Thursday, March 11, 2021

All-Defense Team Announced; Neemias Queta Defender of the Year

This release was issued to sports reporters and Sports Information Directors earlier this week.:

“Utah State Center Neemias Queta compiled the best Adjusted Defensive Rating (-3.70) in the nation to rank as the National Most Valuable Defender,” said John Pudner, who explained the player AdjD calculations at www.valueaddbasketball.com calculates how many more points a team would allow per game with an average replacement player in the player’s position.  “Ken Pomeroy’s stats (www.kenpom.com) calculate Utah State the 17th best defense in the country and of more than 4,000 D1 players Queta ranked 4th in blocked shots, 20th in defensive rebounds, and 15th among all centers in steals.”

“The All-Defense team calculates the best defender at all five positions,” Pudner said. “We do believe defense should be evaluated by position. For example, with all respect the vote for BYU’s Matt Haarms as West Coast Defensive Player of the Year, we calculate that Gonzaga’s Jalen Suggs saves more points compared to a replacement point guard than Haarms saves compared to a replacement center.”

Suggs calculates not only as the top defender in the WCC, but as the top defensive point guard in the country to join Queta, Baylor Shooting Guard Jared Butler, Saint Louis Small Forward Jordan Goodwin and USC Evan Mobley in the Power Forward slot. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd All-Defense Teams are listed below.

Journalists Resources:

  1. http://www.pudnersports.com/2021/03/march-madness-top-players-and-nba.html was posted Monday to let journalists pull as short summary and breakdown of each of the 31 conference tournaments, noting each team’s adjusted team Value Add rating and the rating of their NBA talent based on the end of team year adjusted for injured players either out for the season or back for the March games.
  2. http://www.valueaddbasketball.com/ is set up to make searches for journalists easier. The database includes 4,201 current Division 1 players that can be sorted by team, position, conference, offense (AdjO), defense (AdjD), overall Value Add rank, prospects of making the NBA, or the letters “inj” can be searched to show all players either returning (back) or out for the season (gone).
  3. While the team AdjD at www.kenpom.com is calculated per 100 possessions, the player AdjD at www.valueaddbasketball.com is based on points saved per 70 possessions to more closely approximated points saved per game.
  4. We were asked why Evan Mobley is listed as USC’s power forward instead of center since he is the team’s 7-footer and appears to be playing center. In addition to height, positions are assigned based on analytics such as 3-pointers taken and defensive rebounds to best estimate which players are playing closest to the basket (center) or furthest from the basket (point guard). Early in the year Evan was assigned the power forward position and his big brother Isaiah as center because Evan had hit five 3-pointers in six games to none for Isaiah and at the time Isaiah was grabbling more defensive rebounds, and we do not change positions once assigned.
  5. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd All-American Defensive Teams based on Value Add Basketball’s Adjusted Defense (AdjD) are listed below. The team AdjD ratings at www.kenpom.com are based on points saved per 100 possessions, while the player AdjD at www.valueaddbasketball.com is based on 70 possessions per games to more closely approximate points saved per games played.

Pos 1st Team All-American Defense Team AdjD
PG Jalen Suggs #1 Gonzaga -3.24
SG Jared Butler #12 Baylor -2.97
SF Jordan Goodwin #0 Saint Louis -3.14
PF Evan Mobley #4 USC -3.29
C Neemias Queta #23 Utah St. -3.70

Pos 2nd Team All-American Defense Team AdjD
PG DeJon Jarreau #3 Houston -2.90
SG Nah'Shon Hyland #5 VCU -2.85
SF Luis Rodriguez #15 Mississippi -3.03
PF Franz Wagner #21 Michigan -3.16
C Osun Osunniyi #21 St. Bonaventure -3.69

Pos 3rd Team All-American Defense Team AdjD
PG Isaiah Miller #1 UNC Greensboro -2.74
SG Jose Alvarado #10 Georgia Tech -2.75
SF Josiah-Jordan James #5 Tennessee -2.84
PF Herbert Jones #1 Alabama -2.76
C Myles Johnson #15 Rutgers -3.07

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