Outside the world of the NBA, the NCAA tournament is considered one of the most prestigious and decorated basketball tournaments organized across the country. To those who do not know, the NCAA is the highest college-level basketball tournament and garners a significant amount of views and attention from basketball fans every year.
We are still in the first round of the NCAA March Madness Tournament. Be that as it may, some players are already proving that they are the best in this tournament and can even potentially be compared to NBA players. With that being said, let us take a look at the top 5 best players of this year’s NCAA tournament.
Antoine Davis is the best scorer so far in the 2023 NCAA March Madness tournament
Although it might be too quick to tell for certain, Antoine Davis is emerging to be the best scorer this year. He is from the University of Detroit Mercy and plays for the Detroit Mercy Titans. In the 33 games his team has played so far, he has racked up an impressive 930 points, averaging around 28.2 points per game. Considering that he is only 6’1 and plays the point guard position, this is quite commendable.
In fact, Antoine is head and shoulders apart from the second-best scorer, who is Jordan Dingle from Penn University, who has been averaging 23.4 points for his team. Although he has played in only 28 games to Davis’ 33, he has scored a total of 656 points so far.
While Antoine and Jordan might be the best scorers this year, that need not necessarily mean that they are the best overall players. Facilitating the offense and feeding the teammates with perfect passes is also a trait that many great basketball players have. Yuri Collins from the Saint Louis Billikens has been averaging 10.1 assists in the 33 games he has played in.
That is significantly higher than the second-best passer, who is Markquis Nowell from Kansas State University who is averaging 7.4 assists this season. These are the best scorers and facilitators in the NCAA tournament. Finally, the best rebounder and center is Oscar Tshiebwe from the Kentucky Wildcats. Listed at only 6’9 he has been averaging 13.5 rebounds in 31 games played so far.
Perhaps the game of basketball shouldn’t be broken into pure statistics in order to determine who is the best player. After all, none of these stats are indicative of having a winning impact. In any case, these are the players who have been putting up incredible numbers this season for their colleges.