How do the top prospects in this year's NCAA tournament project?
Unlike recent years, when many of the best prospects for the NBA draft were developing either abroad or with the G League Ignite, there's a heavy concentration of likely top picks on the teams that could play deep into March.
Of the top 17 prospects in the top 100 from my ESPN colleagues Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz, 15 will play in the NCAA tournament. Dyson Daniels (G League Ignite) and Shaedon Sharpe (part of Kentucky's roster but not playing for the team this season) are the lone two who won't be in action over the next few days. Meanwhile, each of the top five prospects and seven of the top nine are on teams with top-four seeds and a chance at extended tournament runs.
With that in mind, now is an ideal time to debut my stats-based projections for this year's prospects, which translate performance in NCAA Division I and other leagues to an NBA equivalent and then adjust for age and position to project value over a player's next five seasons. Lastly, I add in their rankings in the top 100 for the best consensus projection.
For more on how my projections work and past examples, see here.