The All-March Sadness Team: Top NBA draft prospects who fell short in NCAA tournament

March Madness is supposed to be about winners, but for NBA scouts, it’s just as much about what we learn from the guys who go home early. Some flame out. Others show flashes before their teams fall short. But the tournament can provide both good and bad glimpses of what’s to come.

So let’s build an All-March Sadness team with five starters and two reserves. From microwave scorers with tunnel vision to late-bloomers making a lottery push, here’s what we learned about seven prospects on college basketball’s biggest stage.

For a two-round mock draft and a top 60 big board with full scouting reports, check out my NBA Draft Guide.

G: Tre Johnson, Texas

There’s a moment burned into my brain that crystallizes the worry with Tre Johnson’s NBA future. Late in Texas’ First Four loss to Xavier, down one with 17 seconds still on the shot clock, Johnson sized up his man and launched a heavily contested step-back 3. He held his pose as the ball clanged off the back iron, taking himself completely out of the play. Xavier grabbed the board, fired an outlet over Johnson’s head, and seconds later he was fouling the breakaway scorer for an and-one that buried Texas. It was a trailer for every concern scouts have had about Johnson: erratic shot selection, shaky decision-making and a disengaged defensive motor.

And yet, I can’t forget the highs. Yes, he takes bad shots, but he makes a lot of them. Coming off screens, pulling up, step-backs, leaning 3s. It doesn’t matter. He’s a microwave scorer trapped in Rodney Terry’s unimaginative Texas offense. It’s hard to fault a guy for trying to create his own spark when the system gives him nothing.

Johnson could be another shot-maker archetype bust prospect like the OJ Mayo, Shabazz Muhammad, and Dion Waiters types that came before him. But then you see the flashes. The moments where he makes the right read. The possessions where he locks in on defense. The emotional swings — his joy when things go well, his frustration when they don’t — suggest a player who cares deeply. And that might mean there’s more to tap into to make him a shot-making success story like Jamal Murray, Devin Booker, or Jayson Tatum. But without a stable structure and good vets, the habits that held him back at Texas might just be the ones that define him.

G: VJ Edgecombe, Baylor

I can’t imagine what it was like to tune into a Baylor game and see VJ Edgecombe play for the first time. You’d see him slingshot off a handoff into the paint, looking like an NBA All-Star plopped onto a college team. But then you’d watch the next 10 minutes and just see him stand in the corner, waiting for the ball to come to him, and wonder what happened to that freakish athlete you just saw.

This is the Edgecombe experience though. Too often, he doesn’t assert himself and instead fades into the background. Will this be a trend moving forward? Or is this a good soldier falling in line behind some upperclassmen teammates? Either way, it’s a bit worrisome that in the biggest games of the season Edgecombe didn’t take greater control, or wasn’t even asked by his head coach to be the man. We know so much about what Edgecombe can do, especially with his downhill attacking, drawn fouls, and some strong defensive stops against Mississippi State. But all season, his shot creation has been limited, and he wasn’t able to provide it in a 23-point second-round loss against Duke.

F: Liam McNeeley, UConn

Maybe things would have been different for McNeeley had Cooper Flagg elected to attend Connecticut instead of Duke. Without him, McNeeley was forced into a go-to guy role for the Huskies. But he’d be better off in a Klay Thompson-style role — playing off others, spacing the floor, and making quick decisions as a secondary option.

But March wasn’t kind. He missed 18 of his last 21 3-pointers and went just 11-of-28 on twos. For a guy billed as a shooter, the shots didn’t fall when the lights got brighter.

That said, it was still a productive year. McNeeley showed real value as a big wing with shooting, connective passing and versatility. He moves the ball, he knows where to be and his shot mechanics are clean. But there’s no getting around the fact that many of those late-season bricks came against the type of athletes he’ll see every night in the NBA. And that’s the part that lingers.

F: Nique Clifford, Colorado State

March Madness was a success for Clifford as an individual. He looked ready to step on an NBA floor today by displaying his defensive versatility, fighting through screens, rotating off-ball and he intercepted two passes. And on offense, he made a positive impact by scoring at the rim and slinging the ball around the floor with 12 assists over two games.

At the end of a second-round game, he made an over-the-head bullseye pass that put Colorado State ahead before Derik Queen scored on the other end with a buzzer-beater to win it for Maryland.

That moment is why Clifford is on this list. He put his team ahead. Colorado State was on the verge of being in the Sweet 16, and he would have had another chance against Florida, who barely squeaked by UConn, to show why he’s a worthy lottery pick.

Nonetheless, Clifford has shown more than enough to warrant selecting him in the first round. And he could go much higher than expected.

C: Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton

Kalkbrenner did his job against Auburn center Johni Broome in the round of 32, stonewalling him on post-ups while also offering his typical rim protection in drop coverage. At 7-foot-2, the Creighton super senior is massive and naturally projects as a rotation big for an NBA team because of his defense alone.

But his offense is intriguing. He can score inside and run the floor, while also hitting a handful of open 3s. He showed all these goods in the tournament, but nothing that scouts didn't already know. Some team in need of a rotation big will take him, and odds are we’ll be seeing more of the same for years to come in the NBA.

6th Man: Ian Jackson, North Carolina

For a seven-game stretch in the middle of the season, Jackson averaged 22.7 points in 34.3 minutes per game as a starter. It looked like the freshman was trending toward becoming a lottery pick, draining 3s and midrange jumpers off the dribble with great flare and efficiency. But then he hit a wall, lost his playing time, and averaged 8.1 points in 18.3 minutes over his final 14 games. This includes only 27 total forgettable minutes combined in North Carolina's First Four win and opening round loss to Ole Miss.

North Carolina's defensive rating was 14.7 points better with Jackson off the floor, per CBB Analytics. It’s not all his fault, but he often played like he was checked out which is why his minutes dwindled as the season wore on. And unfortunately, he didn’t help himself in March with two dud performances. Returning to school or transferring should be his next move, otherwise he risks getting lost in the shuffle of an NBA roster as a second-round pick that a team takes a flyer on.

7th Man: RJ Luis, St. John’s

It’s quite unbelievable that Luis went from the Big East Player of the Year to betting benched in the closing minutes of St. John’s second-round loss to Arkansas. Head coach Rick Pitino was dragged by the media for not plugging Luis back in the game as Arkansas pulled away, outscoring St. John’s in the final five minutes.

But man, Luis was horrible all game long. He shot 3-for-17 from the floor. And he let his horrific shooting performance hurt his normally sound defense. He stopped boxing out. His effort declined. He looked like a deer in the headlights under the bright lights of March Madness.

Luis is only a junior and he can return to college if he chooses to. He should. There are more lessons to learn about how to deal with adversity and battle on the biggest stage before things get even harder at the next level.

For a two-round mock draft and a top 60 big board with full scouting reports, check out my NBA Draft Guide.