NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from state of Alabama of last decade
By Joey Loose
7. Giddy Potts – Middle Tennessee
It’s already impressive to be a four-year starter at a talented mid-major program like Middle Tennessee, but what certainly elevates Potts is what this program accomplished while he was there. The Blue Raiders pulled consecutive NCAA Tournament upsets, shocking Michigan State in 2016 before sinking Minnesota the following year, and Potts had quite the impact on both games.
Potts had 19 points in the upset of the Spartans, and the following year put up 15 against the Golden Gophers. That second effort came just five days after he scored a career-high 30 points against Marshall in the C-USA title game, helping the Blue Raiders to a second straight conference crown. Additionally, we can’t forget to mention that Potts led the entire nation in 3-point field goal percentage his sophomore year, making nearly 51% of those attempts, including hitting 3 of 5 attempts in that win over Michigan State.
After a slow freshman year, Potts averaged at least 13 points per game in each of his final three seasons. His 3-point numbers were slightly down his final two seasons, but he was still an above-average shooter and scorer who had a significant impact on Middle Tennessee basketball. Potts played a major role in the only two NCAA Tournament wins of the past thirty years for the Blue Raiders and was one of the best shooters in Conference USA between 2015 and 2018.