Edey and Gohlke Cards Highlight 9 Great Teams Added to Game from 2024

The last Value Add Basketball Game decision of each season for me is which teams to add to the game.

We consider teams that make a lot deeper run than any of their teams already in the game have made, and this year that meant Runner-Up Purdue and Final Four NC State. The 2023 versions of Alabama and UConn are already in the game, and we only add a team if they have not had a team in the game for at least a few years - so even though you can argue both were even better this year than last year, there cards would be about just as good.  

In fact, the 2023 UConn team is currently ranked as the #14 team all-time in my rankings. 

The other thing we look for are schools that do not have any teams in our game to date. We want teams who pulled off at least one tournament win - not counting a 16 vs. 16 First Four game - and by that criteria we added the following six schools with their first team ever in the game - Colorado State, Duquesne, Grand Canyon, Oakland, Utah State and Yale.

You will notice James Madison is also in the extra teams below, but we actually added them during the season and the cards below are just updated slightly based on their full season stats now.

We have calculated all the cards for all nine of these teams and will be adding them to the game. However, or now we simply provide the data below for each player of all info that will end up on the card. You can play using those sheets, but it is less confusing once they are in card form.

We did produce the card version of the two most interesting players of the tournament - the ultimate inside-outside of Purdue's 7-foot-4 repeat Player of the Year Zack Edey, and the deepest outside shooter in Oakland's Jack Gohlke, whose amazing 10 three-pointers stunned Kentucky in what turned out to be John Calpari's last game coaching Kentucky as he is finalizing a deal to take over Arkansas.

Edey's amazing 1-15 offensive rebound range combined with him being the rare player who gets the ball on three of the 8-sided die rolls (5, 7 or 8) to mean he should get the ball more than anyone else in any game. He certainly did that in the championship game last night with one of the all-time outings with 37 points and 10 rebounds, and drawing nine fouls on UConn's two centers in the 60-75 loss.

Gohlke also has an unheard of range on his card - with a 1-7 range on his 20-sided die roll of taking and making a 3-point shot. The great thing for him is that if he misses a shot but the opponent fouls on their card at the same time - he always gets three free throws because every shot on his card is a 3-point attempt. Note that the "dunk" range is actually a team adjustment for level of competition played, so indicates an easy basket and does not really mean Guhlke dunked the ball - but that is the only way he scores a 2-pointer in the game - really more of a layup.