Self's Tulsa Plays Like Kansas in 10th Biggest Blowout

Bill Self's breakthrough season was this Tulsa team that finished #7 in www.kenpom.com including a run to the Elite 8 through a previous No. 1 Cincinnati and a near upset of UNC in the Elite 8. Tulsa has never finished in the top 40 since, as Self then went to Illinois for three dominant seasons and then Kansas for national championships. Self reached No. 7 and the Elite 8 with this team despite not having a single future NBA player.

Tulsa was the second team in a row in our current tournament of 16 new teams to produce one of the biggest 10 blowouts in the history of our Value Add Basketball Game - both by teams now in the American Athletic Conference. In the 245th all-time great men's team game we ever played, Cornbread Maxwell led Charlotte to a 95-68 win over New Mexico for a 27-point margin that was our 10th biggest blowout ever in the game.

They stayed in the top 10 for only one game, as Tulsa's 92-64 win over Washington State topped the margin by one point as the 10th biggest blowout in the history of our game.
 

Margin	All-time great teams	Score	All	Marg	Opponent	Yr
1	Houston - 2021 - Grimes - B12	102	50	52	Princeton	2023
2	Connecticut - 2023 - Sanogo - BE	77	39	38	St. Peter's	2022
3	Villanova - 2018 - Bridges - BE	106	72	34	Creighton	2020
4	Gonzaga - 2017 - Williams-Goss - WCC	81	48	33	UCLA	2006
5	Virginia - 2019 - Guy - ACC	97	64	33	Maryland	2002
6	Duke - 2010 - Scheyer - ACC	89	57	32	Wake For	2005
7	Kansas - 2008 - Chalmers - B12	83	52	31	St. Joe's	2004
8	Memphis - 2008 - Rose - Amer	82	52	30	Louisville	1980
9	Villanova - 2018 - Bridges - BE	89	60	29	Butler	2010
10	Tulsa - 2000 - Shelton - Amer	92	64	28	Wash St.	2008
11	Charlotte - 1977 - "Cornbread" Maxwell - Amer	95	68	27	New Mex	2019

The two performances pushed both teams slightly ahead of Memphis among all our American Athletic teams, at 33rd and 38th in our standings based partly on the cards but also on the results of game so far. We track all results and ratings on this google sheet. These are just the six teams who will be in the American Athletic out of our 200 great teams.

 

Rnk	American Athletic	Year	Player	W	L	Score	Allow	SOS
33	Tulsa	2000	Shelton	1	0	92.0	64.0	-9.0
38	Charlotte	1977	Maxwell	1	0	95.0	68.0	-3.0
44	Memphis	2008	Rose	4	2	68.7	65.8	-0.3
73	Temple	1958	Rodgers	0	0	NG	NG	NG
140	Wichita St.	2013	VanVleet	1	2	64.3	71.3	1.7
179	Florida Atlantic	2023	Davis	0	1	64.0	77.0	-2.0

Here is the box score from Tulsa's blowout win.

 

Pos	Washington St. 2008	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual
1-PG	Taylor Rochestie	6	2	0	0	0	2	1	0	5	6'1,10.4 ppg
2-SG	Derrick Low	16	3	3	1	2	1	1	0	1	6'2,14.1 ppg
3-SF	Kyle Weaver	13	1	4	2	4	6	0	0	3	6'6,12.2 ppg,NBA
4-PF	Robbie Cowgill	10	0	5	0	1	4	0	1	2	6'10,7.3 ppg
5-C	Aron Baynes	7	2	0	1	2	4	0	1	3	6'10,10.4 ppg,NBA
1-PG	Thomas Abercrombie	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'6,1.2 ppg
2-SG	Stephen Sauls	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'3,2.1 ppg
3-SF	Daven Harmeling	6	0	3	0	0	1	0	0	3	6'7,5.6 ppg
4-PF	Caleb Forrest	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'8,3.4 ppg
5-C	Nikola Koprivica	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'7,2.5 ppg
	14 Turnovers	64	8	18	4	9	22	2	2	21
Pos	Tulsa 2000	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual
1-PG	Marcus Hill	19	2	4	5	6	3	2	0	1	6'5,11.2 ppg
2-SG	Greg Harrington	11	0	5	1	2	4	1	0	4	6'2,10.8 ppg
3-SF	David Shelton	16	1	4	5	5	6	0	0	1	6'6,13.5 ppg
4-PF	Eric Coley	14	1	4	3	3	6	2	1	1	6'5,11.3 ppg
5-C	Brandon Kurtz	10	0	3	4	4	7	0	1	3	6'10,11.2 ppg
1-PG	Tony Heard	8	0	3	2	2	1	0	1	1	6'0,9.7 ppg
2-SG	Dante Swanson	8	0	4	0	0	4	0	0	3	5'10,5.5 ppg
3-SF	Antonio Reed	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	5'10,1.8 ppg
4-PF	Kevin Johnson	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'7,2.4 ppg
5-C	Charlie Davis	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'7,2.5 ppg
	6 Turnovers	92	4	30	20	22	34	5	3	17

On the flip side, the blowout loss plunged Washington State to the bottom of our combined Pac-12/MWC conference. Oregon State's earlier win against James Madison moved them up to within one spot of the top of the new combined conference, just behind UNLV's dominant 1991 team.

Rnk	P12/MWC	Year	Player	W	L	Score	Allow	SOS
41	UNLV	1991	Johnson	1	2	72.7	76.3	0.7
42	Oregon St.	1982	Green	1	0	81.0	68.0	-12.0
103	San Diego St.	2011	Leonard	2	2	69.3	71.8	-0.3
126	UNLV	1987	Gilliam	0	1	64.0	82.0	-6.0
138	Nevada	2004	Fazekas	0	0	NG	NG	NG
168	Wyoming	1943	Sailors	0	1	60.0	73.0	1.0
174	San Diego St.	2023	LeDee	0	1	78.0	84.0	-1.0
193	New Mexico	1974	Hardin	0	1	68.0	95.0	-3.0
196	Washington St.	2008	Weaver	0	1	92.0	64.0	0.0

Here is the actual scoresheet with Tulsa dominating from the outset.

American Athletic and Return of Value Add Basketball Rankings

All-American Athletic Conf	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Marcus Sasser	Houston	11.25	123.4	90.4	1-seed, 33-4, nba 25 in 2023
J'Wan Roberts	Houston	9.90	127.9	90.4	1-seed, 33-4, Poss 18.4%
Kendric Davis	Memphis	9.24	111.1	96.1	8-seed, 26-9 (PG), Poss 31.6%
DeAndre Williams	Memphis	8.31	115.9	96.1	8-seed, 26-9, Poss 26.8%
David DeJulius	Cincinnati	8.10	113	98	23-13 (PG), Poss 24%
HM-American Athletic Conf	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Taylor Hendricks	UCF	7.89	119.9	95.8	19-15, nba 9 in 2023
Jalen Cook	Tulane	5.18	106	103.7	20-11 (PG), Poss 29.5%

Above is a very late All-American Athletic Conference team from the 2022-23 season, and we will be updating these and the top 300 players at www.valueaddbasketball.com to go along with the rankings going back to the 2001-02 season. While this system received rave reviews from Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Fox Sports and many others, last season we skipped because we lost the ability to rank all 4000 players who take the court for D1 action.

Friday will be a big test on if Final Four team Florida Atlantic can replace 1-seed Houston in the new conference to give a challenge to the other power Memphis. Florida Atlantic faces Texas A&M in the morning and Memphis faces Villanova in the afternoon in games that might give clues as to how the future clash between those two might go and if either or both are contenders again after Florida Atlantic came within a point of a national championship game. It was a nice farewell for both Houston and UCF as Marcus Sasser (Houston) and Taylor Hendricks (UCF) both went in the first round of the NBA draft as noted.

Obviously one of the conferences most impacted by realignment, so here is the tracker. Memphis was by far the top returning team is an 8-seed last year and ranked 27th before Friday's loss to Villanova. However, as you can see Florida Atlantic brings a returning 9-seed that went to the Final Four makes for the logical new championship, but Pomeroy is pretty high on North Texas, UAB and Tulane as well.

Team	2023	2024	2025	Seed23	Rnk24
Charlotte	CUSA	Amer	Amer		118
Cincinnati	Amer	B12	B12		36
East Carolina	Amer	Amer	Amer		193
Florida Atlantic	CUSA	Amer	Amer	9	48
Houston	Amer	B12	B12	1	2
Memphis	Amer	Amer	Amer	8	27
North Texas	CUSA	Amer	Amer		73
Rice	CUSA	Amer	Amer		219
SMU	Amer	Amer	ACC		88
South Florida	Amer	Amer	Amer		164
Temple	Amer	Amer	Amer		165
Tulane	Amer	Amer	Amer		98
Tulsa	Amer	Amer	Amer		207
UAB	CUSA	Amer	Amer		93
UCF	Amer	B12	B12		66
UTSA	CUSA	Amer	Amer		287
Wichita St.	Amer	Amer	Amer		101

Better late than never - this is one of 32 lists of All-Conference teams based on the "resurrected" Value Add Basketball rankings at www.valueaddbasketball.com. The other 31 releases of Conference teams will all include this same explanation for the rest of the blog, including the 10 returning All-Americans and top 60 players from last season listed further down.

This paragraph is of interest to stat nerds only. The offensive ratings were easier to recreate, since the basis was to pull hundreds of players ranked as the most efficient last season (AdjO at www.kenpom.com) and adjusting their figures for their percent of possessions. A player who can produce about 1.2 points per time he has the ball who also gets the ball 25% of the time against tough competition and as part of a strong defense can be All-American level, but a player who doesn't get the ball nearly as often but produces even more at 1.3 points per possession can still be All-Conference even if fans feel other players handling and shooting the ball more are better due to higher points scored per game.

The new simplified system weighs their ability to produce points against the Adjusted Defense (AdjD) - that is how many points per 100 trips would their team allow against an average D1 team. This accounts both for defense and for level of competition. We also note if a player is a Point Guard, the most important position on the court.

The resulting "Value" listed in the third column is the Value Add of points the player would improve an average team over if he could not play if a decent replacement took his place. Zach Edey was by far the most valuable player in the country last year at 13.17 meaning typically he would turn a 65-70 loss for a team into a 72-64 win - a 13 point swing. The notes off to the first indicated the team's record, their seed if they made the tournament, and then if they went to the NBA in the 2023 draft or are projected to go in the 2024 or 2025 draft.

1st and 2nd Team Returning All-Americans; and Top 60 Players from Last Season

 

The table below is the list of the 30 most valuable players in college basketball for the 2022-23 season according to our simplified www.valueaddbasketball.com rankings. Obviously most of these top players finished their eligibility or went pro so are no longer playing. However, if we made this our All-American teams of returning players including transfers at their new school the headline would be from Creighton.

1st Team Returning All-Americans - Value Add Basketball calculates that Creighton now has two of the three most valuable players in 2022-23 in returning Ryan Kalkbrenner and Utah State transfer Steven Ashworth. Ironically, Thursday it was Colorado State that handed Creighton its first loss - a team that Ashworth had dominated four of seven times in conference games at Utah State. The other 1st Team All-Americans based on last year's Value Add would be J'Wan Roberts returning for Houston, and then Tylor Perry who transferred from North Texas to Kansas State.

Most Valuable Player for 2nd Year. However, the far and away Most Valuable Player in the Country could challenge Anthony Davis, Jon Scheyer and Zion Williamson for as the most Valuable college player of the century in the All-Time Value Add Basketball Rankings - Zach Edey who was almost 2 points better than anyone in the country last year at Purdue and has them at No. 1 this season.

2nd Team Returning All-Americans - The 6th most valuable returning player according to Value Add is Marquette Point Guard Tyler Kolek. He would be joined on a second team All-American squad of returning players by Tennessee's Santiago Vescovi, Texas transfer from Oral Roberts Max Abmas, Duke's Ryan Young, Arizona's Azuolas Tubelis and finally Cam Spencer, who transferred from Rutgers to UConn.

In all, 18 of the top 30 players finished their college careers, leaving those 10 returning All-Americans and then two other players - JaKobe Coles of TCU and USC's Boogie Ellis.
 

All-American 1st Team	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Zach Edey	Purdue	13.17	125.9	94.5	1-seed, 29-6, nba 58 in 2024
Adama Sanogo (gone)	Connecticut	11.37	122.6	90.9	4-seed, 31-8, Poss 26.4%
Marcus Sasser (gone)	Houston	11.25	123.4	90.4	1-seed, 33-4, nba 25 in 2023
Ryan Kalkbrenner	Creighton	10.80	133.4	93.2	6-seed, 24-13, Poss 19.4%
Steven Ashworth (Creigh)	Utah St.	10.72	127.7	98.9	10-seed, 26-9 (PG), Poss 21.6%
All-American 2nd Team	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Tylor Perry (K-State)	North Texas	10.37	124.3	94.1	31-7, Poss 24.4%
Brandon Miller (gone)	Alabama	10.23	117.0	88.2	1-seed, 31-6, nba 2 in 2023
Xavier Castaneda (gone)	Akron	9.94	121.9	103.4	22-11 (PG), Poss 29.4%
J'Wan Roberts	Houston	9.90	127.9	90.4	1-seed, 33-4, Poss 18.4%
Jordan Hawkins (gone)	Connecticut	9.88	121.2	90.9	4-seed, 31-8, nba 14 in 2023
All-American 3rd Team	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Jaime Jaquez (gone)	UCLA	9.80	113.1	88	2-seed, 31-6, nba 18 in 2023
Jalen Pickett (gone)	Penn St.	9.66	118.7	101.1	10-seed, 23-14 (PG), nba 32 in 2023
Jordan Walker (gone)	UAB	9.64	114.7	97.9	29-10 (PG), Poss 30.6%
Tyler Kolek	Marquette	9.63	118	96.7	2-seed, 29-7 (PG), Poss 24.1%
Santiago Vescovi	Tennessee	9.52	114.2	87.5	4-seed, 25-11 (PG), Poss 18.8%
All-American 4th Team	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Max Abmas (Texas)	Oral Roberts	9.47	120.2	102.2	12-seed, 30-5 (PG), Poss 27.6%
Trayce Jackson-Davis (g)	Indiana	9.45	118.5	97.2	4-seed, 23-12, nba 57 in 2023
Ryan Young	Duke	9.37	128.7	93.9	5-seed, 27-9, Poss 18.3%
Kendric Davis (grad)	Memphis	9.24	111.1	96.1	8-seed, 26-9 (PG), Poss 31.6%
Drew Timme (grad)	Gonzaga	9.21	119.6	99.3	3-seed, 31-6, Poss 30.6%
All-American 5th Team	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Markquis Nowell (gone)	Kansas St.	8.92	111	95	3-seed, 26-10 (PG), Poss 27.6%
Souley Boum (gone)	Xavier	8.87	119.2	98.6	3-seed, 27-10 (PG), Poss 21.2%
Oscar Tshiebwe (gone)	Kentucky	8.83	122.6	98.8	6-seed, 22-12, Poss 24.5%
Terence Lewis (gone)	Louisiana	8.74	131.2	102.9	13-seed, 26-8, Poss 20.3%
Darius McGhee (gone)	Liberty	8.68	114.5	97.5	27-9, Poss 33.4%
All-American 6th Team	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Azuolas Tubelis	Arizona	8.68	116.1	96.3	2-seed, 28-7, Poss 28.7%
Cam Spencer (UConn)	Rutgers	8.66	119.4	90.8	19-15, Poss 19.8%
Sir'Jabari Rice (gone)	Texas	8.66	116.3	92.1	2-seed, 29-9, Poss 23.4%
JaKobe Coles	TCU	8.64	118.4	94.3	6-seed, 22-13, Poss 23.4%
Boogie Ellis	USC	8.56	113.3	97.5	10-seed, 22-11 (PG), Poss 25.7%

College Hoops 6th Best Conference History - American Athletic Conference

The American Athletic Conference ranks 6th of the 7 great conferences - no shame at all considering 25 conferences do not feature six all-time great teams. Our ratings are based on how the top 6 teams in each great conference have played against some of the greatest college basketball teams in history in the Value Add College Basketball Game (see details at the bottom). .

The conference formed recently when the Big East broke into football and basketball-only schools, and they ended up putting together six teams in particular with incredible history. So far in our game the six teams have gone 13-9 against some of the greatest teams in college basketball history. Obviously they will be hurt by Houston and Cincinnati moving to the Big 12 along with Central Florida (who does not have an all-time great team). 

The top two teams are virtually tied with ratings of 8.7 and 8.5 in Oscar "Big O" Robertson's 1960 Cincinnati squad being chased by Elvin Hayes 1968 Houston team that handed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar their only loss.

In this conference the 20th century teams are currently in the top 3 spots, but that could change as Hakeem Olajuwon's 1983 squad is barely leading Derrick Rose's 2008 Memphis team - both of which had heart breaking national championships slip away in their real season.

Rnk	Great Team	Year	Key Player	W	L	Pts	Allow	Rate
	American Athletic top 6			13	9	69.8	68.5	3.5
1	Cincinnati	1960	Oscar Robertson	1	1	69.5	73.5	8.7
2	Houston	1968	Elvin Hayes	3	1	73.0	63.8	8.5
3	Houston	1983	Hakeem Olajuwon	2	1	70.7	65.0	4.1
4	Memphis	2008	Derrick Rose	4	2	68.7	65.8	3.9
5	Cincinnati	2002	Jason Maxiell	2	2	72.8	71.5	1.9
6	Wichita St.	2013	Fred VanVleet	1	2	64.3	71.3	-6.4

We invented the Value Add Basketball Game, and since then have grown it to to 135 teams of all-time great teams and players. We have played 188 games to date, and 63,000 unique visitors have clicked on the game. 

Seven current conferences have at least six all-time great teams in the game. We decided to rank those conferences based on the average rating of their top six teams so far in our games against other teams.

Click on the game to play yourself - it contains everything you need to play the Value Add Basketball game, which lets you pit any of 136 great all-time college teams against each other. To pick your two teams it is best to click on this Google doc and print the pages of the teams you want (each team is one page). I track my games on this google sheet, but play your own for free!

Rnk	Great Team	Year	Key Player	W	L	Pts	Allow	Rate
	American Athletic top 6			13	9	69.8	68.5	3.5
1	Cincinnati	1960	Oscar Robertson	1	1	69.5	73.5	8.7
2	Houston	1968	Elvin Hayes	3	1	73.0	63.8	8.5
3	Houston	1983	Hakeem Olajuwon	2	1	70.7	65.0	4.1
4	Memphis	2008	Derrick Rose	4	2	68.7	65.8	3.9
5	Cincinnati	2002	Jason Maxiell	2	2	72.8	71.5	1.9
6	Wichita St.	2013	Fred VanVleet	1	2	64.3	71.3	-6.4

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%