Big Bracket Nation: Elite Eight

John Calipari hasn’t held an official position in the NBA since the turn of the century, but his fingerprints are all over the league as we know it. Coach Cal has only one NCAA title to his name, but in just nine seasons in Lexington, he’s turned the University of Kentucky into an assembly line for professional players—both in the NBA and in leagues across the globe. This week, we’re exploring Kentucky’s and Calipari’s impact on the basketball world, and whether or not his one-and-done blueprint has staying power at both the college and pro levels. Welcome to the Kentucky Basketball Association.

Brandon Knight, ostensibly an NBA guard, is probably best known for getting the stone-eyes treatment after daring to step in front of DeAndre Jordan with a head full of steam:

Knight has had a rough go of it ever since. He was traded to Milwaukee that offseason, and despite reestablishing his value alongside a nascent Giannis, he was dealt again to Phoenix in a three-way trade that, depending on if/when the Lakers’ first-round pick finally conveys, could be one of the worst in recent history. Knight, now 26, has struggled with injuries in his three-plus years as a Sun; he hasn’t played since February 2017 because of a torn ACL.

Even while on the shelf, Knight has managed to get dunked on yet again. A 4-seed in our mighty Big Bracket Nation, Knight faced long odds in his second-round matchup with Anthony Davis, the top seed in the tournament and the odds-on favorite to win the whole thing. But even we didn’t see Tuesday’s overwhelming victory for AD coming. Knight received just 142 votes—or nearly half of what Joey Dorsey got in his first-round matchup with Davis. Good luck to Marcus Camby in Round 3!

The rest of bracket went chalk, too—Julius Randle, a 3-seed, was the only second-round loser to put up much of a fight—setting up an Elite Eight of all 1s and 2s:

Now, to the voting.

A quick reminder: We want you to include the quality and the quantity of a player’s contributions at both levels into your evaluations, but we’re skewing more toward the consideration process for the Basketball Hall of Fame: College careers matter, but NBA careers matter more.

The polls for each round will open—both here and on Twitter (@ringer)—around 9 a.m. ET every morning, and close at 8 p.m. ET each night. The Final Four is Thursday, and the grand finale is Friday. You only get to vote once, so make it count.

Lexington Region

Memphis Region

Amherst Region

East Rutherford Region