2009 NCAA Tournament: Top 65 Players

With 65 teams in the modern NCAAs, it seems fitting to put out a list of the Top 65 Players in the 2009 NCAA Tournament. This is not a pure fantasy stats ranking, but a more standard cream of the crop ranking. Just about all the big names in college basketball made this year's Dance, and limiting the ranking to just 65 players was a hard task. I can think of a dozen relatively talented and recognized players who didn't even fit in the Next in Line section. CollegeHoops.net's Top 100 Players Ranking was used as a base for the list, though unlike that staff ranking, what you see here is solely my opinion.

 

#	Player	School	YR	Pos.	PPG	RPG	APG
1	Blake Griffin	Oklahoma	SO	F	22	14	2
2	Tyler Hansbrough	North Carolina	SR	F	21	8	1
3	James Harden	Arizona State	SO	G	21	5	4
4	Ty Lawson	North Carolina	JR	G	16	3	7
5	Hasheem Thabeet	UCONN	JR	C	14	11	1
6	DeJuan Blair	Pittsburgh	SO	F	16	12	1
7	Jeff Teague	Wake Forest	SO	G	19	4	2
8	Sam Young	Pittsburgh	SR	F	19	6	1
9	Jordan Hill	Arizona	JR	C	19	11	1
10	Sherron Collins	Kansas	JR	G	18	3	5
11	Darren Collison	UCLA	SR	G	15	3	5
12	Kyle Singler	Duke	SO	F	17	8	3
13	Gerald Henderson	Duke	JR	G/F	17	5	3
14	Eric Maynor	VCU	JR	G	22	4	6
15	Jonny Flynn	Syracuse	SO	G	17	3	6
16	Terrence Williams	Louisville	SR	F	13	9	5
17	Tyreke Evans	Memphis	FR	G	17	6	4
18	Tyrese Rice	Boston College	SR	G	17	4	5
19	Tyler Smith	Tennessee	JR	F	17	6	4
20	Kalin Lucas	Michigan State	SO	G	15	2	5
21	Toney Douglas	Florida State	SR	G	21	4	3
22	Earl Clark	Louisville	JR	F	14	9	3
23	Chase Budinger	Arizona	JR	G	18	6	3
24	Jerel McNeal	Marquette	SR	G	20	5	4
25	AJ Price	UCONN	SR	G	13	3	5
26	Cole Aldrich	Kansas	SO	C	15	11	1
27	Scottie Reynolds	Villanova	JR	G	16	3	4
28	Evan Turner	Ohio State	SO	G/F	17	7	4
29	DeMarre Carroll	Missouri	SR	F	17	7	2
30	Willie Warren	Oklahoma	FR	G	15	2	3
31	Damion James	Texas	JR	F	16	9	1
32	Jon Brockman	Washington	SR	F	15	12	1
33	Manny Harris	Michigan	SO	G	17	7	4
35	Dionte Christmas	Temple	SR	G	19	6	3
36	Marcus Thornton	LSU	SR	G	21	5	2
37	Dante Cunningham	Villanova	SR	F	16	7	1
37	Levance Fields	Pittsburgh	SR	G	11	3	8
38	Jeff Adrien	UCONN	SR	F	14	10	1
39	James Johnson	Wake Forest	SO	F	15	8	2
40	Al-Farouq Aminu	Wake Forest	FR	F	13	8	2
41	Lee Cummard	BYU	SR	F	17	6	3
42	Trevor Booker	Clemson	JR	F/C	15	10	2
43	Taj Gibson	USC	JR	C	14	9	1
44	Jerome Randle	California	JR	G	18	3	5
45	Wayne Ellington	North Carolina	JR	G	15	5	3
46	Greivis Vasquez	Maryland	SO	G	17	5	5
47	Robbie Hummel	Purdue	SO	F	12	7	2
48	Wes Matthews	Marquette	SR	G	19	5	3
49	Luke Nevill	Utah	SR	C	17	9	1
50	Raymar Morgan	Michigan State	JR	F	11	6	1
51	AJ Abrams	Texas	SR	G	17	2	1
52	K.C. Rivers	Clemson	SR	G	14	6	2
53	Da'Sean Butler	West Virginia	JR	F	17	6	2
54	Ben Woodside	North Dakota St	SR	G	23	3	6
55	Gary Wilkinson	Utah State	SR	F	17	7	1
56	Jarvis Varnado	Ohio State	FR	C	13	9	1
57	E'Twaun Moore	Purdue	SO	G	14	5	3
58	Chris Wright	Dayton	SO	F	13	7	1
58	Jeff Pendergraph	Arizona State	SR	F	14	9	1
60	Matt Bouldin	Gonzaga	JR	G	14	4	3
61	Derrick Brown	Xavier	JR	F	14	6	2
62	Jon Scheyer	Duke	JR	G	14	4	3
63	James Anderson	Oklahoma St	SO	G	19	6	2
64	Nic Wise	Arizona	JR	G	15	2	5
65	Gordon Hayward	Butler	FR	G	13	6	2

 

Next in Line (alphabetical order):

Patrick Christopher (Cal)

Austin Daye (Gonzaga)

DeMar DeRozan (USC)

Byron Eaton (Oklahoma St)

Kenneth Faried (Morehead St)

Danny Green (UNC)

Paul Harris (Syracuse)

Lazar Hayward (Marquette)

Josh Heytvelt (Gonzaga)

Matt Howard (Butler)

Marcus Landry (Wisconsin)

Tasmin Mitchell (LSU)

Jeremy Pargo (Gonzaga)

Alex Ruoff (West Virginia)

Larry Sanders (VCU)

Josh Shipp (UCLA)

DeShawn Sims (Michigan)

Goran Suton (Michigan St)

Jonathan Tavernari (BYU)

Isaiah Thomas (Washington)

Kevin Tiggs (ETSU)

  

Disagree with some of these picks? Discuss who you think belongs in the comments section:

 

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