March Madness Day 3 Round of 32 All-Tournament Team

A chalky first-round setup incredible Round of 32 matchups to finish off the first weekend of the 2025 NCAA Tournament. A showdown between former Kentucky head coaches John Calipari and Rick Pitino gave us early afternoon fireworks and they continued into the night with memorable performances from stars like Wisconsin’s John Tonje and Houston’s LJ Cryer. 

Those two veteran guards cracked the Busting Brackets Day 3 Round of Round of 32 All-Tournament Team as big-name stars began to take over March Madness. The Round of 64 is all about surprises, but as you get deeper into the dance, it’s usually the names you know who steal the show, and that was absolutely the case on Saturday. 

The fifth-year transfer blossomed into a star in his lone season at Wisconsin, and he arguably had his best game of the season on the biggest stage. Tonje led the way for the Badgers in their two-point second-round loss to BYU with a tournament-high 37 points, the most in an NCAA Tournament game in program history. It was a game that even former Cougar Jimmer Fredette, who was in the building in Denver, had to appreciate. 

A classic slashing shooting guard, Tonje was impossible for BYU to contain on the perimeter, getting to the lane with his strength and athleticism and making 14 of his 16 free throw attempts. Tonje also went 3/9 from three in a strong shooting performance, but he came up short in the biggest moment, missing a last-second mid-range jumper as the final seconds ticked away. BYU is moving on, but in leading a valiant second-half comeback, Tonje stepped into the spotlight in the Round of 32. 

LJ Cryer has plenty of NCAA Tournament experience. Houston’s fifth-year senior won a national championship with Baylor in his freshman year, and now as a seasoned veteran, he’s looking to lead Kelvin Sampson’s Houston Cougars to that mountaintop. Sampson’s teams have lacked the requisite scoring pop in past March Madness runs, but that’s not a problem with this team. 

Cryer hit back-to-back threes in the first five minutes of the game for Houston, started 4-4 from the field, and just never cooled off. Cryer finished with a game-high 30 points, knocking down an array of jump shots off the catch and off the bounce. With Houston’s offensive rebounding prowess, the Third-Team All-American relocates so well and is a constant threat for a kickout. Houston is heading for a Sweet 16 showdown with Purdue, and Cryer will need to be excellent in Indianapolis next weekend. 

He’s no Zach Edey, no two-time National Player of the Year, but Trey Kaufman-Renn is becoming a Purdue legend in his own right. The junior forward doesn’t have the defensive impact of his 7-foot-4 predecessor but he and point guard Braden Smith sure make up for it on the offensive end. After a 22-point performance in the Boilermaker’s first-round win in which High Point was helpless to stop his two-man game with Smith, Kaufmann-Renn simply bullied 12-seed McNeese on the interior. 

Kaufman-Renn put up another 20+ point game, his fifth straight dating back to Purdue’s regular-season finale, and added 15 rebounds as the Boilermakers outrebounded the Cowboys 41-21. His deep bag of post-moves and push shots makes the 6-foot-9 junior incredibly difficult to defend, so Houston will have its hands full in the Sweet 16. 

Texas A&M was the No. 1 offensive rebounding team in the country heading into the NCAA Tournament, but with its two seven-footers, Michigan controlled the glass in Denver on Saturday. Vladislav Goldin, who helped lead Dusty May’s FAU Owls to the Final Four two years ago, was a force in the second round, grabbing 12 boards, including five on the offensive end, and finishing with 23 points while shooting 50% from the field and nailing nine of 11 free throw attempts. 

A big-man who can shoot free throws is an opposing head coach’s worst nightmare and this season Goldin has posted impressive 62/35/73 shooting splits. The Wolverine’s backcourt is questionable, so May has leaned heavily on Goldin in the postseason, and the star center has led the team to five straight wins. 

JT Toppin earned himself Second-Team All-American honors in his first season at Texas Tech, but by most numerous analytical metrics, the 19-year-old sophomore belonged in the National Player of the Year discussion with Cooper Flagg and Johni Broome. Toppin is taking this opportunity in the NCAA Tournament to prove why he might be the most overlooked player in the country, dominating the upset-minded Drake Bulldogs to the tune of 25 and 12 with an absurdly efficient day from the field. 

At 6-foot-9 225-pounds, Toppin was simply too much for the undersize Missouri Valley Conference Champs to handle, impacting the game on both ends of the floor. The Bulldogs were helpless to stop him from getting to his left hand in the post, his activity as the roll man in Texas Tech’s offense had an overwhelming gravity, and his long strides ate up so much ground on transition rim-runs. With Darian Williams looking healthy with a 28-point, six-rebound, five-assist outing, the Red Raiders enter the Sweet 16 as an underrated National Title threat. 

Busting Brackets March Madness All-Tournament Team

• Round of 64, Day 1
• Round of 64, Day 2