Stars matter in March Madness.

No, not necessarily the recruiting ones — though having a higher number of former top recruits sure doesn’t hurt. But the next few weeks will instead be defined by individual players who can carry the load to help their team move on. A year ago, it was Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr., who despite a subpar game in the national championship win over Houston, averaged 22 points per game in the Gators’ run to the title.

Big-time players have to make big-time plays, and this year’s tournament has no shortage of them. But a few teams in particular are heavily reliant on their stars to their engine offensively. More than a dozen players in the field this year boast a usage rate — the percentage of a team’s possessions a player uses while on the floor — above 30 percent, according to Bart Torvik. Typically, a higher usage rate is correlated with lower efficiency, but these players have largely defied that.

And they’ll continue to need to if their teams will advance deeper in the bracket:

The consensus No. 1 overall recruit in his class, Dybantsa has lived up to the hype and then some in what will be his lone year in Provo. He leads the country in scoring at 25.6 points per game and total free throw attempts (284). The 6-foot-9, 210-pounder is a freight train coming through the lane and has been nearly unguardable for opposing defenses. But with the season-ending injury to Richie Saunders, Dybantsa’s load has increased even more. His 33.1 usage rate is the second-highest among power conference players, and he’ll be called on early and often if the sixth-seeded Cougars are going to get past the winner of Texas or NC State.

Dontae Horne – Prairie View A&M

Horne is in the midst of a season where he was named to the All-SWAC team and picked up tournament MVP honors after averaging 24 points per game to lead the Panthers to the league’s automatic bid. He has scored at least 25 points on 13 different occasions this season and scored 24 on LSU back in December. The 6-4 swingman isn’t a lights-out shooter (31%) but has made 45 triples this season. Most of his damage is done at the free throw line, where he ranks among the top 15 nationally in attempts at the charity stripe. Prairie View A&M opens with Lehigh in the First Four with a chance to take on No. 1 overall seed Florida on the line.

Victor Valdes – Troy

Valdes is the type of mid-major player fans fall in love with during the tournament’s opening weekend. He commands the paint at 6’7 and close to 260 pounds, but is also the engine that the Trojans’ offense runs through. He is the team’s co-leader in points per game (14.8), leader in assists per game (4.6) and third in rebounds (4.0). While not much of an outside threat, he lives at the line and finished fourth in the Sun Belt with 229 attempts there. Troy faces a fourth-seeded Nebraska team that is looking for its first-ever NCAA Tournament win and will be feeling plenty of pressure after arguably their best season in school history.

Dominique Daniels Jr. – Cal Baptist

Cal Baptist’s senior guard has been one of the sport’s best scorers for going on three years now. After averaging a little over 19 points per contest as a sophomore and junior, he took things to another level this season and has poured in 23 PPG as a senior. He led the WAC in scoring and two-point attempts, while shooting 186 3-pointers — good for second-best in the league. But even more impressively, he does it without turning the ball over at a high clip. His 8.5% turnover rate is among the best in the country for players with a usage rate above 30. The Lancers, who face No. 4 Kansas in the first round, could be a trendy upset pick if Daniels can match Darryn Peterson.

When healthy, Brown has been among the most dynamic players in America during his true freshman season in Louisville. A top-10 overall recruit in last year’s class, he has nine games with 20-plus points this season, including 45 against NC State back in early February. But he missed nearly a month of action between December and January, and just sat out the entirety of the ACC Tournament. The Cardinals are 16-5 with him in the lineup and just 7-5 without. Resting him enough to be ready for their first-round matchup vs. South Florida was the goal, and we’ll see if that paid off.

Like Dybansta and Brown, Peterson was one of the nation’s premier high school prospects a year ago. In his lone season in Lawrence, he’s drawn comparisons to young versions of Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady. But similar to his counterpart in Louisville, Peterson has dealt with nagging injury issues — or at least something that has caused him to leave multiple games prematurely. And as he goes, so do the Jayhawks. In games where he shoots above 40 percent from the field, Kansas is 11-3. Otherwise, they’re just 3-5. Peterson shot just 8 for 28 in two Big 12 tournament games, something that will have to improve for the Jayhawks to get to the second weekend.

Johnson has exploded onto the scene as a sophomore for the Cowboys, who dominated the Southland behind his team-leading 17.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. McNeese only has three players averaging double-figures but boasts one of the country’s best defenses. Johnson, a former top-75 overall recruit in the 2024 class, won’t do much damage from three but is among the best slashing guards in the mid-major ranks. Vanderbilt’s high-flying offense against the Cowboys’ lockdown defense is one of the most intriguing matchups of the first round.

Boozer left high school as one of the most decorated prospects ever, winning gold medals with USA basketball and four consecutive Florida 7A state championships. His transition to the college game has been seamless, as evidenced by the fact that he is considered the heavy favorite to sweep national player of the year honors. Boozer has carried a heavy load though, averaging 34 minutes per game in ACC play despite the Blue Devils running roughshod over the league. And his importance, especially on offense, has only been heightened with fourth-leading scorer Caleb Foster going down with an injury. Boozer not only the leads the team in scoring, rebounds and assists, but is also one of the better defenders as well.

A year after John Tonje carried the Badgers with an All-American season, Boyd has been one of the Big Ten’s premier players in his sixth season at the college level. Wisconsin boasts one of the nation’s best offenses, and he and John Blackwell are the two hubs. Boyd’s usage rate (30.5) is among the highest in the nation but it hasn’t drained his efficiency. He is shooting 48% from the field on nearly 15 attempts per game, hit 60 3-pointers and was top-10 in both free throws attempted and made in the Big Ten. The Badgers open with 12-seed High Point before what could be an all-time Round of 32 matchup against Arkansas and Darius Acuff.

Reneau has had a career year in his lone season with the Hurricanes after three years at Indiana under Mike Woodson. New Hurricanes coach Jai Lucas needed a centerpiece to build his lineup around, and the 6-foot-9 Reneau has lived up to it. He has the fourth-highest usage rate in the ACC this season and has been nearly unstoppable inside. His 18.8 points per game were sixth-best league-wide, and he connected on nearly 55 percent of his field goals. Reneau’s counterpart in the Round of 64, Missouri’s Mark Mitchell, will provide one of the best individual clashes will see on opening weekend.