By John Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Numerous matches all around the United States from the beginning of the 2018-19 season resulted to the best time of the NCAA season. Thirty-two colleges earned an automatic tournament bid winning their conference championship and a total of sixty-eight made out the postseason field. The 2019 NCAA Division I Tournament featuring the most of the next generation’s top talents is set to begin Tuesday night.
Among all the young upstarts ready to shine, thirty-seven are from Europe. France has the most representatives with five. Serbia and Great Britain follow with four each. The European bunch carries brothers of professional players, sons of former stars, NBA prospects and many more young athletes that have the opportunity to showcase their abilities at the highest level of competition for players of their age.
Looking for the next European NBA star, don’t search any further. Eurohoops gathered every European player of the NCAA tournament all of them prepared to extend their March Madness campaign until April 8th and the National Championship Final at Minneapolis.
The Bulldogs
First-seeded Gonzaga is among the favorites to go all the way and counts on three Europeans. Killian Tillie, brother of Herbalife Gran Canaria’s Kim, certainly catches the eye with his raw but intriguing attributes. The young French forward faced numerous injuries during his junior NCAA season and only averaged 6.2 points when available, but seems ready to take on the challenge of the NCAA tournament.
The Bulldogs need Tillie at his best to achieve their full potential. However, they have two more Europeans, Filip Petrusev and Joel Ayayi. The Serb forward averaged 6.5 points and 2.7 rebounds during his freshman season. The freshman French guard scored 1.7 points and grabbed 1.4 boards per contest.
Portugal strong
Three Portuguese players made it to the NCAA Tournament, two of them with Mountain West Champion team Utah State. Freshman center Neemias Queta is the one to watch. The NBA hopeful has rejected 2.4 shots per match this season, but his ability to stop opponents isn’t all he offers to the Aggies. His 11.9 points, 8.9 rebounds, 1.7 assists averages prove as much.
The giant from Barreiro with his jaw-dropping wingspan has not reached his full potential, but has junior guard Diogo Brito at Utah State to keep him in touch with his homeland and also helps out the team with 8.3 points per contest so far. Colgate’s Francisco Amiel is the third Portuguese player of the tournament.