LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Darrion Trammell is a 5-foot-10-inch, 175-pound guard. He shot a sub-ordinary 40% and averaged three turnovers a game as a sophomore for the Seattle University Redhawks during the 2021-22 men's college basketball season.
The on3.com recruiting service did not rank Trammell among the top 300 transfers who were available after last season. The recruiting insiders at 247Sports did not include Trammell in their top 100 portal guys, even though he averaged 17 points per game.
Let's be honest:
If Kenny Payne of Louisville, John Calipari of Kentucky or Mike Woodson of Indiana introduced Trammell as their big get transfer, the backlash would have been harsh and relentless.
Darrion who?
Guess who was named Most Outstanding Player of the South Regional Sunday after he led San Diego State to jarring victories over Alabama and Creighton?
Trammell, who punished Alabama with 21 points and then scored a dozen, including the game-winning free throw, as the Aztecs took down the Bluejays in the regional final.
Welcome to the 2023 NCAA men's Final Four, where nobody seeded among the top dozen teams will make the trip to the NRG Stadium in Houston. It's the college basketball event that will try to attract eyeballs without any star power.
Get ready for a Final Four that will feature more 2- and 3-stars than 5-stars. Even the coaches need an introduction.
I checked the list of top 100 prospects for the 2023 NBA Draft that Sam Vecenie listed at The Athletic on March 9.
Guess how many players in this Final Four made the cut?
Use one hand.
None from Florida Atlantic, which won the East Regional that was supposed to produce Purdue or Marquette.
None from South Regional winner San Diego State.
Isaiah Wong of Miami cracked Vecenie's list at No. 58 (which would be the third-to-last selection of the second round) for the Hurricanes, who knocked out Texas, Houston and Indiana to win the Midwest Regional.
Connecticut, winners of the West Regional, will be the sole team in Houston with two top 100 guys: wing Jordan Hawkins, ranked 18th, and sidekick Andre Jackson, ranked No. 53.
The next question is inevitable. The first two tournament weekends were delightfully entertaining. Upset followed by upset followed by buzzer-beater followed by comeback followed by controversial whistle followed by the dismissal of every 1, 2 or 3 seed.
Now that we've reached the biggest stage with one brand name — Connecticut, chasing its fifth national title since 1999 — will America watch?
I have my doubts.
Here is another ranking to share — where these four teams ranked nationally in attendance this season.
- No. 29 San Diego State, 12,261 per game
- No. 31 UConn, 11,446 per game
- No. 83 Miami, 5,825 per game
- No. 164 FAU 2,238 per game
Total combined average attendance: 31,770 (or less than UK, U of L or IU would draw in one good week).
What we have here are two football schools (Miami and FAU), a baseball school (San Diego State, home of Tony Gwynn and Stephen Strasburg) and a basketball school (UConn) trying to pull even with Indiana and Duke with five rings.
The promotions folks at CBS Sports will work overtime to sell you on this group.
Florida Atlantic is the most endearing story. The Owls are coached by Dusty May, a former student manager for Bob Knight at Indiana who grew up in Solsberry, Indiana, about 17 miles from Assembly Hall.
May took over in Boca Raton following the 2018 season. That was the Owls' seventh consecutive losing season. Their average attendance in 2018 was 1,188 over 14 home games.
Fantastic work, Dusty.
San Diego State had a team that won its first 26 games during the 2020 season, led by Malachi Flynn, one of the top players in the country. The Aztecs were a legit national title contender until COVID-19 canceled the tournament.
Now, coach Brian Dutcher is back without any significant players who ranked among the top 100 prospects in their high school class.
Miami is a program that loved basketball so desperately that the university dropped the men's basketball program for 14 years after the 1971 season -- after Hall of Famer Rick Barry put the Hurricanes on the map.
Now, the Hurricanes are in the front row of how to operate in the NIL Era. Miami guard Nijel Pack famously signed a two-year, $800,000 deal to jump from Kansas State last spring.
That prompted Hurricanes' star guard Isaiah Wong to threaten a transfer if his NIL deals were not upgraded. Wong is still playing for Jim Larranaga, so I assume everything worked out. Don't forget that the NIL deal for Miami center Norchad Omier, who transferred from Arkansas State, is valued at $165,000 by On3.com.
Then, there is UConn. The Huskies won their first 14 games by double figures and have won their four NCAA Tournament games by an average of 22.5 points.
The Huskies are legit, ranked No. 1 in the computer power formula numbers of Jeff Sagarin, Ken Pomeroy and Bart Torvik. They should handle the Hurricanes, Aztecs and Owls in Houston.
But will anybody be watching?
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