NCAA Basketball: 6 mid-major players who should be on 2021-22 radar
Tevin Brown, Murray State
Tevin Brown has earned first-team All-Ohio Valley honors in each of the last two seasons yet still feels strangely slept on from a national perspective. However much attention he’s receiving, it needs to be more.
The 6-foot-5 guard is averaging 17.9 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 3.4 assists on the season, but his ability to impact the game in multiple ways is what first grabbed my attention. Brown is a solid passer, maintains a relatively low turnover rate, and leads Murray State in steals.
His overall impact is reflected in his usage, ranking in the top two of the OVC in minutes each of the last three seasons. Brown has an on-off margin split of 34.0 per EvanMiya, meaning that Murray State has been 34 points better per 100 possessions this season, the highest mark on the team. Head Coach Matt McMahon quite simply cannot afford to have Brown off the court for extended stretches, if at all.
Brown is one of the craftiest offensive players in college basketball, consistently working his way into the paint with an ability for acrobatic finishes. He also has a deadly step-back in the mid-range and is a 40.8% 3-point shooter on more than eight attempts per game.
Murray State is currently 17-2 overall and 7-0 in league play. The Racers are in the conversation for an at-large bid but are also the favorites to win the OVC’s automatic bid after a 22-point blowout of Belmont on Jan. 15.
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The last time the Racers made the NCAA Tournament was in 2018-19 when they upset Marquette in the Round of 64, propelled by the star-power of some guy named Ja Morant. It would be unfair to compare Brown to Morant, but it is not unfair to say that Brown is leading a Murray State team capable of pulling off an upset in the NCAA Tournament just like Morant’s team did in 2019.