NCAA basketball: Ranking the 30 Naismith award finalists

No. 24: Tra Holder – Senior guard, Arizona State

2017-18 stats: 19.4 ppg 4.7 rpg 3.8 apg

Best season performance: 40 points, four rebounds and four assists in win over Xavier

Remember when the Sun Devils were unbeaten and ranked No. 2 in the country at the end of the non-conference? That was in part due to the trio of perimeter seniors, primarily Holder, who was averaging close to 25 ppg at the time.

His numbers have dipped as somewhat expected, with the grind of conference play doing that to everyone. But he has reached past the 20 point mark in five of the last six games, with the rebounding and passing numbers getting up as well.

No. 23: Gary Clark – Senior forward, Cincinnati

2017-18 stats: 12.8 ppg 8.8 rpg 2.0 apg

Best season performance: 17 points and 15 rebounds at Central Florida

This is a scenario where the numbers don’t tell nearly the entire story. The Bearcats are a balanced team, so individual players will rarely have big numbers, on average or even just a one game. But Clark is an above-average/great player in just about every aspect of the game. He could easily average 10+ rebounds a night if it wasn’t for his teammates, and the scoring average would be higher as well for other teams.

Cincinnati is unbeaten in AAC play, and Clark has few great frontcourt players to guard in the league. It’ll be great to see how he does in the NCAA tournament against possibly some of the upcoming names.