Sunday, March 21, 2021

Why Oral Roberts' Abmans More Valuable than BEST Player, Cunningham

This was the statement we sent to sports writers across the US Saturday morning. An exclamation point was put on the statement when Max Abmans lit it up for another Oral Roberts upset while Cade Cunningham went 6 of 20 shots including getting rejected on jumpers twice at key moments and Oklahoma State was upset by Oregon State:

"This season Oral Roberts' Max Abmas ranked as one of only two players from smaller conferences ranked in the top 1 percent of all players by www.valueaddbasketball.com," said John Pudner, inventor of the Value Add Basketball rankings. "Friday he torched Ohio State for 29 points while committing only one turnover playing point guard to make Oral Roberts only the 9th 15-seed to defeat a 2-seed in 141 chances."

"Meanwhile Oklahoma State's Cade Cunningham showed both sides of why he may be the BEST player in college basketball, but does not rank in the top 1% of MOST VALUABLE players over the course of the season based on his value add above replacement players. Like many games this year, Cunningham was in total control at the end of the game, securing the ball, hitting free throws, being a wall on defense, just like he will likely do in the NBA next year. However, his 3 of 14 shooting and 4 turnovers kept Liberty in the game until the closing minutes, in line with his higher than normal turnover percentage (22%) and lower than average 2-point fielding percentage (47%), both typical of talented freshmen."

Historical references for Value Add Basketball are included in this blog http://www.pudnersports.com/2016/11/value-add-basketball-history-and.html, and more in depth statistical background is written up regularly at www.pudnersports.com.

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