Sixteen games down, 16 more to go for Round One. After watching 12 straight hours of basketball yesterday, it was tough to shave this list down to just 10, so don’t get mad if your school’s top guy got left off:

1. Jimmer Fredette, BYU — The New York-bred point guard who plays like a Canadian and became a star in Utah. You know how when the Suns are down late in the fourth quarter and Steve Nash decides to stop passing and start scoring? Fredette plays like that all game long. He dropped 37 points on Florida in a double-overtime win, hitting scoop shots in the lane and burying jumpers set up with exaggerated (yet effective crossovers) and slick like Steve Smith-ish moves. BYU gets 2-seed Kansas State next, however, whose defense won’t be as generous as Florida.

2. Ishmael Smith, Wake Forest — Just 6-feet tall, he was all over the stat sheet against Texas, finishing with 19 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists. He also buried the game-winner on a pull-up jumper with 1.3 seconds left in overtime, after Wake had come back from eight down in the extra frame.

3. Armon Bassett & D.J. Cooper, Ohio — In the most surprising upset of the day, in both magnitude and the relative ease in which it happened, the backcourt of Bassett (32 pts, 5 threes) and Cooper (23 pts, 5 threes) rained terror on 3-seed Georgetown. Bassett, a transfer from Indiana, has struggled the last time he faced a Big East defense, going 4-for-12 against Pitt back in December. But he was smoking coming into the G’town game, having averaged 29 ppg in his previous four outings. Cooper, the lefty freshman who looks like he’s about 13 years old, had scored 23 in the MAC title game, but in the two games before that had a total of four points. Neither of them could miss yesterday; every time the Hoyas tried to get a rally going, Bassett or Cooper would knock down another triple.

4. Quincy Pondexter, Washington — Imposed his will on Marquette just when it seemed the Huskies were done in the second half, and capped it when he drove past Jimmy Butler going left, took a hit, and double-clutched a banker with his right hand for the game-winner. Pondexter finished with 18 points and 11 boards.

5. Omar Samhan, St. Mary’s — So dominant he made Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery sing. Samhan’s highlights against Richmond routinely came with “Mr. Sandman” as the soundtrack, and there were plenty of highlights as he put up 29 points and 12 boards. The 6-foot-11 senior averaged 20 points and 11 boards during the season, and if he wasn’t already on the NBA radar, put himself there yesterday. Fun fact: Samhan’s grandpa played in the NBA in the 1940′s.

6. Michael Loyd Jr., BYU — On their way home following another first-round loss, the UNLV coaching staff is probably wondering how they didn’t land Loyd, a Las Vegas native. The sophomore averaged only four points a night during the season, but exploded for 26 against Florida on an array of threes and quick spin moves in the lane.

7. Danero Thomas, Murray State — The senior forward had 11 points, three blocks and three steals, but all you’re going to remember is the buzzer-beater to push the 13-seed Racers to an upset over 4-seed Vanderbilt. It’s going to look even better a couple weeks from now with the Teddy P (or Luther) soundtrack.

8. Shelvin Mack, Butler — He was the sparkplug as Butler erased a halftime deficit to UTEP with a 22-4 run on their way to a blowout win. Mack had 25 points and hit seven threes.

9. Ali Farokhmanesh, Northern Iowa — With four seconds left in a tie game, the senior guard took a crosscourt pass and casually launched a triple from NBA range that proved to be the game-winner against UNLV. It was Farokhmanesh’s fifth three of the day, as he ended up with 17 points.

10. John Wall & Eric Bledsoe, Kentucky — Would’ve been higher if their Kentucky squad didn’t appear to be matched up with a high school team. The star freshman combo dominated East Tennessee State, as expected, with Wall putting up 17 points and 11 assists, and Bledsoe adding 29 points on eight threes. When Kentucky plays Wake Forest in the second round, Wall vs. Ish Smith could be a classic battle.

Honorable Mention — Ekpe Udoh, Baylor (20 pts, 13 rebs); Kenny Boynton, Florida (26 pts); Mouphtaou Yarou, Villanova (17 pts, 8 rebs, 3 blks); Brian Qvale, Montana (26 pts, 12 rebs); Marcus Morris, Kansas (26 pts, 10 rebs).

THE BOTTOM FIVE
1. Luke Harangody, Notre Dame — The three-time All-Big East selection and former Big East P.O.Y. didn’t deserve to go out like this. Still hampered by a knee injury he suffered last month, ‘Gody had just four point (2-9 FG) and seven rebounds in ND’s loss to Old Dominion.

2. Anthony Johnson, Montana — Coming off a 42-point effort in the Big Sky title game, in which he scored his team’s last 21 points, Johnson was hotter than maybe anybody going into the Tournament. New Mexico shut him down, though, as the senior finished his career going 1-for-12 for six points to go with four turnovers.

3. Scottie Reynolds, Villanova — He showed he had “onions” with one big three in overtime, but otherwise it wasn’t a good day for Villanova’s leader. He was benched at the start of the game for disciplinary reasons, then proceeded to shoot 2-for-15 from the field. Reynolds did go 15-16 from the line and finished with 20 points, but he has to do better in the second round.

4. Ashton Mitchell & Corey Allmond, Sam Houston State — The Bearkats are one of those teams that needed to get hot from outside to pull off an upset over 3-seed Baylor, and their top snipers didn’t come through. Mitchell went 1-for-11 beyond the arc (2-14 FG), while Allmond was 2-for-7 from three (3-11 FG). Especially surprising because Allmond had lit up Kentucky for 37 points and 11 triples earlier this season.

5. Austin Freeman, Georgetown — It’s hard to pinpoint one scapegoat for the Hoyas’ surprising first-round exit. You could blame the defense as a whole, which gave up 97 points and allowed Ohio to shoot 56 percent from the field and beyond the arc. You could blame Coach John Thompson III for trotting out a team that seemed not ready for its opponent. And some blame goes to Freeman, the junior guard who is the one guy G’town relies on to have a big scoring night when they’re in a shootout. Freeman went 4-for-11 from the filed and didn’t crack double figures.