10 unheralded players who could impact March Madness
Enrique Freeman, F, Akron
Another small school standout, Freeman is one of the most dominant bigs in the country regardless of conference. The 6-foot-7 senior forward leads the nation with 12.8 rebounds a game, but he鈥檚 also a high-efficiency scorer averaging 18.4 points (No. 70 in the nation) on 59.2% shooting from the field (No. 27 in the nation).
While the Zips play in the Mid-American Conference, the conference has made noise in years past such as Ohio upsetting Virginia in 2021 or Buffalo making it to the Round of 32 in back-to-back seasons in 2018 and 2019. If Akron hopes to make similar noise, it will have to rely on Freeman whose 5.3 win shares rank sixth in the country.
