EveryMarch Madnessprovides a stage for prospects to separate themselves. One good run and a late-first can become a late-lottery pick. One bad weekend and the question marks won't go away. With the Sweet 16 set to begin on Thursday, here are four prospects — one from each bracket — that will be interesting to watch this weekend.
West: Darius Acuff's defense doesn't change his draft slot
Watch Arkansas face off against Arizona on Thursday night and you'll see Darius Acuff shapeshift. One possession, he's snaking through a ball screen with that low dribble and impossible touch around the rim — full Kyrie mode. The next, he's sprinting off a handoff and pulling up from the logo before the defense can even blink — full Dame mode. Then the other team inbounds the ball and he's standing somewhere near half-court, watching his man curl off a screen on the other side of the floor — full Trae Young mode. It's the most fascinating offensive package in college basketball attached to the most exhausting defensive effort.
Anyone who's watched Acuff knows about the defensive effort lapses, the awareness issues, and the size limitations at a generous 6-foot-3 that don't go away. These are legitimate flags and they belong in every honest evaluation.
But Saturday night showed why some scouts forgive those flaws. He scored 12 of Arkansas' final 15 points and, with the game tied at 83 with three minutes left, Acuff went on a personal 7-0 run — with two layups and a 3-pointer from the wing with a minute left. He added two free throws with eight seconds remaining to close it at 94-88.
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His 36-point night is the most by any Razorback in NCAA tournament history and broke the program's single-season scoring record. He and Chris Paul are the only freshmen since 1973 to open their tournament careers with back-to-back 20-and-5 games. He has 60 points and 13 assists in two games. He's 19.
Acuff doesn't do much defending at the college level. Yes, that's real. And yes, if Arkansas loses to Arizona the odds are his inability to get stops will be one of the factors why. And yes, maybe it'll continue to be a problem in the NBA. But at some point the avalanche of offensive credentials just buries the counterargument. Irving is a future Hall of Famer and a champion who hit one of the greatest shots in the history of the Finals. Dame is a future Hall of Famer and led his team to a conference finals. Trae is a complicated case — his best days in Atlanta are behind him and he'll need to rejuvenate in a disastrous Washington situation — but he still gave that franchise seven years of appointment television and a conference finals run. The offensive value was worth a top-five pick … well, as long as you're not giving away Luka Dončić to get him.
The question with smaller guards is always about whether they do enough on offense to compensate. And with a football player frame and a high work ethic, he does have the tools to be a competitive defender when he's surrounded by more talent. A player this special offensively is worth a top-five pick, whether or not his defense is a red flag.
East: Isaiah Evans needs a statement game
With Caleb Foster out and Patrick Ngongba still not at 100%, Isaiah Evans has become Duke's second-most important player behind Cameron Boozer. St. John's will do everything possible to slow down Boozer by throwing Big East Player of the Year senior Zuby Ejiofor at him, which could mean Evans will need to catch fire for the Blue Devils to make it to Indianapolis.
Evans hasn't had the explosive performance that he's capable of — 16.5 points on 14 shots per game in the first two rounds — but he can catch fire on any night. At 6-6, Evans was more of a shooting specialist entering college, but as a sophomore he expanded his game to get to the basket more often. Only 10% of his half-court shots came at the rim as a freshman, and that has doubled to 21%, per Synergy.
St. John's held opponents to only 31.2% from 3 this year, one of the best marks in the nation, so Evans may need to find other ways to score. Which is exactly what NBA teams want to see. Scouts know he can fly around screens and pull up from anywhere. But showcasing his expanded offensive game against one of Duke's toughest matchups of the season could be what propels his draft stock.
Midwest: The case for 'Dominican LeBron'
Lendeborg came into the tournament with a low ankle sprain from the Big Ten final and managed only nine points against Howard. Against Saint Louis, he dropped 25 points on 9-for-13 with three triples, zero turnovers in 32 minutes, and delivered one of the highlights of the tournament with a coast-to-coast drive through two defenders that his teammate Nimari Burnett immediately dubbed "Dominican LeBron."
He's a 6-9 forward with a 7-4 wingspan who fills a stat sheet the way few players his size can — scoring at all three levels, rebounding like the ball belongs to him, defending multiple positions, and making passes that have no business coming from a big man. Michigan built its entire offense around him and it shows. He is, in every way that matters, a complete college basketball player.
But as a 23-year-old senior, Lendeborg is old for a prospect. Over the past decade, players his age drafted in the top 20 come with a mixed history of success:
Dalton Knecht, 17th in 2024
Tristan da Silva, 18th in 2024
Chris Duarte, 13th in 2021
Cam Johnson, 11th in 2019
Buddy Hield, 6th in 2016
Duarte was a bust. Knecht looks like one too. Hield has carved out a long career as a role player, and both Johnson and TDS look on their way to doing the same. The pattern here isn't great. Those five, and older prospects taken later in the draft, tend to lack great upside. But Lendeborg's path to this moment is so genuinely weird that I'm not sure the comparisons hold.
He played only 11 varsity games in high school because poor grades kept him sidelined for multiple years, found his footing at JUCO, transferred to UAB, and then made the jump to Michigan last offseason as the most coveted transfer portal player in the country. Every single time someone had a reason to write him off, he showed up somewhere harder and proved them wrong. That's not nothing. That's actually kind of the whole thing.
Lendeborg has met every level of competition and raised his game at each one. What this tournament run is showing is a player who has spent his life in that exact situation. The Sweet 16 is up next. And soon, the NBA will follow.
South: Bennett Stirtz Is More Than His Shooting Line
Bennett Stirtz went 4-for-17 against Clemson and 5-for-16 against Florida, and Iowa is in the Sweet 16 anyway.
But what has always defined Stirtz: 2,081 career pick-and-roll possessions, an elite assist-to-turnover ratio, and a surgical understanding of where the ball needs to go.
With 8.9 seconds left, Iowa down one, the play was drawn up for Stirtz to attack downhill and win the game himself. Florida's defense converged on him and instead of forcing it, he sprinted down the court after breaking the press and found Alvaro Folgueiras wide open in the right corner for the go-ahead 3 with 4.5 seconds left. Iowa took down the defending national champions 73-72.
Stirtz finished with 13 points on a brutal shooting night and the most important pass of the tournament. That's the whole Stirtz story, really — a zero-star recruit from Liberty, Missouri, who started at Division II Northwest Missouri State, transferred to Drake, followed his coach to Iowa, and has raised his scoring average at every single stop: 12.6, 15.2, 19.2, 20. But Nebraska's defense is the best he's faced in this tournament. And for Iowa to keep advancing, Stirtz may need to be the one to take the final shot.
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