March Madness 2011 Bracket: Ranking the Top 20 Players in the Southwest Region
It's that time of year again. There is no better way to shake off the frost of winter than to catch the madness of the Big Dance.
This year the NCAA Tournament has expanded to 68 teams, and we at Bleacher Report are more than happy to sort through the expanded bracket and help you decide which teams to watch.
This slideshow will tell you the best 20 players of the Southwest region so you can pick which of the four networks showing the tourney this year to watch and why.
Marcus Morris
1 of 20
The Morris brothers of the Kansas Jayhawks may be the best duo, blood-related or not, on any team in the country.
Marcus Morris, though, has the slight edge over his brother Markieff.
Marcus is the leading scorer on the team favored to win it all this year, scoring 17 points a game.
The 6'9" forward is big and strong with fiery intensity...
Markieff Morris
2 of 20
...And he has an identical twin. Marcus is good, but brother Markieff is not far behind.
The brothers are like two halves of the same player.
While Marcus is the team's leading scorer, Markieff is the team's leading rebounder, averaging 8.2 boards a game.
Markieff also adds 13 points of his own for the Jayhawks.
At 6'10", Markieff is shooting the three-ball at a 40 percent clip.
The Morris brothers are a tall task for any team.
Ben Hansbrough
3 of 20
Ben Hansbrough, guard for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, has been branded one of the toughest players in the country this year.
Brother of former UNC Tar Heel and national champion Tyler Hansbrough, Ben is also one of the country's best shooters, hitting a staggering 44 percent of his three-point shots.
Ben Hansbrough is averaging 18.5 points per game and four assists, and in his senior season, you can be sure he has his eyes on the Final Four.
.png?w=256 "NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Championship")
Carleton Scott
4 of 20
Carleton Scott doesn't score as much as some players at Notre Dame, but the better he plays, the better shot the Irish have of winning.
He is a long, versatile forward, scoring a little over 11 points per game, and he's the team's leading rebounder at 7.1 boards per game.
JaJuan Johnson
5 of 20
JaJuan Johnson is one half of another one of college basketball's best duos.
The 6'10" center is scoring over 20 points, grabbing over eight rebounds and blocking more than two shots per game.
Johnson is not afraid to step out and stick the jump shot either.
E'Twaun Moore
6 of 20
The other half of the Purdue Boilermakers' dangerous duo is senior guard E'Twaun Moore.
Moore is scoring 18 points of his own and grabbing five rebounds per game.
Moore is also shooting over 40 percent from three.
With Moore on the perimeter and Johnson on the block, Purdue could make a run at the Final Four.
Peyton Siva
7 of 20
Peyton Siva is not the top scorer for the Louisville Cardinals, but he is the team's firecracker.
The sophomore guard from Seattle has a way of getting to the hoop through gridlock traffic.
Not only can he get to the hoop, he can finish as well.
Siva averaged 10 points and five assists per game playing in the nation's toughest conference.
John Jenkins
8 of 20
John Jenkins, guard for the Vanderbilt Commodores, is a big scorer with a big jump shot.
Jenkins scores 19.5 points per game.
He also shoots 40 percent from three and makes nearly three trifectas a game.
Austin Freeman
9 of 20
Austin Freeman is the senior leader of the Georgetown Hoyas.
Freeman averages 17.9 points per game.
He is 6'3", 235 pounds, a strong guard.
The Hoyas' success depends on how well Freeman can perform this March.
Khris Middleton
10 of 20
Khris Middleton is a big guard.
At 6'7", Middleton does a bit of everything for Texas A&M.
He is averaging 14.3 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.1 steals per game.
Just a sophomore, Middleton shows a lot of potential.
Chace Stanback
11 of 20
Chace Stanback is a 6'8" guard.
The junior is leading the UNLV Runnin' Rebels in almost every stat.
Stanback scores 13 points, grabs six rebounds and gets a little over a steal a game.
Demetri McCamey
12 of 20
Demetri McCamey of Illinois is one of the better guards in the country not named Jimmer or Kemba.
McCamey scores 14.8 points and dishes 6.1 assists per game.
But what the senior does really well is shoot threes, making 45 percent of his shots from beyond the arc.
Mike Tisdale
13 of 20
Mike Tisdale of Illinois is 7'1", but he shoots almost 44 percent from the three-point line.
For being so big, he doesn't rebound as much as he should, but Tisdale can score. He shoots well enough to average 10 points per game.
Chris Singleton
14 of 20
Chris Singleton, the Florida State Seminoles forward, is one of the best big men in the bracket.
At 6'9", 225 pounds, Singleton and his 14 points and seven rebounds per game should give Texas A&M some trouble.
Justin Harper
15 of 20
The Richmond Spiders run something similar to the Princeton offense.
The best player is Justin Harper, who scores 17.9 points, blocks 1.3 shots and pulls down 7.0 rebounds per game.
Richmond is playing Vanderbilt in the first round.
Kenneth Faried
16 of 20
Kenneth Faried is a beast.
Scoring 17.6 points, pulling down 14.5 rebounds and blocking 1.4 shots per game, Faried is one of the bigger big men in the Dance.
Let's just see if Morehead State can pull off an upset.
Jeron Belin
17 of 20
He is a mid-sized big man at 6'6", but Jeron Belin is trying to lead St. Peter's to an upset over Purdue.
Belin is the second-leading scorer and the leading rebounder for the Peacocks.
But his lefty stroke may be enough for an upset.
Nikola Cvetinovic
18 of 20
At 6'8", Nikola Cvetinovic is the biggest player for the mid-major Zips.
Not only is he the biggest in size, he also has the biggest stats, averaging nearly 12 points and seven rebounds per game.
John Holland
19 of 20
John Holland and the Boston University Terriers are the No. 16 seed, but that doesn't make Holland any worse of a player.
The Boston U senior from the Bronx is averaging 19.2 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.
Jamie Skeen
20 of 20
Jamie Skeen is the second half of one of the better play-in games of NCAA tournament history.
For the first time the No. 11 seed is playing for a spot in the field of 64.
Skeen is one of the top players for VCU, a team some people feel should not have made the tournament.
Let's see what the Rams can do.
.png?w=480 "NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Championship")
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
