Top 100 Defensive Players in College Basketball

Here are the top 100 defenders in college basketball based on calculations at www.valueaddbasketball.com as of December 29, 2018. These are the personal AdjD calculations, which tells you how much each player lowers his team's AdjD at www.kenpom.com. This system was developed in 2011 and explained in this post and has undergone only minor adjustments.

Rnk	Top 100 Defenders	Team	Height	Conf	Class	AdjD
1	Matisse Thybulle	Washington	6-foot-5	P12	4 Sr	-4.45
2	Ethan Happ	Wisconsin	6-foot-10	B10	4 Sr	-4.32
3	Zion Williamson	Duke	6-foot-7	ACC	1 Fr	-4.14
4	Nicolas Claxton	Georgia	6-foot-11	SEC	2 So	-4.11
5	Dedric Lawson	Kansas	6-foot-9	B12	3 Jr	-4.04
6	Tyler Bey	Colorado	6-foot-7	P12	2 So	-3.89
7	Matt Mooney	Texas Tech	6-foot-3	B12	4 Sr	-3.8
8	Bruno Fernando	Maryland	6-foot-10	B10	2 So	-3.72
9	Jon Teske	Michigan	7-foot-1	B10	3 Jr	-3.68
10	Matt Rafferty	Furman	6-foot-8	SC	4 Sr	-3.61
11	Ty Jerome	Virginia	6-foot-5	ACC	3 Jr	-3.59
12	Ed Polite	Radford	6-foot-5	BSth	4 Sr	-3.57
13	Brandon Clarke	Gonzaga	6-foot-8	WCC	3 Jr	-3.5
14	Jordan Murphy	Minnesota	6-foot-7	B10	4 Sr	-3.48
15	Aric Holman	Mississippi St.	6-foot-10	SEC	4 Sr	-3.46
16	Daniel Gafford	Arkansas	6-foot-11	SEC	2 So	-3.41
17	Brandon Gilbeck	Western Illinois	7-foot-0	Sum	4 Sr	-3.4
18	Xavier Tillman	Michigan St.	6-foot-8	B10	2 So	-3.39
19	Jeromy Rodriguez	East Tennessee St.	6-foot-7	SC	3 Jr	-3.33
20	Trent Forrest	Florida St.	6-foot-4	ACC	3 Jr	-3.29
21	Braxton Key	Virginia	6-foot-8	ACC	3 Jr	-3.28
22	Josh Reaves	Penn St.	6-foot-5	B10	4 Sr	-3.24
23	Bol Bol	Oregon	7-foot-2	P12	1 Fr	-3.22
24	Cortez Edwards	Southern Mississippi	6-foot-2	CUSA	4 Sr	-3.18
25	Kevarrius Hayes	Florida	7-foot-9	SEC	4 Sr	-3.13
26	Zavier Simpson	Michigan	7-foot-0	B10	3 Jr	-3.12
27	Grant Williams	Tennessee	6-foot-7	SEC	3 Jr	-3.1
28	Chuma Okeke	Auburn	6-foot-8	SEC	2 So	-3.1
29	Ebuka Izundu	Miami FL	6-foot-10	ACC	4 Sr	-3.08
30	Barry Brown	Kansas St.	6-foot-3	B12	4 Sr	-3.07
31	Nick Rakocevic	Southern California	6-foot-11	P12	3 Jr	-3.07
32	Kylor Kelley	Oregon St.	7-foot-0	P12	3 Jr	-3.06
33	Nickeil Alexander-Walker	Virginia Tech	6-foot-5	ACC	2 So	-3.06
34	Nate Grimes	Fresno St.	6-foot-8	MWC	3 Jr	-3.05
35	Charles Bassey	Western Kentucky	6-foot-11	CUSA	1 Fr	-3.04
36	Tariq Owens	Texas Tech	6-foot-10	B12	4 Sr	-3.03
37	Dylan Windler	Belmont	6-foot-8	OVC	4 Sr	-2.98
38	Jordan Nwora	Louisville	6-foot-7	ACC	2 So	-2.95
39	Marcus Santos-Silva	Virginia Commonwealth	6-foot-7	A10	2 So	-2.92
40	Alpha Diallo	Providence	6-foot-7	BE	3 Jr	-2.91
41	Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree	Villanova	6-foot-9	BE	2 So	-2.89
42	Dylan Osetkowski	Texas	6-foot-9	B12	4 Sr	-2.87
43	Cameron Krutwig	Loyola Chicago	6-foot-9	MVC	2 So	-2.87
44	RJ Williams	Boise St.	6-foot-7	MWC	2 So	-2.87
45	Isaiah Roby	Nebraska	6-foot-8	B10	3 Jr	-2.86
46	Nate Renfro	San Francisco	6-foot-8	WCC	4 Sr	-2.86
47	Javon Bess	St. Louis	6-foot-6	A10	4 Sr	-2.84
48	King McClure	Baylor	6-foot-3	B12	4 Sr	-2.82
49	Tre'Shawn Thurman	Nevada	6-foot-8	MWC	4 Sr	-2.81
50	Tristan Clark	Baylor	6-foot-9	B12	2 So	-2.77
51	Kamar Baldwin	Butler	6-foot-1	BE	3 Jr	-2.76
52	Shaq Buchanan	Murray St.	6-foot-3	OVC	4 Sr	-2.75
53	Elijah Childs	Bradley	6-foot-7	MVC	2 So	-2.74
54	Neemias Queta	Utah St.	6-foot-11	MWC	1 Fr	-2.74
55	BJ Stith	Old Dominion	6-foot-5	CUSA	4 Sr	-2.73
56	Jehyve Floyd	Holy Cross	6-foot-8	Pat	4 Sr	-2.72
57	Xavier Sneed	Kansas St.	6-foot-5	B12	3 Jr	-2.72
58	Talen Horton-Tucker	Iowa St.	6-foot-4	B12	1 Fr	-2.71
59	PJ Washington	Kentucky	6-foot-8	SEC	2 So	-2.7
60	Zylan Cheatham	Arizona St.	6-foot-8	P12	4 Sr	-2.69
61	Tacko Fall	Central Florida	7-foot-6	Amer	4 Sr	-2.66
62	Alexis Yetna	South Florida	6-foot-8	Amer	1 Fr	-2.64
63	Tres Tinkle	Oregon St.	6-foot-8	P12	3 Jr	-2.63
64	Juwan Morgan	Indiana	6-foot-8	B10	4 Sr	-2.62
65	Jaime Echenique	Wichita St.	6-foot-11	Amer	3 Jr	-2.62
66	Tyrese Haliburton	Iowa St.	6-foot-5	B12	1 Fr	-2.59
67	Trhae Mitchell	South Alabama	6-foot-6	SB	3 Jr	-2.58
68	Oshae Brissett	Syracuse	6-foot-8	ACC	2 So	-2.56
69	Keith Braxton	St. Francis PA	6-foot-5	NEC	3 Jr	-2.55
70	Jordan Goodwin	St. Louis	6-foot-3	A10	2 So	-2.53
71	Jarrett Culver	Texas Tech	6-foot-6	B12	2 So	-2.52
72	Brekkott Chapman	Weber St.	6-foot-9	BSky	4 Sr	-2.52
73	Anthony Lawrence	Miami FL	6-foot-7	ACC	4 Sr	-2.52
74	Charles Matthews	Michigan	6-foot-6	B10	4 Sr	-2.52
75	Alex Peacock	Texas St.	6-foot-7	SB	4 Sr	-2.51
76	Jack White	Duke	6-foot-7	ACC	3 Jr	-2.5
77	Brady Manek	Oklahoma	6-foot-9	B12	2 So	-2.49
78	Elston Jones	UC Irvine	6-foot-9	BW	4 Sr	-2.49
79	Kenny Goins	Michigan St.	6-foot-7	B10	4 Sr	-2.49
80	Nick Muszynski	Belmont	6-foot-11	OVC	1 Fr	-2.49
81	Doug Taylor	Ohio	6-foot-9	MAC	4 Sr	-2.48
82	Tamenang Choh	Brown	6-foot-5	Ivy	2 So	-2.47
83	Nate Pierre-Louis	Temple	6-foot-4	Amer	2 So	-2.46
84	Osun Osunniyi	St. Bonaventure	6-foot-10	A10	1 Fr	-2.44
85	Paschal Chukwu	Syracuse	7-foot-2	ACC	4 Sr	-2.43
86	Chuba Ohams	Fordham	6-foot-8	A10	3 Jr	-2.43
87	Mark Vital	Baylor	6-foot-5	B12	2 So	-2.42
88	Sagaba Konate	West Virginia	6-foot-8	B12	3 Jr	-2.41
89	Elijah Mitrou-Long	Texas	6-foot-1	B12	3 Jr	-2.41
90	Donta Hall	Alabama	6-foot-9	SEC	4 Sr	-2.39
91	Kaleb Wesson	Ohio St.	6-foot-9	B10	2 So	-2.38
92	Jarrell Brantley	Charleston Southern	6-foot-7	BSth	4 Sr	-2.37
93	Elijah Thomas	Clemson	6-foot-9	ACC	4 Sr	-2.36
94	Isaiah Livers	Michigan	6-foot-7	B10	2 So	-2.36
95	Chris Silva	South Carolina	6-foot-9	SEC	4 Sr	-2.34
96	Jaxson Hayes	Texas	6-foot-11	B12	1 Fr	-2.34
97	Luke Maye	North Carolina	6-foot-8	ACC	4 Sr	-2.33
98	Chase Jeter	Arizona	6-foot-10	P12	3 Jr	-2.33
99	James Banks	Georgia Tech	6-foot-9	ACC	3 Jr	-2.32
100	Jason Burnell	Jacksonville St.	6-foot-7	OVC	4 Sr	-2.32

Value Add Basketball Year End Player Calculations

This email went out to our sports list the morning of December 30. To be added to the list, email pudnerjohn@gmail.com with "add to sports list" in the subject field.

Of the 4,095 college players to take the court this season, Dedric Lawson's ability to improve Kansas an average of 13.29 points per game on offense and defense makes him the most valuable player in the country - and here are the 20 most valuable listed at www.valueaddbasketball.com. Look for the CBS 247 story on the top 8 match-up between St. John's Shamorie Ponds and Marquette's Markus Howard, who just scored 62 points in a 29 minute stretch on 13 of 15 three-pointers and 13 of 13 free throws to shoot up the 6th.

Rnk Player Team Value Add/Game Conf Class 3-pts and Games 1 Dedric Lawson Kansas 13.29 B12 3 Jr 4 3-pts in 11 Gms 2 Zion Williamson Duke 12.30 ACC 1 Fr 3 3-pts in 12 Gms 3 Grant Williams Tennessee 11.69 SEC 3 Jr 6 3-pts in 11 Gms 4 Jarrett Culver Texas Tech 11.03 B12 2 So 19 3-pts in 12 Gms 5 Ethan Happ Wisconsin 10.91 B10 4 Sr 0 3-pts in 12 Gms 6 Markus Howard Marquette 10.9 BE 3 Jr 49 3-pts in 13 Gms 7 Juwan Morgan Indiana 10.67 B10 4 Sr 13 3-pts in 13 Gms 8 Shamorie Ponds St. John's 10.27 BE 3 Jr 22 3-pts in 13 Gms 9 Tristan Clark Baylor 10.21 B12 2 So 1 3-pts in 11 Gms 10 Ja Morant Murray St. 10.16 OVC 2 So 13 3-pts in 9 Gms 11 Ebuka Izundu Miami FL 10.13 ACC 4 Sr 1 3-pts in 11 Gms 12 Brandon Clarke Gonzaga 10.13 WCC 3 Jr 2 3-pts in 14 Gms 13 Javon Bess St. Louis 9.9 A10 4 Sr 25 3-pts in 12 Gms 14 Ty Jerome Virginia 9.54 ACC 3 Jr 26 3-pts in 11 Gms 15 Carsen Edwards Purdue 9.44 B10 3 Jr 47 3-pts in 12 Gms 16 Matt Morgan Cornell 9.14 Ivy 4 Sr 38 3-pts in 11 Gms 17 Ahmad Caver Old Dominion 9.09 CUSA 4 Sr 28 3-pts in 13 Gms 18 De'Andre Hunter Virginia 9.02 ACC 2 So 11 3-pts in 11 Gms 19 Nickeil Alexander-Walker Virginia Tech 8.99 ACC 2 So 22 3-pts in 11 Gms 20 Myles Powell Seton Hall 8.97 BE 3 Jr 41 3-pts in 13 Gms

In addition to the CBS Sports 247 site, keep up with this blog for coverage of the Value Add Basketball rankings and Statis-Pro baseball projections all year. You can sort www.valueaddbasketball.com by team, conference or even click for past projections and seasons. Click here for the explanation of the Value Add basketball and how it calculates how much worse a teams average score would be if the player were replaced by a bench player on a mediocre team.

The top 5 defensive players in the country, based on their personal AdjD points by which they lower their teams www.kenpom.com rating.

Top 5 Defensive Players	State	Points stopped AdjD
Matisse Thybulle	Washington	-4.45
Ethan Happ	Wisconsin	-4.32
Zion Williamson	Duke	-4.14
Nicolas Claxton	Georgia	-4.11
Dedric Lawson	Kansas	-4.04

Statis-Pro 2019 NL Season Log Using Projected Cards

Trying to hold off on playing the top contenders to land Machado or Harper, but here is the start of the season - you play your own with free dice version of Statis-Pro baseball if you are a 1st time player, but then we recommend you go on line to buy the true game with fast action cards. All game summaries are here. Latest result: Rays Charlie Morton shuts out the Phillies 2-0, but then Arrieta wins the second game in a "sweep" 6-1 to wrap up all 15 NL teams with 12 games on their record as everyone still waits for Bryce Harper and Manny Manchado.

NL East
Nationals 7-5 0 - 0.768  - Scherzer almost perfect in debut and adding Corbin gives Nats best rotation
Mets 7-5 0 - Cespedes stars to sweep Nats, but will he really return in key life in 2019?
Braves 7-5 0- Donaldson now hitting clean-up after Freeman completes great 1-4 hitters, gloves
Phillies 6-6 2  Finally made them play Cubs after trying to wait for Harper's decision.

Marlins 3-9 4

NL Central
Pirates 9-3 0 Dominicans Starling Marte/Greg Polanco dominating at top of line-up
Cubs 4-2 2  - tired of waiting for Harper and had them play Phillies, longshot Kris Bryant gets Harper
Brewers 6-6 3 - Will dominant relievers be enough to repeat?
Reds 5-7 4 - Puig, Wood and Kemp from Dodgers great, but can they get any relief pitching?
Cardinals 4-8 5 - Andrew Miller goes 9th and 10th to beat Brewers

NL West
Diamondbacks 9-3 0 - pitching still loaded and team slump of 2018 yielding to hot start in 2019
Padres 8-4 1 Newly acquired Hosmer hitting behind speedster Margot proving a killer 1-2 punch
Giants 3-3 3
Dodgers 5-7 4  Proved very vulnerable to lefties with Puig/Kemp gone; obviously they will add

Rockies 1-5 5 - "neutral park" projections make pitching pretty good, line-up not quite as dominant 

Game log will be kept on this google sheet and periodically pasted below. We pay each game counts as 3, with the winner getting 2 wins and the loser 1 win UNLESS winning team led by at least 5 runs after 8 innings without using their closer. In that case winning teams "sweeps" the series 3-0. We finally tired of waiting for Bryce Harper's decision, so had the Phillies and Cubs play without him and the Cubs won the series. A big acquisition that may pay off is Eric Hosner, who took the Brewers to the top mark in our Statis-Pro season last year and has scorched the Braves and Dodgers in our first two offseason series.

SD	Paddock	2	LAD	Buehler	1	No	1/5/2019	Newly acquired Hosmer reached 6 of 10 times in the series including 3 doubles and they key 9th inning single of Jansen after speedster Margot singled and stole to give Padres 2-1 win
SD	Lamet	9	LAD	Ferguson	2	Sweep	1/5/2019	Dodgers best player cards, but like the 1927 Yanks proved vulnerable vs a lefty starter and 5 lefty relievers, and w/ rookie replacing traded Wood, SD's Hosmer's onslaught continued off rookie Ferguson in 5-0 1st inning of 9-2 Sweep.

Projections and Background BEFORE Season

Here is the summary of how good each team's Statis-Pro cards appear to be:

	OPS lineup		Rotation		Fielding		Relievers		Total Rating
Dodgers	0.785	10	3.64	8	27	4	3.73	5	65
Cubs	0.786	10	3.82	7	34	7	3.84	3	64
Cardinals	0.783	10	4.03	5	40	10	3.88	2	61
Nationals	0.768	8	3.49	10	26	4	3.65	6	59
Mets	0.776	9	3.64	8	24	3	3.85	3	57
Pirates	0.769	8	3.9	6	20	1	3.71	5	50
Reds	0.772	8	4.04	5	28	5	4	0	47
Braves	0.764	7	4.14	5	27	4	3.67	6	47
Brewers	0.751	5	4.27	4	32	6	3.47	10	44
Rockies	0.742	4	3.75	8	28	5	3.68	6	41
Padres	0.731	2	3.69	8	28	5	3.6	7	38
Phillies	0.758	6	4.05	5	18	0	3.87	2	37
Giants	0.734	3	4.23	4	38	9	3.53	8	37
Diamondbacks	0.713	0	3.57	9	30	5	3.47	10	33
Marlins	0.729	2	4.72	0	26	4	4.41	0	12

Game log will be kept on this google sheet and periodically pasted below. We pay each game counts as 3, with the winner getting 2 wins and the loser 1 win UNLESS winning team led by at least 5 runs after 8 innings without using their closer. In that case winning teams "sweeps" the series 3-0.

To try it out Print projected player sheets for all 2019 players and free dice version of game (just add dice in photo below) and print Out Chart. If you are a 1st time player but then buy the full player cards in line for current or historic teams. On the sheets you can sort teams by nation or MLB team, for example the Pirates No. 1 and No. 2 hitters in the game are Dominicans Starling Marte and Greg Polanco who just scored a combined 7 runs to beat the Cardinals in our first MLB games. Prior to that, they led the Dominican Republic to a 21-9 record to win the regular season and playoff over 2nd place Venezuela. The set up looks like the next photo, and you can order here if you want to purchase nice PDF player cards and games.We created the dice version and out chart so you could 1) use it as a free trial, 2) use all the other great teams and charts here even if you have trouble getting Fast Action Cards, and 3) to use as I do as a travel version without having to pack the whole game on trips.

To print your favorite teams; 1, click on this google sheet of projected 2019 cards; 2, define the team's batters and starters like in the next photo; then 

 3, hit print but choose to only print those cells you have selected so you get one nice sheet for all of the team's batters (which are in black) then pitchers (which are in red).

Adjustments I made from my 2018 AL season include:

1. The biggest improvement is that I started to use the modern Clutch Defensive (CD) and Clutch Batting (BD) process which means something happens every time those are drawn (or rolled). For BD with someone on my base the batters card is used and singles are turned to base-clearing doubles, the doubles are converted to home runs, triples and homers stay the same and everything else is a flyout. The next CD charts showed in the photo go from CD 1 to CD 5.

2. The next biggest change is in relieving. In 2018 I found I way overused relievers letting the Indians and Yankees dominate, so this season each reliever can only pitch one inning in each 2-game series, unless; a) he comes in for a pitcher who has faced at least 3 batters in an inning in which case he can finish the inning and start with a PB one lower in the next inning and only face 5 batters total, b) the game goes extra innings or a team is 5 runs or more behind in which case a pitcher can go as long as they want and never drop below a PB2-4. We will use either the No. 1 and No. 4 starter or No. 2 and No. 3 starter in each series.

3. We still play that a team winning by at least 5 runs gets credit for a 3 games to 0 series win, HOWEVER, we now say the team must be ahead 5 runs by the end of the 8th inning and hold that lead. This is to prevent the awkward problem last year with a team winning in the bottom of the 9th but still batting to try to get a 5-run win. This occurred in the season opener when the Reds rallies in the bottom of the 9th to beat the Brewers, and last year would have kept hitting to try to win by 5 but we decided to cut it off with their 7-6 win. (The Brewers won the second game of the series 16-8 but in 10 innings, so both teams were credited with a 2-1 series win a piece, so they both start the season 3-3.