The 2026 March Madness tournament is heading into its final three rounds with the Sweet Sixteen matchups already decided. The 2026 NBA Draft will be greatly altered based on the performances we see here, as teams and players look to balance goals such as winning the tournament and becoming a top pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. Multiple top prospects are already done for the season, while some are still hoping to improve their stock with performances in the tournament.
For a majority of the season, the expected top-three in this class were Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, and Duke’s Cameron Boozer. However, it’s been a long NCAA season, and the tournament is causing major changes in how these prospects are viewed, with other stars having emerged as potential threats to this top-three’s status in the draft.
ESPN’s Marc Spears revealed that one NBA GM told him that the new top three projected picks right now are Dybantsa, followed by UNC’s Caleb Wilson at No. 2, and Arizona’s Daris Acuff Jr. as No. 3.
“Real quick on Acuff: I had one GM tell me today he’s moved into the top three. Peterson might be going back down a little bit. He saw AJ as number one, Wilson two.”
Dybantsa averaged 25.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.1 steals per game with the BYU Cougars this season, getting eliminated in the second round of March Madness with a 79-71 loss to the Texas Longhorns.
Caleb Wilson has averaged 19.8 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.4 blocks per game with the UNC Tar Heels, getting eliminated in the first round of March Madness with an 82-78 loss to the VCU Rams.
Darius Acuff Jr. has averaged 23.3 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 6.5 assists with the Arkansas Razorbacks, still in contention to bring a championship to his University if he can lead his team over the No. 1 seed Arizona Wildcats.
This GM is claiming that Wilson and Acuff are potentially higher picks than Boozer or Peterson, which is a bold take. Boozer is averaging 22.4 points, 10.3 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1.5 steals with the Duke Blue Devils and is still fighting in the tournament to bring another title to the blue blood school.
Meanwhile, Peterson averaged 20.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.6 assists with the Kansas Jayhawks in a tumultuous season that ended with a second-round exit in March Madness.
NBA teams might be squeamish about Peterson’s work ethic and concerning injury history, while many experts think Boozer might struggle to translate his production to the NBA level. These concerns could vault Wilson and Acuff ahead of them in the eyes of some GMs, but not all of them. Some will still value the talent upside somebody like Peterson can provide over Acuff, while some might value Boozer’s potential win-now contributions over the developmental project that Wilson might be.
Regardless, teams in the top five of the 2026 NBA Draft will get a bunch of high-quality options who could compete for the No. 1 overall spot in any of the past five drafts we’ve had, except the 2023 anomaly known as Victor Wembanyama.
Our last mock draft still saw Peterson at No. 1 with Dybantsa going No. 2 and Boozer going No. 3, which has been the projected top-three order from most experts so far this season. It’ll be interesting to see if there are major changes by experts around the board after March Madness ends and mock drafts are updated, but I find it hard to believe that Acuff and Wilson have proven they should be higher picks than Peterson or Boozer.
