Josh Hagins

As we forecasted in our Thursday preview, Arkansas Little-Rock senior Josh Hagins had his national breakout performance in a timely upset win over 5-seed Purdue. The lanky, shifty point guard started off slowly, but showed incredible poise down the stretch, making big play after big play in the most important moments of the game, and in the process elevated his name into the conversation as a March Madness darling and potential sleeper for the next level.

Can Hagins continue his upward trajectory and take his team to the Sweet 16? He'll have to be a little more aggressive from the start against a far more potent offense, and will have a much better matchup from a scouting perspective going up against one of the top point guards in the country in Monte Morris. The contrasting evaluation between the two should help him continue to demonstrate why he deserves to be considered a NBA prospect. Like Morris, Hagins isn't the tallest or most athletic point guard you'll find, but has a nice blend of playmaking and shooting ability, particularly off the dribble. Hagins has shown a sense for the moment throughout Little Rock's storybook season, and they'll need more of that from him to cement themselves as this year's Tournament Cinderella.

Where Little Rock could have an advantage is on the perimeter, where they are led by one of the most underrated point guards in the college game in Josh Hagins.

Hagins doesn't have great size or athleticism at around 6'1, but has a wiry frame with extremely long arms, great toughness, and a terrific feel for the game. He plays at different speeds, finding ways to create space for himself using crafty driving angles. Hagins is a solid perimeter shooter who is especially effective pulling up off the dribble. He's also a terrific distributor who loves to find the open man and is constantly probing with the dribble or the pass and does a great job of making his teammates better.

Defensively, he is competitive and uses his length well to contest shots all over the floor generating plenty of deflections and steals.

From an NBA standpoint, Hagins seems to be an inch or two too small on paper, and not quite freakishly athletic to make up for it, but he should definitely get looks from NBA teams and seems like a lock to be invited to Portsmouth. He can help himself tremendously with an upset win over Purdue, and will benefit greatly from the exposure of the NCAA platform if he's able to perform in this setting.