Our next game features Cedric Maxwell (Cornbread) and his 1977 Final Four Charlotte on page 20 from our List A of teams and John Calipari's 1996 Final Four Massachusetts team on Page 24 of our List D teams. We preview the cards and game below, and then list the top offenses, defenses and other rankings of teams through 250 Value Add Basketball Games below that..png)
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While all 200 teams are set and tested after playing 250 games since inventing Value Add Basketball Game five years ago, we mentioned that while the scoresheets start with each player having 2 points out the outset and a 20-20 tie, you can slightly tweak before starting the game. Our suggestion is that if any of the reserves have fewer than a 2 point per game average, that you start them at zero and add a little to some of the starters. Below is an example starting box score, and then notes I've added on the cards, for how you might do this for both Charlotte and UMass.
The two are both similar in that they each have two bench players who averaged below 2 points per game, so we took away their beginning of game 2-pointer. That lowers the total points for the teams to 16 instead of 20, so we need to add 4 points to the starters totals. What makes most sense to us is added a second 2-point shot to each of the centers - since they were the most dominant player on each of their teams - so Cornbread Maxwell and Marcus Camby both get an extra buckets to start with four points. Then we take the two next scorers who might hit an occasional 3-pointers, and change their 2-pointer to a 3-pointer. As long as the total is 20 points you can make these common sense examples. Remember each players "Stamina" number is the number of possessions they would typically play MINUS 11 since we are assuming each player scored due to playing 11 out of 22 possessions before our first roll to play out the final 44 possessions of the game.
Below that, we show you the top 5 team through our first 250 games in points scored, wins, points allowed, toughest schedule, etc.
| Starting totals w/ 44 pos | Pts | 3pt | 2pt | FT | Att | Reb | Stl | Blk | Fl | Season Stats |
---|
| Bottom must add up to | 20 | ? | ? | 0 | 0 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 10 | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |
Pos | Charlotte 1977 | Pts | 3pt | 2pt | FT | Att | Reb | Stl | Blk | Fl | Pts |
1-PG | Melvin Watkins | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6'3, 9.6 ppg |
2-SG | Chad Kinch | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6'4, 15.4 ppg, NBA |
3-SF | Kevin King | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6'7, 11.1 ppg |
4-PF | Lew Massey | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6'6, 19.7 ppg |
5-C | Cedric Maxwell | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6'8, 22.3 ppg, NBA |
1-PG | Jeff Gruber | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6'2, 5.6 ppg |
2-SG | Lee Whitfield | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6'2, 0.6 ppg |
3-SF | Mike Hester | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6'7, 3.1 ppg |
4-PF | Ken Angel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6'8, 1.1 ppg |
5-C | Phil Scott | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6'8, 3.1 ppg |
| 3 turnovers | 20 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 10 | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |
Pos | Massachusetts 1996 | Pts | 3pt | 2pt | FT | Att | Reb | Stl | Blk | Fl | Pts |
1-PG | Edgar Padilla | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8.9 Pts, 3.5 Reb, 6.7 Ast |
2-SG | Carmelo Travieso | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 12.6 Pts, 3.2 Reb, 2.1 Ast |
3-SF | Donta Bright | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 14.5 Pts, 5.8 Reb, 1.7 Ast |
4-PF | Dana Dingle | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10.1 Pts, 7.4 Reb, 1.5 Ast |
5-C | Marcus Camby | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 20.5 Pts, 8.2 Reb, 1.8 Ast-NBA |
1-PG | Charlton Clarke | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1.4 Pts, 0.5 Reb, 0.7 Ast |
2-SG | Tyrone Weeks | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5.8 Pts, 5.2 Reb, 0.4 Ast |
3-SF | Rigoberto Nunez | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.5 Pts, 1.0 Reb, 0.3 Ast |
4-PF | Inus Norville | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2.4 Pts, 2.1 Reb, 0.0 Ast |
5-C | Ted Cottrell | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.9 Pts, 0.9 Reb, 0.0 Ast |
| 3 turnovers | 20 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 10 | |
Most Wins
We developed the 21st Century teams first and were playing teams within conferences at first before adding teams from the 1900s. Once we figured out how to develop the cards for teams before www.kenpom.com, UCLA went 6-0 to win the title. However, Auburn's 2019 team has already played several SEC games before
Bill Walton's UCLA team was even invented - so they have the most wins at 8-1 even though they rank 31st and UCLA is No. 1 at 6-0.
Best Offenses
Loyola Marymount played by far at the fastest pace of any team in the game, with 26 extra possessions, meaning you need two scoresheets to play those possessions starting from 20-20 at that point. Loyola's all offense no defense resulted in a 138-116 win - but still leaving Kentucky with the No. 1 offensive average for one game. Loyola is No. 2 after playing again. The most impressive of course is Houston, which is 5th in average points and 1st in average points allowed. As you can see, Kentucky is last in defense having had to play Loyola.
Result # | Card# | Best Offense | Year | Star | W | L | Off | Rnk | Def | Rnk |
177 | 124 | Kentucky | 1970 | Dan Issel | 0 | 1 | 116.0 | 1 | 138.0 | 200 |
52 | 100 | Loyola Marymount | 1990 | Bo Kimble | 1 | 2 | 112.3 | 2 | 108.3 | 199 |
92 | 51 | Duke | 1986 | Johnny Dawkins | 0 | 1 | 106.0 | 3 | 108.0 | 197 |
186 | 175 | Miami | 1965 | Rick Berry | 0 | 1 | 104.0 | 4 | 108.0 | 198 |
49 | 65 | Houston | 2021 | Quentin Grimes | 1 | 0 | 102.0 | 5 | 50.0 | 1 |
132 | 133 | Washington | 2006 | Brandon Roy | 0 | 1 | 98.0 | 6 | 99.0 | 194 |
40 | 117 | Charlotte | 1977 | Cedric "Cornbread" Maxwell | 1 | 0 | 95.0 | 7 | 68.0 | 43 |
187 | 193 | Stephen f austin | 2016 | Thomas Walkup | 0 | 1 | 94.0 | 8 | 95.0 | 192 |
35 | 74 | Tulsa | 2000 | David Shelton | 1 | 0 | 92.0 | 9 | 64.0 | 19 |
37 | 105 | Rutgers | 1976 | Phil Sellers | 2 | 0 | 90.5 | 10 | 75.5 | 110 |
Best Defense - fewest points allowed
UConn 2023 just had the best defensive performance in the game, holding St. Peter's 2022 in the 30s to pull their season average down to 58 points per game.
Result # | Card# | Not in Current Tour | Year | Star | W | L | Off | Rnk | Def | Rnk |
49 | 65 | Houston | 2021 | Quentin Grimes | 1 | 0 | 102.0 | 5 | 50.0 | 1 |
29 | 83 | New Mexico St. | 1970 | Jimmy Collins | 1 | 0 | 77.0 | 59 | 54.0 | 2 |
122 | 157 | DePaul | 1945 | George Mikan | 0 | 1 | 51.0 | 198 | 55.0 | 3 |
8 | 53 | Kansas | 2008 | Mario Chalmers | 5 | 1 | 74.7 | 78 | 56.0 | 4 |
14 | 7 | Connecticut | 2023 | Adama Sanogo | 2 | 0 | 78.5 | 49 | 58.0 | 5 |
5 | 9 | Indiana | 1976 | Scott May | 3 | 1 | 71.3 | 110 | 59.8 | 6 |
34 | 71 | Temple | 1958 | Guy Rodgers | 1 | 0 | 72.0 | 105 | 60.0 | 7 |
86 | 81 | Marquette | 1977 | Butch Lee | 1 | 1 | 66.0 | 159 | 61.5 | 8 |
1 | 1 | UCLA | 1972 | Bill Walton | 6 | 0 | 72.0 | 106 | 62.0 | 9 |
84 | 59 | Pittsburgh | 2009 | DeJuan Blair | 1 | 3 | 60.0 | 187 | 62.3 | 10 |
Toughest schedule
The scoring averages are not adjusted for opponents' faced. Here are the 10 toughest schedules faced so far. Big Big O -
Oscar Robertson, and his Cincinnati 1960 team has played only top 20 teams. They lost to the eventual champs UCLA 1972 and 4th ranked intra state foe Ohio State in close games, then beat 19th ranked Gonzaga 2017.
Meanwhile Arkansas lost two tight games against the great Kentucky 2006 and Auburn 2019 - then won their only out of conference foe in UConn 1999.
You can see why these teams rank 27th and 12th despite being 1-2 in our games.
Top 2 Teams in Each Conference Based on 2024-25 Realignment
Finally we ranked teams by their 2025 conference. We grouped all the teams whose conference does not have at least 5 great teams in the game into "Other," with New Mexico State moving up to 29th with a big blow out in our current tournament and the historic Texas Western team that stunned Kentucky in the first battle of an all-black line-up to start a title game - fitting against an all-white Kentucky team under Adolph Rupp.
Result # | Card# | Not in Current Tour | Year | Star | W | L | SoS | Conf |
76 | 35 | Loyola-Chicago | 1963 | Jerry Harkness | 0 | 1 | -2.0 | A10 |
85 | 54 | Massachusetts | 1996 | Marcus Camby | 1 | 0 | -15.0 | A10 |
3 | 4 | Duke | 2001 | Shane Battier | 3 | 1 | 4.8 | ACC |
7 | 13 | North Carolina | 1982 | Michael Jordan | 5 | 1 | 4.0 | ACC |
34 | 71 | Temple | 1958 | Guy Rodgers | 1 | 0 | -8.0 | Amer |
35 | 74 | Tulsa | 2000 | David Shelton | 1 | 0 | -9.0 | Amer |
1 | 1 | UCLA | 1972 | Bill Walton | 6 | 0 | -0.5 | B10 |
4 | 10 | Ohio St. | 1960 | Jerry Lucas | 2 | 1 | 4.7 | B10 |
2 | 17 | Kansas | 1997 | Paul Pierce | 5 | 0 | -1.0 | B12 |
6 | 14 | Houston | 1968 | Elvin Hayes | 3 | 1 | 1.3 | B12 |
13 | 26 | Villanova | 2018 | Mikal Bridges | 7 | 2 | 0.1 | BE |
14 | 7 | Connecticut | 2023 | Adama Sanogo | 2 | 0 | -11.0 | BE |
29 | 83 | New Mexico St. | 1970 | Jimmy Collins | 1 | 0 | -11.0 | Low |
53 | 111 | UTEP (Texas Western) | 1966 | Bobby Joe Hill | 2 | 1 | 6.7 | Low |
43 | 11 | UNLV | 1991 | Larry Johnson | 1 | 2 | 0.7 | P12/MWC |
44 | 56 | Oregon St. | 1982 | A.C. Green | 1 | 0 | -12.0 | P12/MWC |
9 | 5 | Kentucky | 1996 | Antoine Walker | 2 | 1 | 3.3 | SEC |
12 | 20 | Arkansas | 1994 | Corliss Williamson | 1 | 2 | 8.0 | SEC |
10 | 25 | San Francisco | 1956 | Bill Russell | 3 | 1 | 1.0 | WCC |
19 | 21 | Gonzaga | 2017 | Nigel Williams-Goss | 3 | 3 | 3.0 | WCC |
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