This is my morning email for Selection Sunday ...
Yes, today is not only St. Patrick's Day, but also the day you need to fill out your basketball brackets for the office - which also makes it the one day a year most of you get a sports email from me.
Last night after wading through the Madison Square Garden confetti drop blocks from where the Empire State Building was lit up for the Big East tournament, I interviewed Villanova's Phil Booth about defending the second hottest player in the country on the last second shot that decided the Big East title. I then ran the calculations at
www.valueaddbasketball.com (which you can click on to sort by teams) to update the rankings on all 4,000 players and put together the grid below of each team from the March Madness basketball brackets, with explanations and details on my interviews below the table to help you use this to to fill out your brackets even if its the only time all year you pay attention to college basketball.
| Team in Bracket | Highest Ranked Player | Team Rank | NBA Ranking | Lost to Injury | | NBA | Top 100 | Top 400 |
| Abilene Christian | 396, BJ Maxwell | 73 | No NBA | -0.55 | | | | 1 |
| Alabama | 82, Donta Hall | 54 | 23 | 0.00 | | 4 | 1 | 2 |
| Arizona St. | 248, Remy Martin | 53 | 7 | 0.00 | | 6 | | 2 |
| Auburn | 47, Jared Harper | 14 | 11 | 0.00 | | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Belmont | 15, Dylan Windler | 43 | 45 | 0.00 | | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Bradley | 623, Nate Kennell | 75 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | |
| Buffalo | 10, CJ Massinburg | 20 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | 1 | 5 |
| Cincinnati | 63, Jarron Cumberland | 34 | 39 | 0.00 | | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Clemson | 16, Marcquise Reed | 28 | 47 | 0.00 | | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Colgate | 539, Jordan Burns | 70 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | |
| Creighton | 149, Martin Krampelj | 47 | 40 | 0.00 | | 1 | | 3 |
| Duke | 1, Zion Williamson | 1 | 3 | 0.00 | | 7 | 3 | 7 |
| Fairleigh Dickinson | 418, Darnell Edge | 79 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | |
| Florida | 127, Kevarrius Hayes | 30 | 31 | -0.92 | | 3 | | 5 |
| Florida St. | 85, Mfiondu Kabengele | 16 | 17 | 0.00 | | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| Furman | 3, Matt Rafferty | 52 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | 1 | 2 |
| Gardner Webb | 300, David Efianayi | 76 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | 1 |
| Georgia St. | 335, Malik Benlevi | 67 | 41 | 0.00 | | 1 | | 2 |
| Gonzaga | 6, Brandon Clarke | 3 | 2 | 0.00 | | 7 | 3 | 4 |
| Harvard | 481, Bryce Aiken | 69 | 53 | 0.00 | | 1 | | |
| Houston | 36, Corey Davis | 12 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | 1 | 3 |
| Indiana | 30, Juwan Morgan | 40 | 30 | 0.00 | | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Iona | 374, EJ Crawford | 77 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | 1 |
| Iowa | 183, Joe Wieskamp | 32 | 38 | 0.00 | | 2 | | 4 |
| Iowa St. | 109, Marial Shayok | 26 | 24 | -3.54 | | 3 | | 5 |
| Kansas | 5, Dedric Lawson | 44 | 8 | -6.15 | | 5 | 1 | 3 |
| Kansas St. | 59, Barry Brown | 19 | 22 | 0.00 | | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Kentucky | 34, Tyler Herro | 9 | 1 | -0.98 | | 7 | 2 | 5 |
| Liberty | 97, Scottie James | 55 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | 1 | 2 |
| Lipscomb | 147, Garrison Mathews | 50 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | 3 |
| Louisville | 100, Jordan Nwora | 21 | 28 | 0.00 | | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| LSU | 45, Skylar Mays | 15 | 19 | 0.00 | | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| Marquette | 18, Markus Howard | 24 | 27 | 0.00 | | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Maryland | 29, Bruno Fernando | 22 | 9 | 0.00 | | 5 | 1 | 3 |
| Michigan | 48, Jon Teske | 6 | 14 | 0.00 | | 4 | 4 | 6 |
| Michigan St. | 2, Cassius Winston | 4 | 26 | -2.17 | | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| Minnesota | 22, Jordan Murphy | 45 | 25 | -0.51 | | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Mississippi | 119, Breein Tyree | 37 | 36 | 0.00 | | 2 | | 3 |
| Mississippi St. | 31, Quinndary Weatherspoon | 17 | 6 | 0.00 | | 7 | 1 | 3 |
| Montana | 343, Ahmaad Rorie | 71 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | 2 |
| Murray St. | 14, Ja Morant | 46 | 37 | 0.00 | | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Nevada | 98, Caleb Martin | 25 | 15 | 0.00 | | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| New Mexico St. | 294, Eli Chuha | 49 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | 2 |
| North Carolina | 24, Cameron Johnson | 5 | 4 | 0.00 | | 7 | 2 | 6 |
| North Carolina Central | 682, Raasean Davis | 82 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | |
| North Carolina St. | 224, Torin Dorn | 33 | 33 | 0.00 | | 2 | | 4 |
| North Dakota St. | 505, Vinnie Shahid | 78 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | |
| Northeastern | 178, Jordan Roland | 56 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | 3 |
| Northern Kentucky | 144, Drew McDonald | 64 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | 2 |
| Ohio St. | 129, Kaleb Wesson | 42 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | 3 |
| Oklahoma | 120, Christian James | 38 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | 3 |
| Old Dominion | 124, Ahmad Caver | 65 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | 2 |
| Oregon | 102, Payton Pritchard | 68 | 10 | -9.94 | | 7 | | 1 |
| Prairie View A&M | 761, Gary Blackston | 81 | No NBA | -1.96 | | | | |
| Purdue | 46, Carsen Edwards | 10 | 35 | 0.00 | | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Saint Louis | 65, Javon Bess | 74 | No NBA | -0.88 | | | 1 | 1 |
| Saint Mary's | 20, Jordan Ford | 29 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | 2 | 3 |
| Seton Hall | 8, Myles Powell | 48 | 51 | 0.00 | | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| St. Bonaventure | 168, Kyle Lofton | 66 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | 2 |
| St. John's | 21, Shamorie Ponds | 60 | 20 | -0.28 | | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Syracuse | 80, Tyus Battle | 31 | 16 | 0.00 | | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| TCU | 40, Desmond Bane | 51 | 48 | -1.99 | | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Temple | 84, Shizz Alston | 58 | 42 | 0.00 | | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Tennessee | 4, Grant Williams | 7 | 13 | 0.00 | | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Texas | 60, Jaxson Hayes | 27 | 5 | 0.00 | | 8 | 1 | 3 |
| Texas Southern | 330, Jeremy Combs | 80 | 49 | 0.00 | | 1 | | 1 |
| Texas Tech | 26, Jarrett Culver | 8 | 32 | 0.00 | | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| UC Irvine | 302, Jonathan Galloway | 63 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | 2 |
| UCF | 101, Aubrey Dawkins | 39 | 50 | 0.00 | | 1 | | 3 |
| UNC Greensboro | 131, Isaiah Miller | 61 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | 1 |
| UT Arlington | 424, Brian Warren | 72 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | | |
| Utah St. | 17, Sam Merrill | 35 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | 1 | 2 |
| VCU | 64, Marcus Santos-Silva | 36 | 52 | 0.00 | | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Vermont | 33, Anthony Lamb | 59 | No NBA | 0.00 | | | 1 | 2 |
| Villanova | 77, Phil Booth | 23 | 18 | 0.00 | | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Virginia | 7, Kyle Guy | 2 | 12 | 0.00 | | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| Virginia Tech | 39, Nickeil Alexander-Walker | 11 | 29 | 0.00 | | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| Washington | 74, Matisse Thybulle | 41 | 21 | 0.00 | | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| Wisconsin | 13, Ethan Happ | 13 | 46 | 0.00 | | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Wofford | 42, Fletcher Magee | 18 | 44 | 0.00 | | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Xavier | 150, Zach Hankins | 57 | 34 | 0.00 | | 3 | | 3 |
| Yale | 327, Miye Oni | 62 | 43 | 0.00 | | 1 | | 2 |
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As an example of how to use the table when you pick, let's take the top team Abilene Christian against Duke going through each item from left to right. Abilene's top player BJ Maxwell is the 396th most valuable player (of more than 4,000) based on our
www.valueaddbasketball.com ratings, while Duke's Zion Williamson shot way ahead of everyone else again since returning from injury to rank No. 1. The "Team Rank" indicates Duke also has the highest team rating at Value Add of healthy players (we do not count any players injured) while Abilene is ranked 73rd. Next is the NBA ranking, which ranks every NBA prospect on a team from 150 points (Zion gets this as the top ranked prospect) down to 51 for players at least good enough to be considered. Duke ranks third in overall NBA talent behind Kentucky and Gonzaga, while Abilene has no NBA prospects.
Third and perhaps most important is the injury report. A negative numbers shows how much of a team's Value Add is with players they lost for the season, so the bigger the negative number the worse - and Kansas,Oregon and Michigan State are among the teams who lost major players. Finally we list the number of NBA prospects on the team (7 for Duke, none for Abilene), Top 100 players (three for Duke and none for Abilene) and and top 400 players (in the top 10% of all players) which includes seven Duke players and just Maxwell for Abilene. I'm comparing Duke to Abilene party because the Abilene fans were waving signs last night in jest saying Zion was scared of Abilene, but in other cases you might see a match-up that makes you think upset.
For example, Seton Hall is just 48th based on their team Value Add link, and only 51st in NBA talent based on one prospect Myles Powell. However, Powell is the second hottest player in the country behind Williamson, rising almost 20 spots in the rankings during the Big East tournament and is now the 8th best player in the country, and if you couple on unstoppable player like that on a team that started the year by beating Kentucky and finished by beating Marquette twice and falling just short of beating Villanova for a second time to claim the Big East title.
After meeting with Powell and doing a story on him a few days ago (see
Western Journal story here), I tracked down Villanova's two-time national champion Phil Booth in the locker room last night to ask about the perfect defense he played when Powell got the ball with a few seconds left to try a game-winning shot.
"We practice contesting and not fouling in those situations for hours and hours. Powell can make ANY shot so you just need to get as tight on him as you can to try to make it as hard as you can," Booth told me, before I asked what he honestly thought would happen when Powell let go of the shot, and he continued. "Man, it looked like it was going in when I turned around." It hit centimeters too deep on the rim and bounced out, the difference between a 75-74 Seton Hall championship and the actual 74-72 Villanova win.
I will update brackets at
www.pudnersports.com or just email back if you want to be added to my normal sports update list or just call 404.606.3163 with any questions.
Have fun with your bracket! - John Pudner
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