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March Madness top players: These 10 hope to deliver Final Four dreams

StaffBy No Comments17 Mins Read

While college basketball’s coaching old heads are having a generational reckoning in the Sweet 16, the sport’s stars on the court for the next round of the Men’s NCAA Tournament are a peppered mix of veterans and projected one-and-done phenoms.

Arkansas coach John Calipari, 67, is youngest among the quintet of Calipari, Tennessee’s Rick Barnes (71), Michigan State’s Tom Izzo (71), Houston’s Kelvin Sampson and St. John’s Rick Pitino (73).

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Duke’s Cameron Boozer, a consensus top-five projected NBA lottery pick this summer, won’t turn 19 until July 18.

Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg and UConn’s Alex Karaban both turn 24 this fall.

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Men’s Sweet 16 players to watch during March Madness

How sweet it is. Sixteen teams remain in the March Madness 2026 tournament. Here are some top players and matchups to watch.
No. 11 Texas vs. No. 2 Purdue Texas: Matas Vokietaitis

That trio is just three of 10 players who will help dictate Final Four dreams and season-ending nightmares in these upcoming games.

A look at the players to know in the Sweet 16:

Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas

No player anywhere in college basketball has done more to elevate his game — and his draft profile — in March Madness than has the freshman guard for Calipari’s Razorbacks. The 6-3, 190-pounder from Detroit scored 60 points in the tournament’s opening weekend on 20 of 41 shooting from the floor and hitting 15 of 17 free throws. He’s scored 24 or more points in every game of his team’s current six-game winning binge, which included an SEC tournament title.

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More: John Calipari unleashed Darius Acuff by taking page out of NBA book

Cameron Boozer, Duke

The ACC’s player and rookie of the year, Boozer had a workmanlike pair of double-doubles as the Blue Devils survived Siena and dispatched TCU in their opening pair of games. He closed with 41 points and 24 rebounds combined. The 6-9, 250-pounder also proved clutch from the free-throw line, where he made 18 of 19 free throws in his NCAA Tournament debut.

Jayden Bradley, Arizona

While freshmen Brayden Burries and Koa Peat garner the majority of NBA chatter on the Wildcats roster, it is Bradley whose game-winner in the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament helped sustain an Arizona winning streak now at 11 games. Bradley owns 73 starts in his 109 career games across one season at Alabama and now two with the Wildcats. His 13.3 points and 4.4 assists per game now in his junior year are both career bests.

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See best of March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities

Iowa State Cyclones fans cheer against the Kentucky Wildcats during the first half in the second round of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Enterprise Center on March 22, 2026 in St Louis, Missouri.

Jeremy Fears Jr., Michigan State

A starter in all 36 games in which he’s appeared this season, the redshirt sophomore Fears has been the catalyst for Michigan State. He’s scored as many as 31 points in a game this season and dropped off a career-best 17 assists in Jan. 26 win against Maryland. Since a late-January road game at Rutgers, Fears has logged 32 or more minutes in every Spartans game save one. Those seemingly indefatigable legs carry Michigan State’s Final Four navigation this weekend.

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Kingston Flemings, Houston

On a roster with no shortage of older veterans, it’s the freshman Flemings who helps this Cougars squad encapsulate the essence of Sampson. He’s fearless, hard-nosed and does the little things well, as evidenced by the guard’s care for the ball — just three turnovers in nearly 60 minutes last weekend. Flemings shoots 84.3% from the free-throw line.

Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Tennessee

With Vols star forward Nate Ament operating at less than 100% and managing his way through various injuries per Barnes, Gillespie now carries an even greater load for a Tennessee program seeking its first Final Four berth. Preparing for his 129th career college game after prior stops at Belmont and Maryland, Gillespie carries two of his finer performances with him into this round: He scored 50 points and had 15 assists as he played all but six minutes combined in the tournament’s first two games.

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Alex Karaban, UConn

Closing in on 150 career games and already UConn’s all-time winningest player, Karaban enters the Sweet 16 off a career-best 27-point outing. It prompted one of the tournament’s best quotes from Huskies coach Dan Hurley.

“He’s not going down without firing all of his bullets.”

Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan

After a quiet first-round game in Michigan’s win against First Four survivor Howard, Lendeborg regained form to help send Dusty May’s Wolverines to the Sweet 16 with 25 points in just 32 minutes. It marked his eighth game this season of 20 or more points, but it doesn’t fully illuminate his value. Lendeborg added six boards and didn’t commit a turnover in either game.

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Labaron Philon Jr., Alabama

The 6-4, 185-pound combo guard had a 35-point game, collected 10 boards in an early-season clash against Arizona and then delivered 12 assists in the Crimson Tide’s Sweet 16-clinching beatdown of Texas Tech.

With second-leading scorer Aden Holloway continuing to be absent following his felony arrest, Philon must carry even more of the Tide’s scoring load. He’s averaged 22.67 ppg across his past half-dozen games — despite scoring just nine to pair with his 12 assists against Texas Tech.

Bennett Stirtz, Iowa

Already a standout player previously in his career at Drake, Stirtz followed coach Ben McCollum to the Hawkeyes and has found another level. He played every minute in each of Iowa’s first two tournament games — an astounding measure of endurance he’s replicated 16 times this season. Stirtz didn’t score a much last weekend; just 29 points total, but he’s exploded for a career-best 36 in a Big Ten game against Northwestern and showed he’ll volume-shoot if necessary in a 23-shot effort against Michigan. That game marked one of the six this season in which Stirtz hoisted 20 or more field-goal attempts.

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Dailyn Swain, Texas

Like Stirtz, Swain followed his coach — Sean Miller — from his previous school, Xavier, and has further elevated his play. He engineered the Texas offense with a half-dozen assists in each game but showed he can be an ultra-efficient scorer when he hit 11 of 19 shots. Swain had just one turnover in his 73 minutes in helping Miller keep alive his quest for a first Final Four berth and what would the first for the Texas program since Barnes delivered the Longhorns a spot in 2003.

When does Sweet 16 start? Next March Madness games, schedule, tip times

THURSDAY, MARCH 26

  • 7:10 p.m.: No. 2 Purdue vs. No. 11 Texas (West), CBS

  • 7:30 p.m.: No. 4 Nebraska vs. No. 9 Iowa (South), TBS/truTV

  • 9:45 p.m.: No. 1 Arizona vs. No. 4 Arkansas (West), CBS

  • 10:05 p.m.: No. 2 Houston vs. No. 3 Illinois (South), TBS/truTV

FRIDAY, MARCH 27

  • 7:10 p.m.: No. 1 Duke vs. No. 5 St. John’s (East), CBS

  • 7:35 p.m.: Texas Tech/Alabama winner vs. No. 1 Michigan (Midwest), TBS/truTV

  • 9:45 p.m.: No. 2 UConn vs. No. 3 Michigan State (East), CBS

  • 10:10 p.m.: No. 2 Iowa State vs. No. 6 Tennessee (Midwest), TBS/truTV

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: March Madness top players to watch in Sweet 16

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