Heroes of March Madness

It has been a very exciting first two rounds of the NCCA Tournament this year. Some players, however, have made a much more lasting mark on the tournament than others. Unlike some conferences, the Big East for example (which just simply has an 11 man All Big East first team), I will select the best players from the first two rounds of the tourney as if I was selecting a basketball team; 2 bigs (center or power forward unimportant), 2 wing players (small forward or off guard unimportant) and 1 point guard. Since North Carolina and Kansas have been so balanced, neither of those teams placed anyone on this list, even though their players are collectively playing great. The players:

C - Kevin Love, UCLA

Love started the tourney with 20 points, 9 rebounds and 4 blocked shots against Mississppi Valley State, but quickly showed that was just a warm up. In the second round against Texas A & M, Love had 19 points, 11 rebounds and 7, yes 7, blocked shots. Included in those 19 points were two big shots, one with 3:20 remaining that tied the game at 45 and the other with 1:37 remaining that gave UCLA a 47-45 point lead. Oh, and did I mention he now has 11 blocks for the tournament?

Honorable mention: Robin Lopez of Stanford, who is averaging 16 points, 6.5 rebounds and has 8 total blocks.

F - Brook Lopez, Stanford

Brook Lopez only had 4 points in the first round route of Cornell, but came back strong with a 30 point performance against Marquette, all of which were incredibly important in Stanford's one point overtime victory over the Golden Eagles, even though coach Trent Johnson was thrown out of the game in the first half for receiving two technical fouls. Lopez had 8 of his teams 11 points in overtime, and even assisted on a three pointer by Mitch Johnson. There is no way Stanford comes close to beating Marquette without Brook Lopez.

Honorable mention: Joe Alexander of West Virginia, who not only averages 18 points and 9.5 rebounds in this tournament, but is the absolute focal point of the Mountaineers offense and Michael Beasley who scored 46 points and grabbed 24 rebounds in Kansas State's two games, a victory over USC and the defeat at the hands of Wisconsin.

F - Courtney Lee, Western Kentucky
Lee, after scoring 15 points and grabbing 9 rebounds against Drake in the first round, exploded for 29 points and 7 rebounds in helping Western Kentucky earn its Sweet Sixteen birth over San Diego.

Honorable mention: Joe Crawford of Kentucky because of his 35 points in Kentucky's loss to Marquette, Gyno Pomare of San Diego for his 21 point average against UConn and Western Kentucky in this tournament, as well as his name (even though it is pronounced Gino).

PG - Scottie Reynolds, Villanova

Reynolds is averaging 23 points per game for the Wildcats, as they cruised into the Sweet 16 with relatively easy victories over Clemson and Siena. He has done this while averaging 36 minutes per tournament game. He has emerged as the one absolute Big East star in this tournament (with Alexander), while the other highly publicized members (Roy Hibbert for example) of that vaunted conference have had less than stellar tournaments. Several point guards have had amazing performances, but none have played better than Reynolds.

Honorable mention: Tyrone Brazelton of Western Kentucky, particularly for his 33 point performance against Drake in the first round, Joe Mazzulla, for his 13 point, 11 rebound and 8 assist performance against Duke from off the bench, and Jack McClinton, Miami, 38 points in the first round and 18 critical points to make the Texas game interesting in round 2.

SG - Stephen Curry, Davidson

Hopefully I shouldn't have to justify this pick, but I will say that he has scored more points in the second halves of the two games, 55, than any player has scored in the entire tournament. He followed his 40 point performance in the win over Gonzaga with a 30 point performance in the come from way behind victory over Georgetown and its vaunted, nation leading, defense. There should be absolutely no debate that Curry is the MOP of this tournament to date.

Honorable Mention: Jerel McNeal of Marquette, who scored 50 points in the two games against Kentucky and Stanford.