2012 NBA Draft: Whose Stock Is Plummeting After 1st Weekend of NCAA Tournament?

March Madness is quite deservedly the largest stage possible for collegiate players hoping to show off their skills one last time before the 2012 NBA draft approaches. 

Some players seize the opportunity and showcase their vast array of talents, while others succumb to the bright lights and put up a stinker or two. 

These players fall into the latter category. 

Two of them will have the opportunity to play their way off of the following list, but the rest have seen their 2011-2012 season draw to a close and are sitting at home wondering why they had to end their seasons with such poor displays. 

Read on to find out who they are. 

Andre Drummond

School: Connecticut

Position: Power forward and center

Year: Freshman

Vitals: 6'10", 270 pounds

2011-2012 Per-Game Stats: 10.0 points, 7.6 rebounds, 0.4 assists, 2.7 blocks, 0.8 steals

No matter how raw a player is, as long as he's projected to be drafted second overall in the upcoming NBA draft, he needs to perform during March Madness. 

I've been defending Andre Drummond all year, talking about how he's got ridiculous upside, how his body seems custom made for success at the next level and how his athleticism is simply off the charts. But there's no way I can defend his pathetic excuse of a performance during the Round of 64. 

Drummond seemed disinterested at times as the Iowa State Cyclones dropped the hammer on the Huskies from the get-go. He finished with just one made field goal in four attempts while adding three rebounds and five fouls to the cause. 

The big man did reject four shots that Royce White and the rest of the Cyclones hoisted up, but it was too little, too late. 

Saying that Drummond's stock is "plummeting" may be going a little bit too far, but he's no longer a lock for the No. 2 slot. 

JaMychal Green

School: Alabama

Position: Power forward

Year: Senior

Vitals: 6'8", 240 pounds

2011-2012 Per-Game Stats: 14.0 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.4 blocks, 0.7 steals

This was JaMychal Green's final chance to shine during his collegiate career, but he allowed another player to shine quite a bit brighter. 

On the surface, you may actually be able to think that the big man for the Alabama Crimson Tide had a good game during his first appearance in March Madness. You'd be wrong. 

Yes, Green managed to score 12 points on 6-for-10 shooting and he added six rebounds and three rejections. But, the future second-round pick turned the ball over, didn't do enough to get the win and failed to do anything to slow Creighton's Doug McDermott. 

As you can see from the embedded picture, Green simply allowed McDermott to get to the basket a little too often. The Bluejays' star forward finished with a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double and was the driving force in the Round of 64 victory for Creighton. 

Green's failure to score in the final 10 minutes of the game as the Bluejays overcame an 11-point deficit is not going to help boost his stock. 

Kevin Jones

School: West Virginia

Position: Power forward

Year: Senior

Vitals: 6'8", 260 pounds

2011-2012 Per-Game Stats: 19.9 points, 10.9 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.0 blocks, 0.7 steals

Kevin Jones had an absolutely fantastic senior season, but the big power forward from West Virginia needed to stand out against the Gonzaga Bulldogs if he was going to elevate his draft stock into the realm of the first round. 

The fifth-leading scorer in West Virginia history, Jones needed to add a few more points to his career total of 1,822 points. But instead, he fell significantly short of his season average, dropping only 13 points on a putrid 5-for-14 shooting night. 

Jones also pulled down only four rebounds in 40 minutes of action, also well short of his average number of boards per game. 

Going out like this in a 23-point loss wasn't exactly how Jones wanted to wrap up his collegiate career. 

Perry Jones III

School: Baylor

Position: Power forward

Year: Sophomore

Vitals: 6'11", 235 pounds

2011-2012 Per-Game Stats: 13.6 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 0.6 blocks, 0.9 steals

If anybody is hanging around the Baylor Bears squad during the next few days, please alert Perry Jones III that the 2012 NCAA Tournament has actually started already. I'm really not sure that he's realized this. 

Much like with Andre Drummond, you can point to his tantalizing upside and insane athleticism as excuses to still draft him in the lottery portion of the 2012 NBA draft. But you can't possibly point to his production during the last two games. 

Against the South Dakota State Jackrabbits, Jones made only one of his six shots and finished the close contest with two points, 11 rebounds, one assist and two turnovers. He was even worse against the Colorado Buffaloes, despite the fact that the Bears advanced to the Sweet 16. 

Jones dropped three of his eight shots from the field and his final tally read seven points, four rebounds and one assist. 

Despite playing a total of 60 minutes during the last few games, Jones really has yet to make an impact. At least he has another chance to prove himself when Baylor plays to advance to the Elite 8. 

As for his performance thus far though? Fox Sports' Bill Reiter summed it up best: "Can someone explain to me what is going on with Perry Jones III? Does he realize if he wants to wait another year on NBA, he can just say so?"

Jeremy Lamb

School: Connecticut

Position: Shooting guard and small forward

Year: Sophomore

Vitals: 6'5", 180 pounds

2011-2012 Per-Game Stats: 17.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 0.6 blocks, 1.2 steals

Jeremy Lamb's missed windmill dunk attempt at the end of an embarrassing loss (embarrassing because of the way that the loss happened, not because it was to Iowa State) summed it all up. 

During his one and only appearance in this year's March Madness, Lamb allowed the guards for the Cyclones to blow by him all game. Although he scored 19 points, he needed 15 shots to do so and only added four rebounds with two turnovers and nary an assist to the Huskies' cause. 

But even those 19 points weren't too impressive. It took Lamb nearly 13 minutes to score for the first time, and when he dropped in that pair of free throws, Connecticut was still trailing by 20 points. During that crucial opening stretch in which the team looked disinterested and, quite frankly, awful, Lamb was nonexistent. 

Lamb has all the talent in the world and should still be a high lottery pick, but this doesn't do anything to quiet the questions about how he's using that talent. 

Fab Melo

School: Syracuse

Position: Center

Year: Sophomore

Vitals: 7'0", 255 pounds

2011-2012 Per-Game Stats: 7.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 0.7 assists, 2.9 blocks, 0.5 steals

When Fab Melo was declared ineligible for the 2012 NCAA Tournament, thousands, if not millions, of people all over the world changed their brackets up and had Syracuse losing a little bit earlier than originally planned.

After all, the seven-footer from Brazil was the most crucial player on a very deep team, anchoring the paint in Jim Boeheim's zone and occasionally contributing on the offensive end of the court.

Well, Syracuse is alive after the Orange used the help of the zebras to beat UNC-Asheville and then put away Kansas State in the second half of the Round of 32 to advance to the Sweet 16. With every win, Melo's status as that crucial player declines ever so slightly.

That, combined with the lack of opportunity to showcase his skills on the biggest stage college basketball has to offer, is causing Melo's draft stock to slowly slip.  

Quincy Miller

School: Baylor

Position: Small forward and power forward

Year: Freshman

Vitals: 6'9", 210 pounds

2011-2012 Per-Game Stats: 11.1 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.6 blocks, 0.7 steals

While Brady Heslip was stealing all the thunder for the Baylor Bears, who advanced to the Sweet 16 on Saturday with their three-point shooting barrage against Colorado, Quincy Miller was having yet another tough game. 

The freshman forward had a fantastic freshman year in Waco, but he's struggled immensely during each of the Bears' first two games of March Madness. Fortunately, just like Perry Jones III, he'll have at least one more shot to impress NBA scouts for a final time before he bolts to the next level. 

Against Nate Wolters and the Jackrabbits of San Diego State, Miller made four of his nine shots, totaling 10 points, four rebounds, one assist and one block. He was more active against Colorado, both in a good and bad way, with eight points on 3-for-9 shooting, five rebounds, one assist, two blocks, one steal and two turnovers. 

He had an insane spin move and dunk against San Diego State in addition to a crucial two-handed jam and putback on an offensive rebound, but outside of that brief spurt down the stretch in the Round of 64, he's failed to truly impress. 

Mike Moser

School: UNLV

Position: Power forward

Year: Sophomore

Vitals: 6'8", 210 pounds

2011-2012 Per-Game Stats: 14.0 points, 10.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.0 blocks, 1.9 steals

As a freshman, Mike Moser received barely any playing time at UCLA. But this season, after transferring to UNLV and sitting out a year, the power forward has been an absolute stud, averaging a double-double for the entire season. 

That skill wasn't exactly evident in what may be Moser's final game as a collegiate player: a 68-64 upset at the hands of the Colorado Buffaloes in the Round of 64. 

Moser played 35 minutes but fell short of a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds. The bigger problem was that it took him 15 shots to record those 10 points and he never worked his way to the charity stripe. 

While he was active on the defensive end with three blocks and six steals, that was more of an aberration than a telling moment. 

Moser needed to stand out and earn another game for UNLV, but he failed to do either of those things. 

Robert Sacre

School: Gonzaga

Position: Center

Year: Senior

Vitals: 7'0", 260 pounds

2011-2012 Per-Game Stats: 11.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 0.7 assists, 1.4 blocks, 0.4 steals

A true senior seven-footer like Robert Sacre is supposed to actually be able to dominate, not put up a stinker in a winnable game against the Ohio State Buckeyes. 

Despite the absence of Jared Sullinger for large stretches of play thanks to foul trouble, Sacre failed to capitalize and only ended up with eight points and six rebounds per game. He also failed to contain the aforementioned Buckeye who played only 26 minutes but scored 18 points, many of which came in the crucial stretch run, and grabbed four rebounds. 

This was coming off a good but not great 14-point, six-rebound performance in the Round of 64 against an outmatched West Virginia squad. 

Sacre's height alone will get him drafted, but his tournament was quite disappointing.