Alabama is set to begin March Madness on Friday against Hofstra. The Crimson Tide will face the Pride during round one without Aden Holloway. The point guard is facing felony drug charges and more details are reportedly emerging in his case. ESPN says authorities found just over two pounds of marijuana in Holloway's apartment when he was arrested on a felony drug possession charge.In the state of Alabama, any amount of marijuana above 2.2 pounds, or one kilogram, can result in a drug trafficking charge.On Monday, the university announced Holloway had been removed from campus following his arrest.
The March Madness spotlight is set to lock on a long list of high-end freshman NBA prospects. This season's potential draft class is considered to be the deepest in years. That group has now reached the NCAA Tournament with a chance to take center stage. The top freshman prospects are BYU's AJ Dybantsa, Duke's Cameron Boozer and Kansas' Darryn Peterson. Others to watch include Arkansas' Darius Acuff Jr., Houston's Kingston Flemings and Arizona's Brayden Burries.
It was early in the final week before March Madness when Dybantsa opened his Big 12 Tournament run by scoring 40 points, breaking a freshman single-game record held by NBA great Kevin Durant.
“I’m just trying to win games,” Dybantsa said afterward.
By Selection Sunday, Darius Acuff Jr. had completed a three-game tear through the Southeastern Conference Tournament that secured Arkansas’ first title in 26 years.
“Downhill was working all weekend and today,” he said.
And that's how this freshman class stocked with high-end NBA talent rolled all year, making the extraordinary look routine — so much so that the NBA is concerned about teams tanking to improve their chances at landing one of these talents in June. From Dybantsa and Acuff to Duke’s Cameron Boozer and Kansas’ Darryn Peterson as headliners, the potential class of draft prospects is considered among the deepest in years if all go the one-and-done route as expected.
And they’ve arrived at the NCAA Tournament to play in the sport's marquee event. It's now the March of the freshmen, possibly all the way to the Final Four in Indianapolis.
“I know most of those guys. They’re all having great years,” Acuff said during his SEC run. “They’re playing special. It’s great to see all the young guys playing great.”
Start with the East Region, where top overall tournament seed Duke has the 6-foot-10, 250-pound Boozer (22.5 points, 10.2 rebounds) as the leading force in an often-withering inside-out attack.
The East also has a potential top overall pick in Peterson, a 6-6 guard averaging 19.8 points even while being in and out of the lineup all year for the fourth-seeded Jayhawks; and a potential top-10 talent in 6-5 guard Mikel Brown Jr. from sixth-seeded Louisville.
In the West, the 6-foot-9 Dybantsa did nothing to harm his status as the long-running favorite to go No. 1 overall in the NBA draft while averaging a national-best 25.3 points for the sixth-seeded Cougars. Acuff is there, too, the 6-3 point guard who just set an SEC Tournament record by averaging 30.3 points — and getting anywhere he wanted — while playing 117 of 120 possible minutes for the fourth-seeded Razorbacks.
Arizona tops the West, led by its own promising NBA freshmen prospects in 6-4 guard Brayden Burries (15.9) and 6-8 forward Koa Peat (13.6).
South No. 2 seed Houston is led by 6-4 guard Kingston Flemings (16.4 points), while third-seeded Illinois found a star in four-star prospect Keaton Wagler — a 6-6 guard averaging a team-best 17.9 points.
In the Midwest, sixth-seeded Tennessee has slender 6-10 forward Nate Ament, who has averaged 20.3 points since mid-January while coach Rick Barnes has pointed to his gains in playing through contact.
And the tournament list could've been even longer if not for South 6-seed North Carolina losing 6-foot-10 freshman Caleb Wilson (19.8 points, 9.4 rebounds) to a season-ending thumb injury in early March.
Tuesday's release of The Associated Press All-America teams reinforced the freshman surge. Boozer was a unanimous first-team pick, joined by Dybantsa and Acuff on that top quintet. Wagler and Wilson were second-team picks, Flemings a third-teamer.
“You knew they were extremely talented, but you just never know how they’re going to adjust moving to this level,” Tar Heels coach Hubert Davis said of the freshman class. “I know a lot of people think going from high school to playing at this level, the transition is easy. It is not.”
