This Rauf Report looks at five of the most valuable players in college basketball and why they will have crucial impacts on their team’s NCAA Tournament futures.
Even amid an action-packed weekend, all eyes were on one game in particular: Auburn-Alabama. The Tigers’ victory on Saturday over the Crimson Tide marked the first regular-season matchup between teams ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the AP poll since Oklahoma and Kansas squared off in January 2016.
It was also the first time the top two seeds from the NCAA Tournament Selection’s Committee early Bracket Preview have faced off. Earlier in the day, the committee revealed that they have Auburn as their top overall seed, with the Crimson Tide slotting in at No. 2 overall.
Speaking of the bracket reveal, the committee clearly holds the SEC in high regard. Five of the top six overall seeds hailed from that league, and seven of the top 10 overall. It’s not much surprise given the SEC’s historic dominance, and an incredibly entertaining Alabama-Auburn game further hammered home the high level of play in the conference.
In the process, Auburn’s Johni Broome continued to make his case for National Player of the Year with a 19-point, 14-rebound, six-assist outing that included several highlight-reel plays. It was also the latest showing of Big Game Tahaad Pettiford, who hit arguably the biggest shot of the game.
With all due respect to Broome, we start this Rauf Report with a look at Pettiford — and why he may be Auburn’s most important player.
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Big Game Tahaad Pettiford is a real thing
Pettiford is obviously not Auburn’s best player — that’s Broome, who is making a legitimate case to overtake Cooper Flagg in the NPOY race. But guard play is still incredibly important in March, and Auburn is at its best when Pettiford is at his.
The 6-1 freshman is the Tigers’ only NBA prospect in the backcourt, and when he goes into attack mode, his combination of quickness, finishing ability and shooting puts constant stress on opposing defenses.
The team’s other featured guards — Chad Baker-Mazara, Denver Jones and Miles Kelly — are all seniors or super-seniors. Yet, it’s the inexperienced Pettiford who has consistently taken the big shots for Auburn. None were bigger than his tie-breaking 3-pointer with 7:28 to play at Alabama:
“That [shot] just goes to show you how great of a player he is,” Jones said of Pettiford’s go-ahead three. “Tahaad, he’s young, but he’s got a lot of things that you just can’t teach — and that’s one of them. He comes down, and he answers their 6-0 run. He comes down and sparks our run. That just goes to show you how important he is.”
Despite his youth, Pettiford has already earned the nickname Big Game Tahaad. He often saves his best performances for Auburn’s biggest games, actually improving his efficiency against better competition.
Broome is obviously a unique weapon inside, but the Tigers also have quality frontcourt depth and a litany of guards who excel on both ends. That formula allowed Auburn to win the SEC Tournament last year. However, the lack of a big-game guard who could create with the ball in his hands contributed to the first-round loss to Yale in the NCAA Tournament.
Pettiford has become that guy, and he’ll be the key to any run Auburn does — or doesn’t — make.
Zakai Zeigler is one of the nation’s most important players
After spending a good portion of the season at No. 1in the AP poll, Tennessee has largely fallen off the national radar over the last month.
Auburn’s historic season, along with surging SEC compatriots Alabama, Florida and Texas A&M, have wrestled the spotlight away. Meanwhile, the Vols are just 7-5 in their last 12 games — and without Zakai Zeigler‘s heroics on Saturday, that could have easily been 6-6.
Tennessee trailed by as many as 16 points against Vanderbilt, which was looking for a season sweep of the Vols. However, Zeigler led a ferocious comeback, scoring all 22 of his points in the second half to spark a 81-76 victory.
“I thought he got back to playing with a real chip on his shoulder,” head coach Rick Barnes said of Zeigler. “He got back and his competitive spirit really showed up, because the first half he was getting driven by and things that he doesn’t normally do … The guy that we’ve always known, that’s who he was in the second half.”
Barnes himself may have stoked Zeigler’s competitive fires.
“[He] got mad at me probably because I said some things to him I don’t normally say to challenge him a little bit, and I thought he responded well,” Barnes added.
Since Chaz Lanier has cooled off, Zeigler has carried even more of a burden for Tennessee. It’s not a scoring burden, however, but a playmaking one. Zeigler is the only guy Barnes trusts to create for others and make things happen.
Indeed, Tennessee is at its best when Zeigler is dishing it out the most:
Zakai Zeigler isn’t the best player in America. However, few players — if any — are more valuable to their team. Thanks to his leadership and production, Zeigler is the true heart and soul of the Volunteers.
Jaylen Carey is a star in the making
While Zeigler was busy breaking Vanderbilt hearts, the Commodores’ sophomore big man Jaylen Carey was busy showing more flashes of stardom.
The James Madison transfer had 18 points, seven rebounds and three assists against Tennessee’s stellar front line, marking the third time in the last four games in which he has scored at least 15 points.
Carey’s offensive production has proven to be a great indicator of Vanderbilt’s success. The Commodores are 7-2 this season when he scores in double figures and just 10-6 when he doesn’t — including a 1-5 mark in SEC play.
While head coach Mark Byington, who also coached Carey at JMU, expressed frustration with the sophomore’s propensity for foul trouble, he also praised his recent play.
“I think we’re finding consistency in his game right now,” Byington said on Saturday. “Our guys are looking for him more. He’s doing a great job rebounding.”
Byington also extolled the virtues of Carey’s physicality, which is at least in part due to his good genes. His brother, Vernon Carey Jr., was a star big man at Duke before going pro. His father, Vernon Carey Sr., was a star offensive lineman for the Miami Dolphins.
“He’s as physical as anybody,” Byington said of his 6-8, 265-pound sophomore. “And in this league, you need some guys that look like football players and play like football players. … He gives us some physicality and toughness we definitely need.”
Physicality aside, Carey’s touch around the rim, footwork, and expanded faceup game indicate he’s only scratching the surface of how good a player he can be. He may end up being one of the SEC’s best players sooner rather than later.
For now, though, his role as Vanderbilt’s anchor on the interior is mission critical to the Commodores’ run at making the NCAA Tournament.
Milos Uzan holds the key to Houston’s Final Four hopes
I was not high as many on Houston in the preseason. A big reason was that I thought Kelvin Sampson would have a hard time replacing Jamal Shead, the lead guard who drove so much of the offense. Early-season struggles — particularly in close games against good teams — seemed to validate those concerns.
Milos Uzan‘s recent play is wiping those concerns away.
The Oklahoma transfer has played the best basketball of his career over the last month, leading the Cougars to significant victories over Kansas, Baylor and Arizona. Houston now has a two-game lead in the Big 12, with a budding superstar running the show.
“Milos is more skilled than any guard we’ve had coming in,” Kelvin Sampson told PaperCity. “What Milos didn’t have was a natural competitive nature. And I think that’s why the good Lord led him to me. He needed somebody that wasn’t afraid to coach him, to coach him hard.”
Houston is seeing the result of that coaching, and a time when it has really needed someone to fill the elite point guard void Shead left behind.
LJ Cryer has been solid, but he’s not a playmaker. Emanuel Sharp has not had the kind of breakout season many were expecting. Terrance Arceneaux’s production has been inconsistent. Mylik Wilson has been in and out of the rotation.
All of Sampson’s best teams at Houston — the ones that have made long NCAA Tournament runs — have had high-end lead guards: Shead, Marcus Sasser, Quentin Grimes. The Cougars bet this offseason that Uzan could become this caliber of player, and he has delivered over on that promise the last eight games. His ability to sustain this level of play will determine Houston’s ceiling.
Donovan Dent has New Mexico prepped for a March run
New Mexico currently holds a two-game lead over second-place Utah State in the Mountain West. For what it’s worth, that lead might as well be three games considering the Lobos now own the tiebreaker after sweeping the Aggies.
Overall, New Mexico is 22-4 with a 3-1 record in Quad 1 games and 11-2 mark against the top two quadrants. UNM boasts an elite defense that ranks 10th nationally in efficiency against top-50 opponents, per Torvik, along with a versatile lineup with power-conference size.
But star point guard Donovan Dent is what makes this Lobos team different. The 6-2, 185-pound junior is one of the very best players in the country as he leads the Mountain West in scoring (19.6 ppg) and ranks second in assists (6.5 apg). He can win games by himself because of his ability to score and create — and New Mexico often relies on him to do so.
Thankfully for the Lobos, Dent almost always delivers.
Per Torvik, Marquette’s Kam Jones (a likely All-American) is the only other player this season who matches Dent’s usage and efficiency metrics, but he is not on the court as often. When you add in Dent’s minutes, only six other players in the last 20 years have matched his numbers, and all were taken in the NBA Draft.
The good news for New Mexico is that four of those six — Burke, Pickett, Morant and Maynor — all led their team to at least one NCAA Tournament victory, with Morant and Maynor both doing it at mid-major programs. Dent is hoping to do the same thing for a Lobos team currently projected to be a No. 9 seed in the Big Dance.
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