With March Madness raging on, it's understandable for even the most hardcore fans of the New Orleans Pelicans to maybe take a reprieve from this miserable NBA season to watch the drama unfold in college basketball right now. At least the NCAA tournament is offering the Pelicans faithful a way to watch some meaningful ball in spring.
Plus, for the first time in a while, the Pels and their followers have extra motivation to be invested in the tourney this year, as they have a strong chance to land a top-four draft pick this summer. Some potential future Pelicans have already been knocked out, such as Tre Johnson and the Texas Longhorns and V.J. Edgecomb and the Baylor Bears, but others continue to battle on, like the Duke Blue Devils and their quintuple projected first-rounders, Cooper Flagg, Khaman Maluach, Kon Knueppel, and Isaiah Evans.
While someone like Flagg, the consensus number-one pick, might not have too much to gain or lose in terms of draft stock during March Madness, pretty much anyone else could drastically swing their reputation with a great showing in the tournament, including his teammates. While we're waiting to see how the NCAA tournament plays out, I thought we should take a look back at some of the current Pelicans' most iconic March Madness performances.
3 Most memorable March Madness games from current members of the New Orleans Pelicans
Honorable Mention: Antonio Reeves vs. Oakland
Antonio Reeves has a long and storied college basketball history. He ended up playing five full seasons in the NCAA, transferring to the Kentucky Wildcats after three years at Illinois State. He proved in both spots over time that he's a certified bucket.
Unfortunately, Reeves's college career didn't culminate in any hardware, but he can't be blamed for their disappointing finish in last year's tournament. The memory of three-seed Kentucky getting upset by the 14th-seeded Oakland Golden Grizzlies will live on in March Madness infamy, as will Jack Gohlke's 32-point bomb on a 10-20 splatter from 3-point land, but Antonio Reeves's performance has become underrated pretty quickly.
The Wildcats were embarrassed in the round of 64, but Reeves did all he could to prevent it. It was the rest of the Kentucky roster that underperformed. Third-overall pick Reed Sheppard went just 1-5 from the field and finished with three points. Rob Dillingham was 2-9. D.J. Wagner threw up a donut. Reeves, on the other hand, nearly went band for band with Gohlke, and finished with 27 points on 11-18 shooting. Kentucky's litany of guards ultimately came up short but Reeves capped off an excellent college career on a banger.
3. Jordan Hawkins vs. San Diego State
Jordan Hawkins was part of a historic University of Connecticut Huskies team that went 24-8 in the regular season before cruising through the 2023 NCAA tournament. The closest game they played was in the Final Four against the Miami Hurricanes, and they still won that one by 13 and held a lead of eight or more the entire second half.
They capped off their run by downing the San Diego State Aztecs 76-59 to become NCAA champions. Hawkins had a cool 16 points in the finale on 5-9 shooting and added four rebounds, a steal, and a block. It wasn't the craziest performance by any means, but he is the only current Pelican to reach the pinnacle in college.
2. CJ McCollum vs. Duke
The NCAA tournament has existed since 1939, and we've had 15th-seeds for 74 years. In all of that time, the 15th seed has only defeated the 2-seed 11 times in men's college basketball history. CJ McCollum and his Lehigh Mountain Hawks pulled off one of those 11 against a group of Duke bluebloods.
On that Blue Devil team were five future NBA players: Austin Rivers, Mason Plumlee, Miles Plumlee, Seth Curry, and Quinn Cook. But on that day, CJ put Lehigh on his back and showed the world that he was by far the greatest hooper in that game. He put up 30 points on 24 shots to go along with six rebounds, six assists, and two steals to lead the Mountain Hawks over the Dukies, 75-70.
1. Zion Williamson vs. UCF
Zion Williamson's 2018-29 Duke squad was arguably one of the greatest college teams ever to not win the NCAA tournament. They ultimately fell to the Michigan State Spartans in the Elite 8, but they had close calls practically the entire way. They were nearly upset by the Central Florida Knights in the Round of 32, but escaped with a one-point win, largely due to Zion's individual excellence.
This wasn't a typical one-versus-nine-seed matchup though. Many pundits and analysts correctly surmised that UCF had a strong chance to pull off the upset because of one specific Knight: Tacko Fall. Fall may not have panned out in the NBA, but, in college, without the defensive three seconds rule, he was a dominant force on both ends of the court.
People assumed that Tacko's 7'6" frame camping in the paint would negate Zion and give UCF a chance to shock the world and upset Duke. While Fall and the Knights nearly did get the win, they did little to slow down Big Z. He finished with 32 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, and a steal, going 12-24 from the field.
He put the Blue Devils on his back, as he and Cam Reddish were the only ones who had positive showings for Duke. R.J. Barrett and Tre Jones combined for just 11-30 shooting. Without Zion reaching another gear against UCF, that Duke team would have went out sad in the Round of 32.