Who's Hot, Who's Not in NCAA Basketball as Conference Championship Week Starts

The NCAA tournament is nearly here, and not everyone is riding a championship vector.

This is the time of year when the pressure is higher. Some players have risen to the moment, their production ramping up when the stakes are at their highest. Others have seen a precipitous drop in production under the same circumstances.

Just how much further teams will go, whether it be only a game or two into a conference tournament or all the way to the Final Four, depends on how hot their players get now that everything is on the line.

Read on to see who’s hot and who’s not heading into conference tournaments.

All stats are accurate as of March 8.

Hot: Frank Mason III

Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press

Frank Mason III has been a creator for the Jayhawks all season, and his last two games of the regular season signal good things for Kansas.

The sophomore guard scored 21 points in his team’s last-second loss to Oklahoma in the season finale and 19 in the penultimate game—a win—against No. 20 West Virginia.

Tom Keegan of KUSports.com wrote:

"

It doesn't matter how many times you've seen it happen, there's still something amazing about Mason scoring in the land of the giants. Led Kansas with 21 points and was 9-for-9 from the free-throw line, including the three pressure-packed shots in the final seconds that momentarily tied the game.

"

In a one-and-one or double-bonus situation, Mason will get to be at the center of inbounds plays. Mason is 27-of-28 from the free-throw line in his past five games.

Not: Justin Anderson

Ryan M. Kelly/Associated Press

For those of you accustomed to Bleacher Report’s winners and losers slideshows, UVA forward Justin Anderson’s appendix would be a surefire loser. This vestigial organ serves no purpose other than to sideline people and give medical residents confidence behind the knife.

But Anderson needs game reps, and as a result he is a “not” on this list thanks to his most recent injury.

"It's such a tough break for him," UVA coach Tony Bennett said to ESPN.com's Dana O'Neil. "There was a chance he was going to come back on Saturday. We just have to keep doing what we're doing and finding ways."

The Cavaliers lost on Saturday to Louisville, just the team’s second defeat of the season. The Cavs aren’t as dynamic an offensive team without Anderson in the lineup. His athleticism is a unique brushstroke on the canvas that is Virginia basketball.

There’s no timetable for his return, but Virginia could be a No. 1 seed that doesn’t see the Elite Eight if Anderson doesn’t get back in this lineup and up to speed.

Hot: Montrezl Harrell

Timothy D. Easley/Associated Press

Montrezl Harrell, like Frank Kaminsky and Jahlil Okafor, has been performing at a high level the entire season.

Looking closer at Harrell’s season, the Cardinals go as he goes. In losses to Kentucky, North Carolina and NC State, Harrell was held to under 10 points. Louisville is 2-3 in games when Harrell his held under double digits.

That hasn’t been a problem late in the season. In Louisville’s upset win over Virginia in the final game of the regular season, Harrell scored 20 points and ripped down 12 rebounds. In a tough loss to Notre Dame, Harrell scored 23 and added 12 rebounds.

Harrell has elicited an elevated level of passion in Louisville. Writes SB Nation’s Matt Rutherford:

"

We should remember the improvements he made, the accomplishments he was a part of, and yes, we should remember the dunks, but perhaps above all else, we should remember how "the feeling of being a Louisville Cardinal" gave us all another year of watching Montrezl Harrell play basketball for our team. As we enter the heart of March, there's also a chance it could give us even more.

"

When Harrell brings that Tasmanian devil mentality to the game, Louisville is dangerous.

Not: Stanley Johnson

Rick Scuteri/Associated Press

Stanley Johnson, yet another immensely gifted freshman, averages 13.9 points and 6.6 rebounds per game for the Pac-12 champion Arizona Wildcats. In many ways he’s been their best player, certainly their best all-round player.

The Wildcats closed out the regular season with eight straight wins, this despite Johnson’s ice-cold touch from the field. In his team’s recent win over Utah, Johnson chucked up a season-high 19 shots and hit just three of them. That’s .158 from the field.

Against UCLA he shot 1-of-9. Against Cal, 5-of-12. Johnson is as streaky as they come, but when he’s not scoring—which is a reality these days—he makes up for it by crashing the boards and getting in opponents' faces.

In his past two games he earned four personal fouls in each, a testament to his glue-like presence on the defensive end.

For Arizona to make significant inroads in the NCAA tournament, it needs Johnson to bring his offensive efficiency up. Utah is a good team, and Arizona will face more like it in the ensuing tournaments.

Johnson will need to be better than 3-19.

Hot: Frank Kaminsky

Ann Heisenfelt/Associated Press

It's no mystery that Frank Kaminsky has been one of the best players in the country all year. From the season’s opening tip he has been a candidate for National Player of the Year.

With numbers like 18.4 points per game and 8.1 rebounds per game and an outright Big Ten regular-season title, Kaminsky is certainly hot heading into postseason play.

“It’s been a crazy ride,” Kaminsky said, per Madison.com's Jim Polzin.

Kaminsky scored 31 against Michigan State on March 1 and 25 against Minnesota shooting 10-of-16 from the field.

Wisconsin could be a Final Four team, and it’s encouraging for Badger Nation to know that its best player’s production hasn’t waned at all.

Not: Jevon Carter

Rod Aydelotte/Associated Press

West Virginia’s Jevon Carter put his game in the icebox the past few nights. Aside from a 25-point outburst against No. 19 Baylor—which ended up being a 12-point loss for the Mountaineers—Carter has since shot a combined 1-of-16 over his final two games.

That includes an 0-of-10 effort against first-place Kansas. The Jayhawks were down by 18 and came back to beat West Virginia in overtime.

"We deserved to win the game. We really did," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said to The Associated Press (via ESPN.com). "We just didn't do enough at the end."

"Deserved" is a strong and often penniless word in athletics. If West Virginia truly deserved to win, it would have held on to a lead.

If it deserved to win, Carter would have hit at least one shot from the field. Instead he got his four points from the stripe. Not good.

Hot: D'Angelo Russell

Jay LaPrete/Associated Press

Ohio State’s D’Angelo Russell has been doing it all year. Had his team performed better over the course of the season, Russell would be a serious Freshman of the Year candidate.

Here’s his stat line: 19.2 points per game, 5.6 rebounds per game, 5.2 assists per game. And two of his last three games of the season saw him score 28 points each in wins over an improved Purdue team and Penn State.

Senior forward Sam Thompson told the Telegraph-Forum's Nicole Auerbach:

"

It's fun playing with a guy like that. … Every once in awhile he makes a pass so spectacular you don't expect it to get through. Or you don't expect the ball to get to you. You think you're open, but you don't know if he sees you or not. Every once in awhile, I bobble a pass, or a guy bobbles a pass — but we're pretty used to playing with him now. We're used to expecting the spectacular play.

"

Russell has the kind of playmaking ability that can carry a team the distance. However, should Ohio State continue to try to live by the sword, it may very well die by it.

The Buckeyes need increased production from Thompson and Marc Loving to take some of the defensive looks off of Russell.

Not: Jakob Poeltl

Rick Bowmer/Associated Press

Utah has dropped a cylinder in the last few games of Pac-12 play. Not helping matters has been the play of Austrian big man Jakob Poeltl. 

Maybe there were hints that Poeltl would fold faster than a bad poker hand after scoring just four points in 35 minutes against San Diego State in the second game of the year. 

Since then he's had flashes of dominance that you would expect from a 7-footer. There was that 24-point effort against North Dakota and 18 against Cal. The problem was three of the last four games.

Eight, four and zero points against Arizona State, Arizona and Washington State have done little to inspire. 

Utah's loss to lowly Washington in the final game of the season meant the Utes now share second place with Oregon instead of owning it all themselves. In that loss? Poeltl came alive with 18 points on 8-of-8 shooting. 

It was too little, too late for the big man.

Hot and Not: Tyus Jones

Gerry Broome/Associated Press

This is a bit of a cheat. Apologies. Is there a "lukewarm" tag for this slideshow?

If you take out the non-North Carolina performances, Tyus Jones looks like a freshman who hit a wall.

In Duke's last four wins he only scored 11, seven, nine and 10 points for an average of just 9.25 points per game. Over that stretch he shot just .361 from the field.

Jones was heading straight for Notsville, but the way he put his team on his back against UNC fired up the burner. He also went 12-of-12 from the free-throw line.

With his season-high 24 points in his team’s season-ending win (and sweep) of North Carolina, Jones is heating up again after a few down games. 

Looking ahead, he may be the player most responsible for a deep run in the NCAA tournament, and his performance in Chapel Hill suggested he can be.

Hot: Karl-Anthony Towns

James Crisp/Associated Press

Karl-Anthony Towns, one of Kentucky’s stellar freshman talents, has been a force all season. Along with that of junior Willie Cauley-Stein, Towns’ play the last few games has been nothing short of amazing.

In the last four games of the regular season, Towns has shot 63 percent. He scored a season-high 19 in a win over Georgia. Towns is athletic and powerful on both ends of the floor.

Grantland’s Andrew Sharp wrote:

"

He can do pretty much anything you could ever want from a big man, and this year at Kentucky he’s only scratching the surface. His frame is stronger and sturdier than most people his size, especially at his age, but he’s also more explosive than just about any big man in college. He’s got touch around the rim, good footwork, and can hit a jumper.

"

It's hard to believe, but Kentucky looks better now than it did early in the season. The Wildcats are 31-0 and are primed to go the distance.