NCAA names South All-Region team after San Diego State advances to Final Four

Alex Weberby:Alex Weber•03/27/23

The NCAA Tournament’s South Region really went haywire this past weekend as its No. 6 seed and No. 5 seed met in the Elite Eight after a No. 15 seed had made it to the Sweet 16. Just all kinds of chaos down south, where No. 1 overall seed Alabama failed to even make it to the regional final and were taken down by eventual regional champ San Diego State in Louisville on Friday night.

So, after a weekend of shenanigans in the Derby City to cap off an eventful couple weeks of South Regional play, the NCAA has named its All-Region team. Check it out below.

South All-Region Team

So, the two SDSU guards made it, neither of which average more than 10 points per game on the season. It pays to have depth in March, doesn’t it? Because Aztec star Matt Bradley just had a nightmare weekend for SDSU. He came into the tournament as the team’s leading scorer and the only Aztec averaging double figures, then played fine in the first weekend and had 17 in the first round win over Charleston. But in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8, he scored just eight total points on 3-17 shooting.

So Trammell and Butler stepped in and stepped up. Trammell went just 1-7 vs. Charleston, but in the next three games, he averaged 15.3 points while shooting the lights out from three. Meanwhile, Lamont Butler saved his best stuff for the regional final vs. Creighton. The junior made eight of his 11 shots and both his triples to carry the load for the Aztecs in an absolute rock fight and an eventual comeback victory, 57-56, over the Blue Jays.

Elsewhere, Creighton’s front-court duo of Baylor Scheierman and Ryan Kalkbrenner made it. Kalkbrenner for his two-way play and especially his rim protection on defense, while Scheierman always hits the glass hard and nailed some huge shots throughout regional play.

Lastly, Princeton’s big man, the “British Giannis,” so they say, Tosun Evbuomwan, was the final player on the All-Region team. The do-it-all forward dealt with Arizona’s immense front-line in round one and finished with 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists in the upset over the Wildcats. Then, in the loss vs. Creighton, he didn’t go down without a fight, recording 24 points, nine assists and six rebounds against fellow all-region guy Ryan Kalkbrenner.