Your Knicks-centric guide to Day 3 of the NCAA Tournament

Hey friends, are you enjoying the NCAA Tournament? I’m sure many of you were holding your breath Friday night as top prospect Lonzo Ball briefly left the game with an injury. (If Phil Jackson was watching, I’m sure he fell in love with big, slow, midrange-shooting Bruin Thomas Welsh.)

We’ve got eight games on Saturday, and since our own Jonathan “Stingy” Schulman was kind enough to give us some scouting reports yesterday, let’s use them to guide use through these matchups.

West Virginia (4) vs. Notre Dame (5) (12:10 p.m. EST, CBS)

Villanova (1) vs. Wisconsin (8) (2:45 p.m. EST, CBS)

Stingy on Villanova’s Josh Hart - “This fella is one of those guys that just makes everything fall into place. A legit two-way power player and the leader of one of the best teams in college basketball two years running. This guy is a man among the rail thin boys of college. No reason to think he couldn’t have, in terms of impact, a Malcolm Brogdon-esque rookie year. Shooting 57/40/75 and bringing plenty of bravado to the court. Long shot for the Knicks, but I bet he’s exactly the type of player Knicks brass would be hot after. The tabloids will have a Hart-On for him too.”

Gonzaga (1) vs. Northwestern (8) (5:15 p.m. EST, CBS)

Stingy on Gonzaga’s Nigel Williams-Goss - “Suffering a similar fate to Markelle Fultz, Williams-Goss had a nice two years for Washington and they missed the tournament. So he transferred to this perennial Cinderella and has helped the Bulldogs pull themselves up to a number one seed. This year he made a great leap in his %’s. For two years in Washington he was 45/30/75 and he has taken basically the same amount of shots but is now up to 52/37/91. Further encouragement? Slightly fewer field goal attempts and a few more free throw attempts. The WCC Player of the Year is basically a mid-second rounder but that could wiggle all around depending on what happens next. Decent size for a point guard and might slip into Knick territory. Just don’t rule out the possibility of Nasty Nigel staying for his senior season. Check him out busting up his former team. Nice mix of scoring off penetration and off ball cuts with a twist of good vision. Sounds like a Triangulator to me.”

Florida State (3) vs. Xavier (11) (6:10 p.m. EST, TNT)

Butler (4) vs. Middle Tennessee (12) (7:10 p.m. EST, TBS)

Arizona (2) vs. Saint Mary’s (7) (7:45 p.m. EST, CBS)

Florida (4) vs. Virginia (5) (8:40 p.m. EST, TNT)

Stingy on Virginia’s London Perrantes - “Top twenty name rather easily. I guess no one will agree, but I see a fantastic pro here. Probably overseas. Maybe a Summer League and Gatorade League darling. Nevertheless, I’m a huge Perrantes fan and I had to shout it out.”

Purdue (4) vs. Iowa State (5) (9:40 p.m. EST, TBS)