NCAA Tournament Preview: Tourney Player Rankings

NCAA TOURNAMENT PLAYER RANKINGS

NCAA Tournament player rankings are based on scoring average and possible games played. But because balancing those two factors can be tricky -- a player with a lower scoring average who is certain to play multiple games is a better pick than a higher-scoring player who is likely to play fewer games -- possible games are based on seeds to eliminate guesswork from the equation.

Seeds 1-4 have the potential to play six games; seeds 5-7 likely won't advance to the Final Four, but could play four games; seeds 8-9 likely will only play two games because the top seeds are waiting in the second round; seeds 10-13 might be able to advance to the Sweet 16, but probably no farther (three games); and seeds 14-16 aren't likely to get out of the first round. No. 1 seeds also were given slightly greater weight atop the list. Teams in the play-in games were not considered.

Of course, if you think, for example, Memphis is going to win the championship (and thus play six games), you'll want to give greater weight to Memphis players in your personal rankings. This list is a starting point.

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