tournament title, the Ducks were a trendy pick to make some noise in the tournament.
They’ve certainly played better than their 12 seed would indicate in crushing Wisconsin and UC Irvine. Those wins give Oregon an average margin of victory of 18.5 points, and they have a pretty nifty shot blocker in Kenny Wooten, who swatted away seven in the round of 32.
North Carolina
The Tar Heels may have struggled for the first half of their opening round game against 16-seeded Iona, but UNC has looked pretty stout since. The Heels are a formidable team and are averaging victories by an 18.5-point margin, the second-best margin for No. 1 seeds.
Gonzaga
They’ve run away from two teams so far, resting a lot of players down the stretch of their first-round win over Fairleigh Dickinson. Easy to do when you end up winning by 38 points.
They had little trouble in their second round game, either, as the Zags held a 16-point halftime lead over Baylor.
Florida State
Rounding out the top four team performances so far has to be the Seminoles, who had a daunting task of shutting down Ja Morant of Murray State.
Or did they? A hallmark of Leonard Hamilton-coached teams is defense, and his game plan was carried out to a ‘T,’ with FSU allowing Morant to score but shutting down the rest of his teammates.
Factor in how well FSU’s offense has come together and the Seminoles are a scary team for Gonzaga to face.
This story was originally published March 27, 2019 at 10:42 PM.
