American Athletic Conference Top 15 Men’s Basketball Players To Date

For Immediate Release

John Pudner, 404.606.3163, johnp@takebackaction.org

American Athletic Conference Top 15 Men’s Basketball Players To Date

“Value Add Basketball is happy to provide the early list of the conference’s top 15 men’s  basketball players based on proven analytics used by NBA teams for draft prep,as well as writers at Sports Illustrated, ESPN, NBC Sports, Fox Sports,” said John Pudner, the inventor of the system.”

“Houston could make it to a second straight Final 4, Memphis is loaded with NBA-level players, but for the second straight year SMU’s Kendric Davis ranks as the best point guard in the country and top player in the American Athletic Conference. Davis finished the 2021 ranked 3rd in the nation, and this year is 6th out of more than 4,000 players.”

“While Houston lost our 2nd Team All-American Quentin Grimes to the New York Knicks, Marcus Sassser has stepped up as the 2nd best player in the conference and Fabian White (7th) and Kyler Edwards (9th) make Houston the big favorites with three of the top nine. We note some of the top defenders after the top 15, including J’Wan Roberts with a -2.38 points erased from opponents.”

“However, few teams in the nation have the NBA level talent of Memphis, who can overpower anyone on any night. Jalen Duren is the star as the 5th best player in the conference so far and with an 87% chance to make the NBA by our calculations. Other Memphis players who could make the NBA include Josh Minott (72% chance), Landers Nolley (26%) and DeAndre Williams (19%).”

You can click on this google doc with information on all 4,000+ players prior to it being posted on www.valueaddbasketball.com. You can also click here for the top 100 players in the country.

Information includes each player’s chance of making the NBA, his Value Add Rating for how many points he impacts a typical game (roughly 10 points is All-American level). The key to the table is: Rank = the player's conference ranking, Value Add = how many points he improves his team over a replacement player, Class = if he is in his 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th and final year of eligibility, Ht = his height, AdjD = how many points he takes away from opponents, and NBA = his percent chance of making the NBA.

Feel free to use any information contained in these statements as wanted, and email (johnp@takebackaction.org), or text/call 404.606.3163 for any questions or additional quotes from John Pudner.

Rank	Amer	Team	Value Add	Class	Ht	AdjD	NBA
1	Kendric Davis	SMU	9.45	Sr	6'0	-0.92	5%
2	Marcus Sasser	Houston	7.38	Jr	6'2"	-2.14	11%
3	Tristen Newton	East Carolina	6.79	So	6'5"	-0.77	1%
4	Jamal Shead	Houston	6.54	So	6'1"	-2.07	1%
5	Jalen Duren	Memphis	5.75	Fr	6'11"	-3.36	87%
6	Jeriah Horne	Tulsa	5.46	Sr	6'7"	-2.5	1%
7	Fabian White	Houston	5.39	Sr	6'8"	-2.55	1%
8	Darius Perry	UCF	5.2	Sr	6'2"	-1.74	1%
9	Kyler Edwards	Houston	4.95	Sr	6'4"	-1.85	5%
10	Lester Quinones	Memphis	4.91	Jr	6'5"	-1.19	5%
11	Khalif Battle	Temple	4.61	So	6'5"	0.5	1%
12	CJ Walker	UCF	4.54	Jr	6'8"	-0.99	5%
13	DeAndre Williams	Memphis	4.44	Sr	6'9"	-1.65	19%
14	Darin Green	UCF	4.17	Jr	6'4"	0.35	1%
15	Kevin Cross	Tulane	4.1	So	6'8"	-1.8	1%
Def	Abdul Ado	Cincinnati	3.1	Sr	6'11"	-3.4	1%
Def	Javon Greene	South Florida	3.6	Sr	6'4"	-2.94	1%
Def	J'Wan Roberts	Houston	3.99	So	6'7"	-2.38	5%
Def	Ricky Council	Wichita St.	3.4	Fr	6'6"	-2.32	1%
Def	Cheikh Mbacke Diong	UCF	2.82	Sr	6'11"	-2.17	1%
Def	Taze Moore	Houston	3.96	Sr	6'5"	-2.13	1%
NBA	Caleb Murphy	South Florida	0.92	Fr	6'4"	-0.95	28%
NBA	Landers Nolley	Memphis	3.01	Jr	6'7"	-0.92	26%
NBA	Josh Minott	Memphis	1.82	Fr	6'8"	-0.26	72%
NBA	Tyson Etienne	Wichita St.	2.44	So	6'2"	-0.16	46%