It was a great season for underdogs, and now it’s finally time to wrap up the 2016 edition of the Giant Killers project. Perhaps you are wondering whether, in the final analysis, there’s anything constant to take from a tournament where Northern Iowa blew a 12-point lead in 44 seconds, Syracuse made the Final Four and Michigan State never held a lead. And of course there is: the All-GK Team.

We’re always interested in your feedback and ideas as we keep searching for ways to improve our statistical model. So our final bit of analysis is as open as we can make it: We turn off our spreadsheets and ask you to vote, by Twitter, email or carrier pigeon, for up to five players who played well for deep underdogs in the NCAA tournament. That’s it. And this time around, so many Cinderellas and voters stepped up that we have enough worthy selections to stock two squads.

Back in 2011, we named the All-GK Team after Donell and Ronell Taylor, twin brothers who played for UAB a dozen years ago. Their Blazers teams, coached by Mike Anderson (who is now at Arkansas), outstole opponents by a staggering margin of nearly two to one. And they became the first Killers to take down Giants in consecutive seasons, clipping Kentucky in a 9-1 upset in 2004 and slaying LSU in an 11-6 matchup in 2005. We have always thought this amazing sequence, where Ronell forced a turnover, then launched a blind, two-handed, 60-foot pass over the back of his head to Donell, truly exemplifies the high-risk/high-reward play of the best Killers.

Without further ado, the seventh annual Donell and Ronell All-Giant Killers Team:

First team

Thomas Walkup, SF, Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks

This year’s leading vote-getter, not even including ballots submitted for his beard. Walkup’s 33 points, 9 rebounds, 4 steals and 4 assists took down West Virginia, and we also should remember he was the best player on the court in SFA’s second-round, one-point loss to Notre Dame, too.

Reggie Upshaw, PF, Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders

Speaking of the best player on the court, Upshaw filled that role in a game where a 15-seed beat a 2. He kept Michigan State from dominating the boards, blocked three shots and nailed three triples. Oh, and he also scored 21 points.

Tyler Roberson, C, Syracuse Orange

All-GK teams are usually filled with guards, but we have admired possession-hogging big men since the days of Omar Samhan and are happy to honor a couple this year. Roberson was just the fifth-leading scorer for Syracuse, but he averaged 5.6 offensive rebounds a game during their Final Four run -- 5.6! For good measure, he even added two steals in the Orange's Giant-Killing upset of Virginia.

Josh Hagins, PG, Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans

Hagins' stat line in UALR’s upset of Purdue: 31 points, 7 boards, 6 assists, 5 steals. Did Hagins lock the doors and turn the lights off on his way out of the gym, too? An epic giant-slaying performance.

Bronson Koenig, SG, Wisconsin Badgers

Six treys to topple Xavier, including a step-back corner buzzer-beater that went down just like Koenig practiced it every day.

Second team

Malachi Richardson, SF, Syracuse Orange

He checked every Giant-Killing box to fuel the Orange’s upset of UVa. Bombs? Richardson hit three. Offensive rebounds? He had three of those, too. Steals? He had two. Not to mention 23 points.

Paul Jesperson, PF, Northern Iowa Panthers

When you make this shot, you make the All-GK team.

Domantas Sabonis, C, Gonzaga Bulldogs

Seton Hall couldn't handle Gonzaga's big man, who had 21 points and 16 rebounds against the 6-seed Pirates.

Fred VanVleet, PG, Wichita State Shockers

He had five steals against Arizona, and after he got through surgically dismantling the Wildcats, Sean Miller looked like this. One last time on the All-GK team for a player who epitomizes the smartest Killers.

Quincy Smith, SG, Hawaii Rainbow Warriors

After Cal closed to within a point of the Rainbow Warriors in their 4-13 matchup, Smith scored eight of Hawaii’s next 15 points to build an insurmountable lead, and finished with a career-high 19. It was a memorable performance to key a team that knows it won’t see the postseason again in a while.

And now, our three final awards:

Top Mongoose: Rex Pflueger, Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Giant Killers are like snakes, slithering around and waiting in the grass to take down Giants. Which is why we say players who can turn about and strike down Killers are like the mongoose. And this year’s Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is obvious: A tip-in by Notre Dame freshman Rex Pflueger, off a missed putback of a missed shot, with 1.5 seconds left in the game, gave the Irish a one-point, second-round win over Stephen F. Austin. Pflueger instantly joined our list of dream destroyers, which includes players such as Victor Oladipo (who squashed Temple in 2013) and Tarik Phillip (who squelched Buffalo last year). And then Pflueger didn’t make another basket for the rest of the tournament.

GK Coach of the Year: James Jones, Yale Bulldogs

Here’s where we get to Yale, by crediting James Jones, who built the Bulldogs into a program that made its first NCAA tournament since 1962, then led the Ivy League champs to an upset of Baylor. Since coming to Yale in 1999, Jones has slowly but surely improved its recruiting, significantly strengthened its schedule, survived a pair of crushing losses to end last season and finally eclipsed Harvard this year. His Bulldogs are smart, tough and built around team rebounding. And this year, Yale grabbed 39.3 percent of its own missed shots while limiting opponents to collecting just 24.3 percent of misses at the other end, the biggest gap in the entire NCAA. Which leads us to …

Inspirational Quote of the Year: Taurean Prince, Baylor Bears, on how Baylor got outrebounded by Yale

We can’t beat that for stupefied sarcasm, so we will just say, see you next season!

Thanks to Professors Liz Bouzarth, John Harris and Kevin Hutson of Furman University for research assistance.