Plenty of NCAA stars to watch in Spokane

He’s as shy as they come, but Melo Trimble is the most recognized face on a Maryland campus of 27,000.

However, his smile can light up a room and his play can light the scoreboard: The 6-foot-5 sophomore guard leads the Terrapins in points (14.4ppg), minutes, assists (5.1), steals and free-throw percentage (86.7).

But like his team, Trimble has slumped lately. It’s been six weeks since he shot better than 50 percent in a game, and he was 2 for 15 in a Big 10 tournament semifinal loss last week to Michigan State.

No matter, it’s Trimble, the Terps’ starting point guard since he stepped on campus, who got the Terps this far.

“Everyone remember this,” coach Mark Turgeon said of Trimble’s two seasons at Maryland. “We were 17-15 before he got here, and we’re 51-12 since he’s been here.

“I love that kid,” Turgeon said.

“The Dauminator,” they call him at South Dakota State. That seems a stretch for the soft-spoken redshirt freshman with the baby-faced complexion. But on the court, 6-foot-9 Mike Daum has lived up to the name. You want efficiency? At last week’s Summit League tournament, Daum was the MVP after averaging 15.2 points and six rebounds while playing just 20 minutes a game.

Going into the NCAAs, Daum has terrorized most opposing big men with superior ballhanding and a jump shot – he’s 46 percent from 3 – seldom seen outside the big conferences. Daum also has a knack for drawing fouls: at 7.7 per 40 minutes, Daum ranks sixth in the nation, and he makes opponents pay with 82.2 percent shooting at the foul line. “The guy’s just a natural scorer, it just comes so easy to him,” SDSU coach Scott Nagy said. Bottom line: the nickname fits.

The growth of DeAndre Bembry mirrors the growth of Saint Joseph’s this season.

As a freshman two years ago, the 6-foot-6 forward showed his potential when he scored 16 points against eventual national champ Connecticut in a first-round overtime loss.

Last year the Hawks slumped to 13-18 but Bembry trudged through the adversity. St. Joseph’s rise to 27-7 this year is the biggest turnaround from one season to the next, and in the middle of it was Bembry.

On the radar of NBA scouts, Bembry was named the Atlantic 10 Conference most outstanding player. He’s averaging 17.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. He also made the conference’s all-defensive team.

Bembry had 30 points in the Hawks’ win over VCU last weekend in the conference tournament title game.

He’ll be out to lead St. Joe’s to its first NCAA victory since 2004 when the Hawks advanced to the Elite Eight.

Troy Caupain has always been an efficient point guard.

The 6-foot-4 Cincinnati junior took it to absurd proportions in a four-overtime loss to Connecticut in the American Athletic Conference tournament quarterfinals.

Caupain had a career-high 37 points, 10 rebounds and five assists while not committing a turnover in 56 minutes.

He was a first team all-conference selection.

A year ago, Caupain led the Bearcats in minutes played, averaging 31.3 per game. He was Cincinnati’s best ball handler and needed to be on the court as much as possible.

It was coach Mick Cronin’s desire to see those minutes lowered slightly this year but Caupain’s minutes played actually increased to 33.4.

Caupain has led the balanced Bearcats with 13.2 points to go with 4.8 assists and 3.7 rebounds.

Jaylen Brown will never be an experienced senior who leads his team on a deep NCAA tournament run, but he’s going to have to play like it. Senior point guard Tyrone Wallace broke his hand during Wednesday’s practice and is out for the season, meaning that Brown, a highly regarded freshman who will almost certainly play in the NBA next year, is Cal’s most dynamic player. Brown is a 6-foot-7 forward, but handles the ball well and will fill in at point guard when Sam Singer, Wallace’s backup, is out of the game.

Brown is a freakish athlete, probably the player in Spokane this weekend most likely to wind up on a late show’s highlight reel, and the only Golden Bears player to make first-team All-Conference. He’s struggled lately, shooting 9-for-42 in Cal’s last four games, but still averages 15 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.

Stefan Jankovic, a Serbian, has lived up to his billing as perhaps the program’s most highly regarded recruit ever, winning the Big West player of the year award while averaging 15.7 points and 6.6 rebounds, all while shooting 55.7 percent from the field.

The 6-foot-11 forward began his career at Missouri, but never lived up to his prodigious recruiting hype. He’s flourished in the islands, however, and proved to be just as comfortable shooting 3-pointers as he is scoring in the paint.

Jankovic led the Big West with five double-doubles and was twice named the conference player of the week.

Oregon’s 6-foot-7 sophomore forward Dillon Brooks leads a balanced Oregon attack that played the second-toughest schedule in the nation.

Fourteen times Brooks led the Ducks in scoring for Oregon in one of the program’s best seasons. He averaged 16.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists for the Ducks, which finished the year with an eight-game winning streak.

“Dillon’s made tremendous progress from a year ago,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “He played a big role for us as a freshman. But this year, hes made a big step. He’s made himself a go-to guy.”

Brooks leads a team that has four starters who average double figures in scoring. But he also leads the team with 105 assists from the forward position. That ability to find open teammates will be key as the Ducks face Holy Cross’s 1-3-1 zone.

“We do have the ability to score in a number of different ways and it’s important that we share the ball,” Altman said.

“And, he’s done a good job there.”

In winning an NCAA tournament game for the first time since 1953, the Holy Cross Crusaders turned to part-time starting guard Robert Champion, who ended up playing like one.

Holy Cross coach Bill Carmody said he alternated between having Champion in and out of the starting lineup all year. Champion averages 11.7 points a game, which is just shy of Malachi Alexander’s team-leading 11.8.

After five losses in a row, Carmody approached Champion about having guard Eric Green start in his place.

“I think that was key for our team. We changed defenses and (Eric Green) brings us great energy at the beginning of the game,” Champion said. “Whatever you need to do to help the team win, that’s what we’re going to do.”

Champion then led Holy Cross with 15 points in the Patriot League tournament semifinal against Army. And, he hung 19 points on Southern in the big win on Wednesday.

“He’s made big shots in big times throughout the year,” Carmody said of Champion.