Bracket of Great Teams; Stat Leaders Nash, Allen, Cowens, Webber, Howard

 The first four Value Add Basketball Game of our "Teams with Great All-Time Players" all have been decided by fewer than seven points. Our top two seeds advanced to the Elite 8 - but both barely avoided upsets. Because it is a 26-team tournament some teams still need to win two more games to make the Elite 8. We thought there was a big gap between the top eight seeds and the worse seeds, but the narrow wins question that premise.

We also list the leading performers in points, blocked shots, steals and rebounds. The best overall performances were Florida State's Dave Cowens (6.0 blocks, 6.0 steals, 9.0 rebounds), Michigan's Chris Webber (5.0 blocks, 3.0 steals, 8.0 rebounds) and Louisiana Tech's Karl Malone (21.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 2.5 steals). The only two averaging more points than Malone's 21.0 points per game were Santa Clara's Steve Nash (33.0) and UConn's Ray Allen (30.0). 

The following are notable leaders.

 

Shot Block Leaders	Team	Gms	Blk
Dave Cowens	Florida St. 1968	2	6.0
Chris Webber	Michigan 1993	1	5.0
Travis Knight	Connecticut 1996	1	4.0
Robert Parish	Centenary (LA) 1976	1	4.0
Steals Leaders	Team	Gms	Stl
Dave Cowens	Florida St. 1968	2	6.0
Ray Allen	Connecticut 1996	1	4.0
Chris Webber	Michigan 1993	1	3.0
Karl Malone	Louisiana Tech 1985	2	2.5
Robert Parish	Centenary (LA) 1976	1	2.0
Rebound Leaders	Team	Gms	Reb
Juwan Howard	Michigan 1993	1	13.0
Robert Parish	Centenary (LA) 1976	1	10.0
Dave Cowens	Florida St. 1968	2	9.0
Chris Webber	Michigan 1993	1	8.0
Karl Malone	Louisiana Tech 1985	2	7.5
Scoring Leaders	Team	Gms	Pts
Steve Nash	Santa Clara 1996	1	33.0
Ray Allen	Connecticut 1996	1	30.0
Karl Malone	Louisiana Tech 1985	2	21.0
Robert Godbolt	Louisiana Tech 1985	2	17.5
Jalen Rose	Michigan 1993	1	17.0
Doron Sheffer	Connecticut 1996	1	17.0
Dave Cowens	Florida St. 1968	2	15.5
Barry McLeod	Centenary (LA) 1976	1	15.0
Kirk King	Connecticut 1996	1	14.0
Marlon Garnett	Santa Clara 1996	1	13.0