NCAA tournament may have ramifications for Kansas Star in NBA draft

The NCAA Tournament is getting to that exciting point where the Sweet 16 is up ahead and anything could happen. Going into the second weekend of games, three No. 1 seeds are left in the NCAA Men's Tournament: Duke, Arizona and Michigan. Florida is the only top seed team that fell to an upset, when they lost to the No. 9 Iowa Hawkeyes, with a 73-72 final tally. So, the first 68 teams is now just 16. The games start up again on Thursday, March 26 in San Jose, California, with Purdue vs. Texas, and the next round of games runs through Friday, March 27, with an evening matchup between Iowa State and Tennessee. Following the tournament, it will be time to look ahead to the NBA draft. Heading into the event, ESPN analyst Jeremy Woo has put together a mock draft of where he sees the top college players landing. "They are informed by ongoing conversations with NBA executives and scouts, as well as my own evaluation process from time spent on the road at games and watching film," he states in the piece. "With conference tournaments getting underway and a prospect-heavy NCAA tournament one week out, here are our latest projections looking ahead to the 2026 draft." In his draft, which was crafted before the tournament started, he has the No. 1 pick as Darryn Peterson of Kansas going to the Sacramento Kings. But, Kansas lost already in the tournament to St. Johns. "The battle for No. 1 is close enough between Peterson and AJ Dybantsa to the point where league sources broadly view this as a matter of which team ultimately makes the pick," Woo notes in the piece. "Cameron Boozer's dominant season has also kept him in the debate." So, with the top three players being so close, it's not far-fetched to think that Kansas falling early and hard in the tournament may push things to have Peterson fall out of the top spot. Of course, he'll still be high up in the draft, but don't be surprised if he doesn't go first. Plus, BYU is out of March Madness, which doesn't help Dybantsa's case.