2017 NCAA Tournament: Ranking each Sweet 16 team’s top performer

With the Sweet Sixteen beginning today, let’s take a look at the best performers for each team in the first weekend.

The 2017 NCAA Tournament has been pretty interesting so far. Despite a lack of upsets in the first round, the second round was filled with exciting games.

Villanova and Duke are both gone after being upset. The two teams accounted for over 25% of picks in brackets submitted to ESPN. Xavier is the only double-digit seed to advance past the first weekend, and every 4-seed has made it. Gonzaga has advanced despite two underwhelming performances and will face a West Virginia team that has found its offense. Michigan has continued its winning streak with a win over Louisville, and UNC is the only ACC team left.

With all this excitement, there have many great individual performances that have impressed.

USC’s Chimezie Metu showed his skill in both wins, as well as a close loss to Baylor. Dwayne Bacon showed his ability as a scorer, despite an underwhelming showing by Florida State. Notre Dame’s forward proved to be a difficult player to defend in his games against Princeton and West Virginia.

These players, however, will not be playing any more basketball games this season. There are only 16 teams remaining in the tournament, and all of them have had individuals step up during their wins. Whether a star player or a role player, each individual has hit their stride at the right time. They will need to keep it up for four more games in order to climb the ladder and cut down the nets.

Now, let’s take a look at each Sweet Sixteen team’s top performer through the first two rounds.