NBA Draft 2021: Weekend Prospect Watch List

The Detroit Pistons are bad — potentially really bad. So bad, in fact, that many fans are watching the current season with the 2021 NBA Draft firmly in mind. The draft, unlike the Pistons, is very good. I thought it might be helpful for anyone who is trying to track beyond the lottery range of the upcoming NBA draft, for whatever reason. (Tank.)

In this overview of college games this weekend, I kept the list limited to games that are generally available on TV, meaning network and ESPN2. If you’re the kind of person who gets the Big 12 Network in your house, you probably already know that Cade is playing against Texas Tech on Saturday. I did also include games on the Big 10 Network, as I assume some of you get that?

All times eastern.

Saturday

Texas vs. Kansas, ESPN2, Noon

Texas bigs Greg Brown and Kai Jones were on my recent watch list, and Kansas has a bunch of dudes too. Christian Braun is one of those medium-sized white kids that has an “always trying to dunk on people” vibe, and he can shoot. (enbiejowiec is a fan, if I recall.) Beyond that, Marcus Garrett is one of the best perimeter defenders in the country, there are a lot of ordinary shooting guards this year and Ochai Agbaji is one of them, and I have it on good authority from Prava that Jalen Wilson is “smooth”.

Missouri vs. Arkansas, CBS, Noon

I implore you to check out likely lottery pick Moses Moody.

Creighton vs. Providence, FOX, Noon

Providence guard David Duke is 6-5 and averaging 20 on impressive shooting splits. Creighton is olds, which is why they’re so good.

LSU vs. Florida, CBS, 2 PM

Highly intriguing. For LSU, Cam Thomas gets buckets, and Trendon Watford is a large forward who has more than doubled his assist rate compared with last season, which seems important. Florida is led by Tre Mann, who is exponentially more interesting now that he is tall, and Scottie Lewis, who might be a power forward in a combo guard body. Wishing for Keyontae Johnson a full return to health.

Rutgers vs. Iowa, ESPN2, 2 PM

Ron Harper Jr. is listed as a guard, and also listed at 6-6 and 245; is Talen Horton-Tucker still trending? For Iowa, Prava tells me that Joe Wieskamp is good, and Luka Garza is a great college player who probably will struggle mightily on defense at the next level.

Colorado State vs. San Diego State, CBS, 4 PM

I got nothin’ here.

West Virginia vs. Oklahoma, ESPN2, 4 PM

Not very interesting, especially now that Oscar Tshiebwe has left the West Virginia team for personal reasons (per ESPN), although Deuce McBride is still there.

Tennessee vs. Alabama, ESPN2, 6 PM

Tennessee is awesome: their two possible lottery picks both come off the bench. Alabama probably isn’t very good, but they at least have some athletic fringey types.

Illinois vs. Purdue, BIG10, 6 PM

Ayo Dosunmu and Adam Miller for Illinois (Andre Curbelo also fun), and I don’t know anything about Purdue except friend of the program DukeCityVsEverybody is a fan of freshman guard Brandon Newman. It really is a collaborative effort. Thanks, y’all!

Gonzaga vs. San Francisco, ESPN2, 8 PM

Jalen Suggs is apparently dealing with a leg injury, but you already didn’t need to watch this game.

Sparty vs. Nebraska, BIG10, 8 PM

Dalano Banton has some fans of his pointforwardiness exploits. Aaron Henry has been doing some more playmaking as well, but he’s also shooting 17% on treys. Please regale me with taeks about the other MSU players in the comments.

Stanford vs. Oregon, ESPN2, 10 PM

Come for Ziaire Williams and his knee brace, stay for Spencer Jones and his 80+ 3PA rate!

Sunday

Houston vs. Southern Methodist, ESPN2, 7 PM

The leading scorer for SMU, Kendric Davis, is tiny, but his teammate Feron Hunt is a theoretical “if he shoots” wing. Quentin Grimes would be more interesting if he wasn’t still shooting 38%, but half of them are threes, which is at least somewhat encouraging. Tramon Mark is semi-interesting just because he’s a tallish freshman guard. Did you know Houston is ranked #5 right now?

Northwestern vs. Michigan, ???, 7:30 PM

Included just in case there is a local connect for y’all. Northwestern is…ranked? I know they beat Sparty, but still. Franz Wagner is back on the radar after scoring 39 points over his last two games, Sam Vecenie of the Twitter/podcast-industrial complex thinks Hunter Dickinson is a real prospect and possibly as soon as this year, and Isaiah Livers is still shooting over 40% from deep, for seemingly the seventh year in a row.