Most Important Player for Each Final Four Team

This isn’t made to be an argument of who the best player is on each team or the difference between x-factor, glue guy and most important. I’m looking at this at who each team needs to show up in order to win not only their Final Four game, but the national title as well.

South Carolina – PJ Dozier

There’s no questioning Sindarius Thornwell is the best player on this team, but he can’t do it all by himself. PJ Dozier is good enough to compete with anyone left in the Final Four. He was a McDonald’s All-American coming out of high school and has turned himself into a quality college player. He’s scoring just about 14 a game but has upped it to 15.25 ppg in the tournament, including 21 against Marquette and 17 against Florida. He still struggles to shoot the ball, but with his size he does a great job of attacking the rim. On top of that he’s an excellent rebounder, which helps South Carolina get into transition when they want to run. Dozier does an excellent job of getting into the lane and using a runner or floater to finish, such as below:

Gonzaga – Johnathan Williams 

Williams can tend to be the forgotten guy in this lineup. When you have a big personality like Karnowski, an All-American in Nigel Williams-Goss and a shooter in Jordan Matthews, it’s easy to be overlooked. When you look at who is left in the tournament, Williams could be a sneaky Final Four MOP because of his ability to not only play multiple positions, but athleticism on both sides of the ball. In the first half of South Dakota State we saw him struggle as SDSU just sat on him and dared him to shoot. He’s not an outside shooter. He started attacking off the bounce and finishing at the rim. Defensively, he blocks shots, provides length on the 2-3 zone wing and can switch on ball screens if they want. If he’s playing well, it’s just an added part to Gonzaga’ offense.

Oregon – Jordan Bell 

It’s pretty simple here for Oregon and Bell. Without having Chris Boucher, the Ducks need Bell out on the floor. Altman has kept a 6-man rotation for most of the NCAA Tournament and its paid off with Bell being one of the best players so far in the NCAA Tournament. He’s been the best defensive player in the country all season and that won’t change, but with Brooks struggling on the offensive side of the ball, Bell has provided some help to Dorsey. Offensively, they will put Bell a couple feet away off the low block and use him in a post up set. He’s got a quick first step and is athletic enough to finish. You can see here use a pump fake, first step and then get fouled, even though the dribble isn’t the prettiest. He’s grabbed at least 12 rebounds in all four NCAA Tournament games and has upped his scoring average from 10ppg for the season to 12.5 for the tournament.

North Carolina – Joel Berry

Again it’s simple for two reasons here. First, how healthy is he? He has an injured ankle heading into the second weekend and then during the Kentucky game he had a nasty turned ankle that sent him to the locker room for a couple of minutes. The other reason? Teams that are coached by Roy Williams need point guards that know how to push the tempo and dictate pace. That’s what Roy wants his point guards to do. Berry has been terrific this season in doing that while also being the secondary scorer to Justin Jackson. They will use some high ball screens to get Berry going and in transition if Jackson or Pinson has the ball, look for the big that’s trailing to set a flare screen for him to get open. Having to go up against Oregon’s defense, Berry will need to be patient against the rotating defenses.