Zero NBA Draft Lottery Picks In The Final Four
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
by BetUS.com
Ask the common sports fan who the best players on Duke, West Virginia, Butler and Michigan State are and I bet you that the only guy they might be able to name is Jon Scheyer, the white kid who runs the point for the Blue Devils. One of the best reasons to watch the Final Four is to catch a glimpse of the future NBA stars that could land on your favorite team. Yet, this year is different. None of the guys appearing at the top of draft boards across the interweb are featured in the fatal four-way of March Madness betting.
In the past few Final Fours, we’ve enjoyed seeing guys like Ty Lawson, Joakim Noah, Hasheem Thabeet, Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Al Horford and Greg Oden who have all had varied success stories in the NBA. How in the hell did we get to a point where the supposed superstars of the college ranks can’t push their teams over the top?
Well, they’re called upsets and this year’s March Madness tournament has been chalk full of ‘em. Kansas getting bounced in the second round noted the loss of Cole Aldrich from the tournament. Ohio State, Kentucky, Georgia Tech, Syracuse and Wake Forest all fell afterwards.
The two biggest names in the NBA Draft that didn’t even make it to the big dance are Ed Davis of the UNC Tar Heels and Hassan Whiteside of Marshall. Both of them are huge guys with massive amount of potential, and we’re all well aware how enamored coaches and scouts become with things like height, wingspan and jumping ability.
Before March Madness began, I wrote that there was a very dark cloud looming over the heads of John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins of the Kentucky Wildcats. Cousins is considered a top-5 talent, but Wall is projected as the undeniable number-one guy. Kentucky was ousted by West Virginia, who don’t have a guy going in the lottery, let alone the first round. If Wall is selected number one in New York this June, he’ll continue a 22-year streak of top NBA draftees failing to capture the national title. The last one was Danny Manning of the Kansas Jayhawks who was taken first overall in 1988 by the L.A. Clippers.
The Final Four is usually much easier to bank on when you’re more familiar with the particular players involved. I mean how much easier would this be for us if we were looking at Kentucky with Wall and Cousins or Ohio State featuring Evan Turner?
This could be a sign that the team game is taking premise over featuring star players, and it’d be hard to argue when only one player in the Final Four cracked the top-45 of NBA Draft big boards. So how much can a big performance in the Final Four boost your draft stock? Just ask Tyler Hansbrough.
I’ll have a later column this week about who the big names left in the Final Four odds are, just don’t expect any of them to do enough to jump in to the lottery at the NBA. I don’t know whether that’s a good thing for the college game, or a bad thing. Either way, we’ll find out.
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ed davis - kansas jayhawks - march madness betting - nba draft