Alex Caruso reckons there are 27 players in the NBA who would be capable of leading the worst team in March Madness to the national title.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Alex Caruso (9) gestures after scoring against the Portland Trail Blazers during the second quarter at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Alex Caruso appeared on the latest episode of the Pardon My Take podcast where he was asked a very interesting question.

With March Madness just around the corner, Caruso was tasked with coming up with the number of NBA players who would be capable of leading the worst team in the tournament to the national title.

“Guys in the NBA are so good, man,” Caruso said. “You gotta automatically think bigs have an advantage. Because it’s college, the big is back, right? That brings in a whole another couple group of people. I think probably 30 to 40. I’d say 30, 30 [is] safe… We’ll go 27.”

Caruso was thinking about how many players he reckons could join the weakest tournament team and beat two-time defending champions UConn. The 31-year-old settled on 27 as the number in the end.

Had the tournament been like the NBA playoffs, you could have argued for a much higher number than that. With it being single elimination, though, around about 30 is fair.

The very best players in the NBA would absolutely destroy every college team regardless of how mediocre their supporting case might be. Caruso and co-host Big Cat agreed that someone like Giannis Antetokounmpo would lead any of the teams seeded 16th in the tournament to the title.

Harkeerat (Kat) Sandhu on X: "🙇🏽‍♀️ 🥹 I'm SO excited to listen to this episode" / X

Caruso reckons Antetokounmpo would make everyone on the opposition foul out and that’s not an outlandish statement. No college team would even stand a chance of slowing down the Milwaukee Bucks superstar.

Another individual who would have no problems leading any of the 16 seeds to the NCAA title would be Caruso’s Thunder teammate, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Gilgeous-Alexander is the favorite for MVP at the moment after leading the Thunder to an impressive 56-12 record.

Caruso certainly would be thanking his lucky stars that the Thunder decided to trade Josh Giddey to the Chicago Bulls to acquire him this past offseason.

To be fair, he has played his part in the team’s success this season by averaging 6.5 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.7 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game off the bench.

Caruso has been great defensively for the Thunder and is a big reason why they have the best defensive rating in the NBA at 106.2. They have been shutting teams down all season and will look to do so again when they take on the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday at 8 PM ET.