The Tar Heels may have hit some bumps and looked vulnerable at times, but in
the end their talent level was too much for anyone to match up with as the steam
rolled their way to the national title. We will have coverage on the Final Four
including a look at which player’s stocks were affected but first here’s a look
at how our player pool turned out.
Although the Championship game wasn’t close, the player tournament pool turned
out extremely close, adding excitement when the title had already been decided.
On March 19th we explained the rules to our "battle
of the sites" contest between NBADraft.net and NBA based sister site
HoopsDaily.com. Now with
a new national champion crowned, here are the results to our challenge (both individual
and team). Team HoopsDaily.com won the team battle by nearly 100 points, 1619
to 1525. Despite Team NBADraft.net having the two individual high scorers. The
individual battle was much closer.
Here are the final results (both team and individual):
Team HoopsDaily.com
| Jon Pastuszuk | Joshua Motenko | Mark Priaulx | Aran Smith |
| B.Griffin (28,33,30,23) | Teague (10) | Evans (15,19,33) | Blair (27,10,10,20) |
| Price (20,27,15,18,15) | Thabeet (20,6,15,5,17) | Flynn (16,11,22) | Ellington (25,23,19,9,20,19) |
| Green (15,8,13,18,12,6) | Lawson (0,23,19,19,22,21) | Cunningham (25,18,14,14,12) | Fields (6,13,14,10) |
| Ruoff (9) | Harden (9,10) | Reynolds (8,11,16,15,19) | Walker (10,8,5,23,5) |
| Johnson (22) | Hill (17,16,14) | Devendorf (10,21,8) | Heytvelt, (22,10 14) |
| Lyons (23,18,15,13) | A.Anderson (13,2,18) | Taggart (8,14,9) | T. Griffin (18,7,9,4) |
| Bouldin (12,20,7) | Pargo, (9,18,16) | McNeal (14,30) | DeRozan (18,18) |
| Randle (14) | Daye (10,10,10) | Abrams (26,17) | Aminu (17) |
| 434 pts | 349 pts | 423 pts | 413 pts |
1619 points
Team NBADraft.net
| Borko Popic | Brian Cerone | Adam Ganeles | Adi Joseph |
| Hansbrough (22,15,24,8,18, 18) | Young (14,32,19,28) | Warren (16,16,6,18) | Henderson (13,24,7) |
| Clark (12,12,19,19) | Adrien (13,23,8,12,13) | T.Williams (13,24,14,5) | Douglas (26) |
| Singler (10,17,15) | Samuels (15,13,14,0) | Carroll (13,15,17,12) | Lucas (13,10,18,10,21,14) |
| Collins (32,25,20) | Scheyer (15,13,13) | J.Anderson (10,15) | Butler (12) |
Thompson (6,6,5,10,6,9) | Dozier (6,17,19) | I.Thomas (9,24) | Hummel (9,7,17) |
| Aldrich (23,13,17) | Budinger (20,15,22) | Christmas (29) | Maynor (21) |
| Pendergraph (22,9) | Brockman (10,20) | Fisher (11,13,6,9,13) | Collison (10,15) |
| Morgan (16,3,4,0,18,4) | Robinson (24,12,10,13,15) | J. Smith (7,6,16,8) | Wilkinson (15) |
| 457 pts | 448 pts | 358 pts | 262 pts |
1525
Individual Scoreboard
| Borko Popic | Brian Cerone | Jon Pastuszuk | Mark Priaulx | Aran Smith | Adam Ganeles | Joshua Motenko | Adi Joseph |
| Hansbrough (105) | Young (93) | B. Griffin (114) | Evans (67) | Blair (67) | Warren (56) | Teague (10) | Henderson (44) |
| Clark (62) | Adrien (69) | Price (95) | Flynn (49) | Ellington (115) | T. Williams (56) | Thabeet (63) | Douglas (26) |
| Singler (42) | Samuels (42) | Green (72) | Cunningham (83) | Fields (43) | Carroll (57) | Lawson (94) | Lucas (86) |
| Collins (77) | Scheyer (41) | Ruoff (9) | Reynolds (67) | Walker (51) | J. Anderson (25) | Harden (19) | Butler (12) |
| Thompson (42) | Dozier (42) | Johnson (22) | Devendorf (39) | Heytvelt (46) | Thomas (33) | Hill (47) | Hummel (33) |
| Aldrich (53) | Budinger (57) | Lyons (69) | Taggart (31) | T. Griffin (38) | Christmas (29) | A. Anderson (33) | Maynor (21) |
Pendergraph (31) | Brockman (30) | Bouldin (39) | McNeal (44) | DeRozan (36) | Fisher (52) | Pargo (43) | Collison (25) |
| Morgan (45) | Robinson (74) | Randle (14) | Abrams (43) | Aminu (17) | J. Smith (37) | Daye (30) | Wilkinson (15) |
| 457 pts | 448 pts | 434 pts | 423 pts | 413 pts | 358 pts | 349 pts | 262 pts |
Top Individual Scorers
Wayne Ellington (115)
Blake Grffin (114)
Tyler Hansbrough (105)
AJ Price (95)
Ty Lawson (94)
Sam Young (93)
Kalin Lucas (86)
Dante Cunningham (83)
Sherron Collins (77)
Stanley Robinson (74)
Team Recaps
Borko Popic whose trio of Tyler Hansbrough,
Deon Thompson and Raymar Morgan combined to score 31 points in the final pushed him over the top winning by 9 points.
Borko Popic (457 points)
Best Pick: Sherron Collins
Worst Pick: Kyle Singler
Apology to Borko for tabulating the scores incorrectly. Tyler Hansbrough ended
up with 105 pts, not 95 putting Borko over the top by 9 points. Popic didn’t have
any complete busts with just Jeff Pendergraph scoring under 40 points. This team
was built to last with three players in the final game and easily had the most
total games played. Hansbrough over Blake Griffin was one pick he’d probably like
to have back. At least no NBA GM will make that mistake, those that
aren’t listening to Reggie Miller anyway.
Brain Cerone’s (448 points)
Best Pick: Stanley Robinson
Worst Pick: Samardo Samuels
Cerone made a number of great picks but none better than Stanley Robinson with
his final round pick. Cerone had a gift with Sam Young falling to him at 4. He
also got good quality throughout all his picks with everyone scoring at least
40 points aside from his 7th round pick, Jon Brockman. Cerone’s Huskies losing
vs MSU was the nail in the coffin.
Jon Pastuszek (434 points)
Best Pick: Leo Lyons
Worst Pick: Alex Ruoff
Pastuszek had 2 of the top 4 scorers in Griffin and Price and 2 other big scorers in Green and Lyons. The bad picks (Ruoff and Randle) were the only thing keeping this team from winning the title. Having UConn reach the final likely wouldn’t have changed anything as it would have given Pastuszek Price but Cerone both Robinson and Adrien.
Mark Priaulx (423 points)
Best Pick: Dante Cunningham
Worst Pick: Kyle Singler
Priaulx went with a different strategy with a number of tandems. Villanova reaching the final four really helped him out as Cunningham and Reynolds tunred into solid mid ranoud picks.
Aran Smith (413 points)
Best Pick: Wayne Ellington
Worst Pick: Al Farouq-Aminu
Ended up with the high individual scorer of the entire tournament, Wayne Ellington, and the deserving Final Four MVP. Wound up 35 points out of first place. The final pick could have been the difference as Aminu scored just 17 points while Stanley Robinson (Cerone’s final pick) ended with 74, a difference of 57 points. LeVance Fields and Kemba Walker at the end of the 3rd round were also bad picks in hindsight with players like Sherron Collins available. Although from the fourth round on, players were extremely hit or miss.
Adam Ganeles (358 points)
Best Pick: Corey Fisher
Worst Pick: Willie Warren
Warren was a decent first pick, but players like Eillington, Price and Lawson were available. Points needed to be made up somewhere. There weren’t any terrible choices, but no great ones either. This team had some explosive scorers, but lacked games played.
Joshua Motenko (349 points)
Best Pick: Ty Lawson
Worst Pick: Jeff Teague
With his top pick scoring just 10 points, this team was in a big hole from the start. 60 points over the final weekend was a nice final rally. Lawson turned out to be an excellent gamble despite missing the first game was 5th in overall scoring. Woulda, coulda, shoulda: had Motenko chosen Ellington instead of Teague, he would have ended up with 454 pts and in first place.
Adi Josph’s (262 points)
Best Pick: Kalin Lucas
Worst Pick: Toney Douglas
Joseph’s team was scattered with scorers, but lacked players who made deep runs and it cost him dearly. Florida State looked like a team that could make a nice tourney run, but with them opting out in round one, Douglas ended up a bad gamble. This team had just 3 players left, and no hope after the first weekend of games. One thing is certain, Joseph’s team will have a better showing next year.
Draft Results
Here was how the draft went down:
1. BP: Tyler Hansbrough, No. 1 North Carolina
2. JP: Blake Griffin, No. 2 Oklahoma
3. JM: Jeff Teague, No. 4 Wake Forest
4. BC: Sam Young, No. 1 Pittsburgh
5. AG: Willie Warren, Oklahoma
6. AJ: Gerald Henderson, No. 2 Duke
7. MP: Tyreke Evans, No. 2 Memphis
8. AS: DeJuan Blair, Pittsburgh
9. AS: Wayne Ellington, North Carolina
10. MP: Jonny Flynn, No. 3 Syracuse
11. AJ: Toney Douglas, No. 5 Florida State
12. AG: Terrence Williams, No. 1 Louisville
13. BC: Jeff Adrien, No. 1 Connecticut
14. JM: Hasheem Thabeet, Connecticut
15. JP: A.J. Price, Connecticut
16. BP: Earl Clark, Louisville
17. BP: Kyle Singler, Duke
18. JP: Danny Green, North Carolina
19. JM: Ty Lawson, North Carolina
20. BC: Samardo Samuels, Louisville
21. AG: DeMarre Carroll, No. 3 Missouri
22. AJ: Kalin Lucas, No. 2 Michigan State
23. MP: Dante Cunningham, No. 3 Villanova
24. AS: Levance Fields, Pittsburgh
25. AS: Kemba Walker, Connecticut
26. MP: Scottie Reynolds, Villanova
27. AJ: DaSean Butler, No. 6 West Virginia
28. AG: James Anderson, No. 8 Oklahoma State
29. BC: Jon Scheyer, Duke
30. JM: James Harden, No. 6 Arizona State
31. JP: Alex Ruoff, West Virginia
32. BP: Sherron Collins, No. 3 Kansas
33. BP: Deon Thompson, North Carolina
34. JP: James Johnson, Wake Forest
35. JM: Jordan Hill, No. 12 Arizona
36. BC: Robert Dozier, Memphis
37. AG: Isaiah Thomas, No. 4 Washington
38. AJ: Robbie Hummel, No. 5 Purdue
39. MP: Eric Devendorf, Syracuse
40. AS: Josh Heytvelt, No. 4 Gonzaga
41. AS: Taylor Griffin, Oklahoma
42. MP: Shawn Taggart, Memphis
43. AJ: Eric Maynor, No. 11 Virginia Commonwealth
44. AG: Dionte Christmas, No. 11 Temple
45. BC: Chase Budinger, Arizona
46. JM: Antonio Anderson, Memphis
47. JP: Leo Lyons, Missouri
48. BP: Cole Aldrich, Kansas
49. BP: Jeff Pendergraph, Arizona State
50. JP: Matt Bouldin, Gonzaga
51. JM: Jeremy Pargo, Gonzaga
52. BC: Jon Brockman, Washington
53. AG: Corey Fisher, Villanova
54. AJ: Darren Collison, No. 6 UCLA
55. MP: Jerel McNeal, No. 6 Marquette
56. AS: DeMar DeRozan, No. 10 Southern Cal
57. AS: Al-Farouq Aminu, Wake Forest
58. MP: A.J. Abrams, No. 7 Texas
59. AJ: Gary Wilkinson, No. 11 Utah State
60. AG: Jerry Smith, Louisville
61. BC: Stanley Robinson, Connecticut
62. JM: Austin Daye, Gonzaga
63. JP: Jerome Randle, No. 7 California
64. BP: Raymar Morgan, Michigan State
