Scouting Notebook: NCAA March Madness Round of 32, Charlotte
After a raucous weekend scouting live in the Queen City, what did Rowan Kent see from top college stars like Dalton Knecht, Tyson Walker, RJ Davis, and many others?
Call me crazy, but there might not be a better time all year to be a basketball fan than in March. The NBA season is winding down, with teams fighting both doldrums and rivals to ascend in their respective conferences, while numerous Adidas Next Generation Tournaments are going on...
Wait, did you think I meant that other March thing? Well, I guess that’s pretty good, too.
All joking aside, March Madness is the pinnacle of the sport, professional or otherwise. Words can’t accurately describe the thrilling highs and lows of the tournament, and it’s best to sit back and enjoy the experience unless your team is down and the seconds tick away.
It’s not the perfect scouting scenario, despite the hot takes from poor performances. Sure, the match-ups are novel and fun, while the bright lights show who rises to the occasion, but a bad game or two in March really shouldn’t affect a prospect’s stock. If one bad game will change what you’ve seen from a player all season, maybe you need to reevaluate your lens.
Instead of making snap judgments on players I’ve seen already, the two Round of 32 games I watched in Charlotte served as another critical data point in the season-long evaluation of the players involved. Significant wrinkles were revealed, as you’ll see below, but much of what I saw in person supported conclusions I’d come to earlier in the season.
That said, I did my best to highlight players on each team who have been in the spotlight alongside the more atypical pro prospects on each roster. I even tried to look at the best sleeper prospect for UNC, Michigan State, Tennessee, and Texas to do some advanced scouting for the future, as unlike March Madness, there’s no actual end date to scouting for the NBA draft.
North Carolina vs. Michigan State
#1 North Carolina Tar Heels
Harrison Ingram
It’s been a tumultuous journey for Harrison Ingram, who started at Stanford as a prized recruit but struggled with efficiency and scoring in his two years with the Cardinal. An offseason switch to the Tar Heels has resurrected his career and draft stock, as he was a third-team All-ACC player this year. Ingram’s a versatile, do-it-all forward who can make plays for himself and others on both ends of the floor, something he’s done as a two-way connector for the Heels all year.