The college basketball season is exploding into action on the first Friday of the journey to March Madness and eventually the Final Four in Phoenix. We’re beginning to gather information on the best players in the country, making the journey from someone who is thought to be good, to someone who is conclusively good. It just so happens to be that two of the players on this list of best centers are players who were in action Friday night. See what they and other top centers bring to the table.
Thomas Bryant, Indiana Hoosiers
The message was sent to the rest of college basketball by Bryant when his forceful performance was good enough to eliminate Kentucky in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last March. Indiana-Kentucky was a game filled with high-profile players, but Bryant stood above them all. He grew as a player and as a competitor – better in terms of skill, but also better in terms of will and belief – as a result of that March Madness run. He should be better this season, and in the Hoosiers’ opening game against Kansas in Hawaii on Friday night, he made it very hard for the Jayhawks’ big men to operate in the paint.
Bryant and Noah Vonleh have similar freshman year stats, which is both a good and bad thing. On one hand, Vonleh ended up as a lottery pick in the 2014 NBA Draft. On the downside, Vonleh hasn’t amounted to much in the NBA.
Chris Boucher, Oregon Ducks
The big man who propelled Oregon to the Elite Eight last March was not a 33- or 36-minute player on a nightly basis, but when he was called on by coach Dana Altman, he delivered. Boucher averaged in the vicinity of 12 points, seven rebounds, and three blocked shots per game. That’s a lot of value for the minutes he played, which was nearly 25 a game. Boucher might be entrusted with more work this season, but even if he isn’t, he has demonstrated that he is a load for opposing big men to handle. He’ll always bring the energy, and that focused effort is something opposing centers often fail to match.
Tyler Davis, Texas A&M Aggies
The young and strong Davis is a noticeably rangy player who can disrupt shots at the rim and very effectively seal opposing bigs on attempted rebounds. Davis hasn’t fully arrived as a scorer, but that is something which can develop as he tries to refine his low-post repertoire. A&M has a building block with a lot of upside here. He was named to the SEC All-Freshman team last year and will be looking to build on that even more so in the 2016-17 college basketball season. Last year, he compiled 11.3 points and 6.2 rebounds per outing while shooting a healthy 65.5 percent from the floor. He also led the team with 41 blocked shots. The coaches in the SEC conference seem to think quite highly of him as he was named to the Preseason All-SEC First Team just last week.
Lauri Markkanen, Arizona Wildcats
The Finnish first-year player showed why he’s going to be good in Arizona’s opener versus Michigan State. He is tall, but also strong. He showed shooting range, and even when he didn’t make outside shots, he drew defenders out of the paint, which created driving lanes for his teammates. Arizona was short-handed against Michigan State, so it speaks well of Markkanen that he played a substantial amount of minutes and never did become a defensive liability. The capacity to play solid defense as a college basketball freshman is rare.
He looked great at the FIBA under 20 tournament. To give you an idea, projecting his numbers over 40 minutes, he averaged 37.6 points, 13.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 3.5 blocks and 2.0 steals per game. That’s incredible. With a strong season at Arizona, he’s going to be a lottery pick come the 2017 NBA Draft.
Marques Bolden, Duke Blue Devils
The Duke roster is so loaded that Bolden will get his share of isolated post-up situations, but it’s his defense and rebounding which need to hold up over the course of the season in order for Duke to be everything it can be in college basketball.
Taking a look at DraftExpress, they have Bolden projected as the No. 15 player in the 2017 NBA Draft. Being a freshman, though, the DeSoto, Texas native has a chance to grow this season and really become an important cog for a good Blue Devils team.
