March Madness Round of 64 All-Tournament team: Braden Smith breaks records, Tarris Reed bullies

For the second year in a row, chalk prevailed in the Round of 64. After only five double-digit seeds reached the Round of 32 last season, just four made it through the first two days of the Big Dance in 2026, and only half were mid-major teams. If Cinderella isn’t dead yet, she’s on her deathbed. At least she has High Point’s free ice cream and steak dinners to help her enjoy her final few days. 

Just because the underdog stories aren’t dominating the proceedings doesn’t mean we didn’t have an entertaining opening round. And the good news about chalk early is that it’s setting up great games down the line and keeping the great players (or most of them) alive. 

Charles Barkley and Dicky V can commandeer as many broadcasts as they want to bitch and moan about NIL and the Transfer Portal, but those payments and the freedom of movement have stocked college basketball with maybe the most talent it's ever had.

One-and-done freshmen can cash in instead of leaving for the G League or Australia, and the money is so good in college that international players and G Leaguers are doing whatever they can to get some of it. That all made for an incredible season, and it’s setting the stage for an unforgettable tournament. 

On Thursday and Friday, a few of those great players stood out amongst the rest in the Round of 64 and made our second-annual Busting Brackets Round of 64 All-Tournament team.

Braden Smith, Purdue

No. 41 Braden Smith was on a heater in Purdue’s Big Ten Championship Game win over Michigan on Sunday, and though he’s back to his traditional No. 3, he hasn’t cooled off. The senior pick-and-roll savant torched Queens for 26 points and eight assists while shooting 10-15 from the field and 4-6 from three. When Smith is hitting shots like that, Purdue, the No. 1 offense in the country by KenPom efficiency this season, is a tough out. 

More importantly than any of that, though. With his second assist of the night, fittingly to fellow senior Trey Kaufman-Renn, Smith broke Bobby Hurley’s NCAA assist record, which stood at 1,076 since 1993. In the NIL and revenue-sharing era, more players are staying in college for four years as they did in Hurley’s day, but it’s still hard to imagine anyone as good as Smith playing in college long enough to surpass his mark, wherever it ends up by the conclusion of Purdue’s run and his memorable career. 

Otega Oweh, Kentucky

Speaking of jersey numbers, Otega Oweh is the only cool 00 ever. Though you could win me over with Greg Ostertag. Basically, your name has to start with an O. Either way, Oweh may have just become the most memorable 00 with a half-court heave that will live on our collective March Madness memories. 

When we do remember Oweh’s shot, I hope that we don’t forget how excellent he was the rest of the game. Kentucky needed Oweh to carry it to a win, and after trailing Santa Clara 31-29 at half, he dropped 22 in the second half to reach his career-high 35. He was impossible to keep out of the paint, his strength and body control at the rim were on full display, and he had one of his best games of the year as a passer. The Wildcats are a flawed team running out the clock on a disappointing season, but Oweh just willed them to a matchup with Iowa State. 

Tarris Reed Jr., UConn

Maybe the biggest knock on UConn coming into the NCAA Tournament this year was that the Huskies don’t have a big-man duo like they did in 2023 with Adama Sanogo and Donovan Clingan or in 2024 with Clingan and Samson Johnson. So, Tarris Reed Jr. decided to go out and grab enough rebounds for two. 

If you ever wondered what it must have been like to watch Wilt Chamberlain, watch Reed against Furman. The 6-foot-11, 265-pound senior ended the first half with 19 points on 8-8 shooting with 16 rebounds. He didn’t slow down from there. Reed finished with 31 points and 27 rebounds and delivered the knockout blow to the pesky Paladins by grabbing three straight offensive rebounds on a 1 minute 35 second possession that ended with an Alex Karaban three to put the Huskies ahead 76-65 with 2:06 left. Reed’s 27 rebounds were four more than Furman’s entire team pulled down. 

It was the first 30-point, 20-rebound game in the NCAA Tournament since Zach Edey finished with 30 and 21 against Grambling. It was the first 30-point, 25-rebound game in the tournament since Elvin Hayes for Houston in 1968. But maybe the most remarkable thing was that Reed’s only foul of the game came in the final minute, and it was not a good call. It was probably the closest thing to a perfect game you could have imagined for Reed.

Terrence Hill Jr., VCU

Terrence Hill Jr. doesn’t start for Phil Martelli Jr.’s VCU Rams, but that didn’t stop him from being named to the All-Atlantic 10 First Team in his sophomore season. The A10’s most improved player and sixth-man of the year played 40 minutes off the bench and helped drag the Rams back from down 19 points with 14:58 left in the second half to complete the largest comeback in the NCAA Tournament since 2018. 

26 of Hill’s 34 points came in the second half and overtime, and 12 came after the four-minute mark in the second half, including the game-tying layup and game-winning step-back three. UNC completely ran out of gas in the second half, but even as Hubert Davis was serving the game up for VCU, somebody had to take it, and Terrence Hill Jr. wasn’t shy. 

AJ Dybantsa, BYU

It’s easy to be hyperbolic about sports, but I mean it when I say that it’s a shame we don’t get more than one game of AJ Dybantsa. Ben Simmons may not belong on this list anymore, but it’s up there with Anthony Edwards missing the NCAA Tournament in 2020 (then the tournament being canceled), or Trae Young’s freshman season at Oklahoma fizzling out in the first round. 

Dybantsa led the country in scoring this season, and once Richie Saunders went out for the season, BYU asked him to put on the cape every game. After the Saunders injury, the Cougars didn’t win many of them, going 4-6. However, over that stretch, Dybantsa averaged 28.5 points, including a 40-point outpouring in a Big 12 Tournament win over Kansas State and his 35-point performance against Texas. 

At 6-foot-9, Dybantsa is a silky-smooth shot-maker, and with his long strides, he can get to the rim with ease. In maybe the greatest freshman class of all-time, he’s becoming the likely No. 1 pick. And if Saunders hadn’t been injured, the Cougars would be a horrifying matchup in any round of the tournament.