2024 NCAA Tournament: Ranking the Top 20 players from the East Region

4. Johni Broome (Auburn)

Formerly a massive weapon in the OVC, Broome came to Auburn in 2022 after a pair of impactful seasons at Morehead State. He’s now put in two pretty solid seasons for Bruce Pearl, developing into one of the best bigs in the entire SEC, the conference he both led in defensive rebounding and took to the SEC Tournament championship this past weekend.

Broome has put up monster numbers throughout his career at both schools and continued that with 16.2 points and 8.4 rebounds in his senior season. He’s added a bit of a long-range aspect to his game and shot 54% from the field, with 35% from outside the arc. We’ve already mentioned his rebounding prowess, but Broome also had several 20-point performances and was the OVC Tournament MVP for his efforts to end the regular season. Few teams in this field have a frontcourt weapon like him.

3. Jaedon LeDee (San Diego State)

One of this season’s incredible rises, LeDee was a bench piece who did very little at Ohio State and TCU before landing at San Diego State two offseasons ago. LeDee was a role player on last season’s Aztecs squad that advanced to the national championship game but has significantly improved his game in his fifth and final season of eligibility.

After putting up barely 7 points a game in year one with the Aztecs, LeDee is averaging 21.1 points and 8.4 rebounds and is the biggest reason why San Diego State is in this position again. He had all kinds of great performances on the year, including a season-high 34 points in the MWC Tournament last week even though the Aztecs fell short in the finals. LeDee has transformed himself into an All-American-type player and will be the leading factor if San Diego State has another deep postseason run ahead of them.