2010 NCAA Tournament: Ten players you've never seen play, but you'll want to watch

One of the best parts about the NCAA Tournament is that it affords some of the nation's best low- and mid-major players a chance to shine on a national stage. Will anyone ever forget the name Harold Arceneaux? Will you ever stop getting chills watching Bryce Drew take down Ole Miss? I may have been two years old at the time, but hearing the name Fennis Dembo will always make me think cinderella.

Here are the guys that you've never heard of that can play their way into college basketball lore (Ed. Note: We are assuming that guys like Jimmer Fredette, Darington Hobson, and Omar Samhan have received enough press that they are no longer unknown):


Randy Culpepper, UTEP

I've said it before and I'll say it again -- Randy Culpepper might be the most exciting player to watch in college basketball. And not just because he can do this (generously listed) at 6'0". Culpepper is more than just a couple highlight reel dunks; the kid can flat out score. He averaged 18.0 ppg. He put 27 on Oklahoma; went for 29 at Tulsa; lit Marshall up for 32 on the road; had 39 in a win at Central Florida; and in his most impressive performance, Culpepper scored 31 first half points, 45 overall, in a win over East Carolina. Culpepper is a bit streaky -- he finished in single digits as many times as he cracked 25 points -- but when he gets it going, the Miners are dangerous.


Anthony Johnson, Montana

Johnson is a great story. Check it out:



It gets better. In what looked like it was going to be his last collegiate game, Johnson scored 34 points in the second half, including the last 21, to lead the Grizzlies back from a 20 point halftime deficit on the road at league favorite Weber State in the Big Sky final. He's already played his way into basketball lore. Can he do it on a bigger stage as well?


Marqus Blakely, Vermont

Let's be honest, there is almost no possibility of #16 Vermont beating #1 Syracuse. While the Cats have upset the Orange in the tournament before, it wasn't as a #16 seed; as we all know, no #1 seed has ever lost to a #16. But if this is the year, and Vermont is the team, Blakely will be the player going down in history. There may not be a player in the country more valuable to his team than Blakely is to the Cats. He leads the team in scoring (17.4), rebounding (9.4), assists (3.7), steals (2.4), and blocks (1.9) while shooting 54% from the floor as a 6'4" combo forward without a jumpshot. Bottom line: Blakely can play.


Kawhi Leonard, San Diego State

Leonard was a bit of a tweener coming out of high school. A top 100 recruit, Leonard lacked a true position. An athletic, 6'7" forward, Leonard didn't have the size to be a high-major four or the quickness to be a high-major three. But he fit perfectly with Steve Fisher's scrappy SDSU team. Leonard is a monster going to the glass, nearly averaging a double-double while picking up a third of his rebounds on the offensive end of the floor. And he's just a freshman. Expect to see many more plays like this over the course of Leonard's career.


Ryan Wittman, Cornell

Cornell is far from a one man team. Louis Dale is a former Ivy League POY and one of the more underrated PG's in the country. Jeff Foote is a seven footer that can rebound the ball and defend the rim. But Ryan Wittman is the guy that can carry this team. He is arguably the best pure shooter in the country. There are few in the country that know how to use screens as well as Wittman, even fewer as deadly as he is when coming off those screens. Even if you know what is coming, it is difficult to stop.


Aubrey Coleman, Houston

Houston likes to run the floor, winning games by outscoring teams. The biggest reason they are capable of doing that is Coleman, the nation's leading scorer at 25.6 ppg. The 6'4" Coleman is not an explosive athlete and he's not a great shooter. But he is crafty and instinctual, one of those guys that understands his limitations and just knows how to score. He does most of his damage off the dribble, hitting tough pull-ups and getting to the rim and the foul line. For Coleman, scoring 30 is equivalent to anyone else in the country going for 20.


Reggie Holmes, Morgan State

Holmes is a gunner, through and through. He takes a lot of shots, and he scores a lot of points. Don't believe me? Think about this: Holmes came off the bench for his first two seasons at Morgan State, as well as the start of his junior season. He's never shot better than 39% in a season. But Holmes still managed to score over 2,000 points for his career. The definition of a volume shooter. But what happens when a volume shooter gets hot? Holmes had 34 points in a Morgan State win over Arkansas.