With March Madness starting, Nets fans are going to be watching a lot of basketball on split screen.
One eye on the Nets, and the other on the NCAA Tournament.
One on their team tanking for lottery odds, the other on the potential franchise-changer(s) they hope all this losing buys them.
Nets fans will be paying special attention to the three stars at the top: Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer and AJ Dybantsa.
The Nets came into Friday with the third-worst record in the NBA, and having a 40.1 percent chance of landing one of those coveted top three picks in the draft.
Peterson made his NCAA Tournament debut while Brooklyn was hosting the Knicks on Friday, while Boozer made his Thursday afternoon. Dybantsa put on an all-time performance in BYU’s loss to Texas, looking like a potential No. 1 overall pick.
“He’s going to be a great player. People talk about comparisons to [Kevin Durant], Jayson Tatum, and it does look like it to me,” Nets rookie Egor Dëmin told The Post of his BYU successor. “It’s a lot of midrange, really aggressive driver, slasher, the transition game, physicality, crazy athlete. He’s got everything to be able to play on the highest level.”
Dybantsa was spectacular, albeit in defeat. He put the full package on display Thursday, attacking the rim, putting on a midrange show, making a couple of questionable decisions against a defense bent on crowding the paint to stop him.
They couldn’t. His 35 points were the most ever by a freshman in an NCAA Tournament debut, with none even topping 30 in an opener since Stephen Curry in 2007.
Dybantsa’s 894 points this season are the third-most by a freshman, behind only Chris Jackson’s 965 in 1988-89 and Kevin Durant’s 903 in 2006-07.
On the TNT broadcast, Bruce Pearl and former All-Star forward Jamal Mashburn gushed over the wing.
“This is the kid I would take with the No. 1 pick in the draft just because of the intangibles. Plus, the other thing you just can’t teach — that size and length,” Pearl said. “He’s got a chance to be a mismatch, even at the next level.”
Dybantsa has drawn comparisons to Durant, whose Big 12 tourney scoring record he broke. And Mashburn was full of praise for the phenom.
“He’s going to be special,” Mashburn said before the Nets’ heart-breaking 93-92 loss to the Knicks on Friday night at Barclays Center. “He’s going to learn. The kid’s only 18, 19 years old. He’s going to be something. He’s a generational [talent], a franchise-changer for somebody.”
Boozer was middling in his debut, with 22 points and 13 rebounds in Duke’s unconvincing first-round win over Siena.
Peterson debuted in Kansas’ opener Friday against California Baptist. With questions about his health after constant cramping cost him 11 games and forced him out of others, he can help himself the most of the trio in this Big Dance.
“I’m super excited. This is something I’ve dreamed of since I was a little kid. To be a part of it this year is huge for me and my family,” Peterson said. “No [cramp] concerns anymore. The last I don’t know how many games in a row I’ve been getting through without any issues. I feel like the cramps are behind me. I’ve been fine.”
Still, the first statement game of the Nets lottery targets was from Dybantsa, with ESPN analyst Sean Farnham saying the BYU star staked his claim to be the No. 1 pick.
“He’s been No. 1 all season for me. How do you watch him and not immediately close your eyes and believe that he’s going to be a star at the next level? Sure there’s holes in his game that he has to improve, but he’s accomplished everything you could ask,” Farnham said. “He’s as elite as you will find in a draft that has a lot of elite players.
“It’s loaded. But the energy AJ Dybantsa has played with this year separates him a little bit more, especially when you talk to NBA scouts. You talk to general managers, a lot of people you talked to down the stretch of the seasons, just the more they fell in love with his ability to draw fouls, lift defensive players; and they feel with the more open space of the NBA that he’s going to have a lot more success even at that next level.”
