2009 NCAA Tournament: Top 65 Players
March 16th, 2009
by Shawn Siegel
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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Comments
seriosly
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2009-03-18 18:57.
reynolds is a beast so i would back off on him, wayne ellington stepped up when they needed him and he is an incredible player so back off there to and vazquez isnt even the best player on maryland , hayes is so calm down there
Your joking if you think
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2009-03-19 10:02.
Your joking if you think Vasquez isn't the best player on Maryland. BTW Eric Devendorf?
Mizzou
Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2009-03-23 15:16.
O.k. I understand that mizzou is a team that really doesn't have a stand out but there are three maybe four players that should definitely be under consideration. Demare Carroll is on there and i like his position. Kim English is a freshman at mizzou and there star point guard right now. Last night in the first half he was three for three at the three and was on fire. He is also a great defender i definitely think he should be on there. Also mizzous great forward Leo Lyons is a beast down low and especially on defense. He is the teams spark when we need it. and if there was a mvp for the marquette game it would be Leo. Also another player is J.T. tiller. In my mind he is the defensive player of the year.
I take it you just forgot
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2009-04-08 11:11.
I take it you just forgot about Siena’s Edwin Ubiles , all he did is throw 20 points, 4 boards, 3 assists in a win over Ohio State ( in what amounted to a OSU home game) and then drop 24 points, 8 boards, 3 steals and a block against Louisville – and Oh yea check out how many players threw up more than 24 points against Louisville this year
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About Shawn Siegel
Columnist
Shawn Siegel - Head Editor
Contact
shawn@collegehoops.net
Background
Shawn Siegel is the self-proclaimed "hardest working man on the internet." He created CollegeHoops.net (formerly collegehoopsnet.com) back in the summer of 2002, and it has since grown into the web's largest independent college basketball site. Shawn's college basketball and NBA Draft commentary has appeared across web & print media, and he's been a featured guest on numerous radio programs.
Shawn graduated from Washington University and Washington University Law School before passing the New Jersey Bar exam.
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levance fields, scottie
levance fields, scottie reynolds, wayne ellington above vasquez? umm, no