Big 12 Best Top to Bottom and the Return of Value Add Basketball Rankings

All-Big 12 Conf	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Markquis Nowell	Kansas St.	8.92	111	95	3-seed, 26-10 (PG), Poss 27.6%
Sir'Jabari Rice	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%
Dylan Disu	Texas	8.48	119.1	92.1	2-seed, 29-9, Poss 20.3%
Kalib Boone	Oklahoma St.	8.12	112.8	91.9	20-16, Poss 24.5%
2nd T-Big 12 Conf	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Osun Osunniyi	Iowa St.	8.06	112.9	91	6-seed, 19-14, Poss 23.1%
Brock Cunningham	Texas	7.89	128.6	92.1	2-seed, 29-9, Poss 13.4%
Adam Flagler	Baylor	7.31	120.4	101.6	3-seed, 23-11, Poss 22.9%
Jalen Wilson	Kansas	7.06	106.2	91.8	1-seed, 28-8, nba 51 in 2023
Jalen Bridges	Baylor	7.03	124.9	101.6	3-seed, 23-11, Poss 17.3%
HM-Big 12 Conf	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
LJ Cryer	Baylor	6.33	118.1	101.6	3-seed, 23-11, nba 49 in 2024
Erik Stevenson	West Virginia	5.83	107.9	98.1	9-seed, 19-15, Poss 28.9%
Keyonte George	Baylor	3.27	102.5	101.6	3-seed, 23-11, nba 16 in 2023

Above is a very late All-Big 12 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.

While we will note in the next post that the Big East has the most talent at the top, which played out in the best tournament of any conference last year, the Big 12 is the best top to bottom. It is the only conference in which every team is in the top 100, so no team has the occasional easier game like Big East teams do when they play DePaul or Georgetown - neither in the top 150.

The stability of replacing Texas, which had flirted strongly with the Big Ten and Pac-12 and would not accept equal revenue distribution from the rest of the Big 12, with the Brigham Young program that has long been coveted may make realignment a long-term blessing. Like Notre Dame being coveted for the national Catholic following, the BYU as the flagship for Latter Day Saints members cannot be overstated - and it doesn't hurt that BYU is now ranked 12th by Pomeroy.

For Texas departure to also open a gold plated hoops power like Arizona in addition to Utah and Colorado whose entire campus is lit up with athletics in light of Deion Sanders - it looks like the Big 12 could stay atop the basketball conference rankings for a long time.

If the 2025 alignment were in place last year, the Big 12 would have had five 3-seeds or better, losing Texas but adding Arizona and Houston to Baylor, Kansas and K-State.

Team	2023	2024	2025	Seed23	Rnk24
Arizona	P12	P12	B12	2	4
Arizona St.	P12	P12	B12	11	113
Baylor	B12	B12	B12	3	11
BYU	WCC	B12	B12		12
Cincinnati	Amer	B12	B12		36
Colorado	P12	P12	B12		34
Houston	Amer	B12	B12	1	2
Iowa St.	B12	B12	B12	6	17
Kansas	B12	B12	B12	1	7
Kansas St.	B12	B12	B12	3	40
Oklahoma	B12	B12	SEC		24
Oklahoma St.	B12	B12	B12		90
TCU	B12	B12	B12	6	25
Texas	B12	B12	SEC	2	32
Texas Tech	B12	B12	B12		58
UCF	Amer	B12	B12		66
Utah	P12	P12	B12		46
West Virginia	B12	B12	B12	9	97

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 5th Best Conference History - Pac-12 (2nd Best with All UCLA Teams)

Going purely by the mathematical ratings, the top six Pac-12 teams in our game rank as the 5th best conference of all time. 

However, subjectively it is clearly the 2nd best conference of all time for the following reasons:

1. In the game we made a point of only including a couple of teams from each program, and trying not to include teams from the same school within a few years of each other. We could have easily included another half dozen teams from the John Wooden years that would have made the Pac-12 the second greatest basketball conference of all time. The same applies in our all-time Statis-Pro Baseball Game where we only include a few New York Yankees teams - and UCLA is the Yankees of college basketball.

2. The 2nd through 5th greatest conferences of all time based on our rankings are all within 1.2 points of each other anyway, so a virtual tie, 

3. The top six Pac-12 teams in the game have dominated all-time great teams for an 18-6 mark, but for some reason several surprise blowout losses among those 6 losses - such as Kareem's UCLA team getting shocked by double digits again 1980 DePaul, have held the overall rating down just a bit.

Bill Walton's 1972 UCLA team so far has been 10 points better than the rest of the conference and in fact ranks #1 of our 135 great all-time teams. Their 6-0 mark was in the tournament of our first 96 teams, where they took the title with a win against Michael Jordan's UNC. 

In addition to the great UCLA teams of the past, that 2017 Oregon team was the best in the country - and I believe would have been the clear No. 1 if their one big guy Chris Boucher (a star) was not injured at the end of the regular season to miss March Madness.

Arizona's great teams include the 1997 squad that beat Kentucky for the national title. I also really meant to include Utah's more recent team with Delon Wright, the subject of 2014 articles on my Value Add basketball ratings system, but forgot to make the team so we actually have 135 teams instead of 136. 

Rnk	Great Team	Year	Key Player	W	L	Pts	Allow	Rate
	Top 6 Pac-12			18	6	74.6	71.2	4.6
1	UCLA	1972	Bill Walton	6	0	72.0	62.0	15.5
2	UCLA	1967	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	2	1	83.0	87.0	5.6
3	Oregon	2017	Dillon Brooks	4	3	71.9	69.9	2.7
4	Arizona	2015	Stanley Johnson	3	1	75.3	70.5	2.6
5	Arizona	1997	Mike Bibby	2	1	68.7	71.0	1.0
6	USC	2021	Evan Mobley	1	0	77.0	67.0	0.0
7	Colorado	2021	McKinley Wright	1	0	86.0	82.0	-0.6
8	Utah	1998	Andre Miller	0	1	69.0	79.0	-4.6
9	UCLA	2006	Jordan Farmar	2	3	66.0	72.4	-5.2
10	California	1959	Jack Grout	0	1	69.0	71.0	-5.8
11	Arizona St.	1980	Byron Scott	0	1	64.0	79.0	-10.0

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!

Top Shooting Guards in College Basketball This Season

 In Value Add Basketball we consider the team's "shooting guard" the player who behind only the team's point guard in assists, but compared to the other three players on the court typically has fewer defensive rebounds, blocked shots and less height. A great center or power forward will typically have even better raw numbers than a great point guard, because the guards typically need to get the ball to a power forward or center close to the basket for a closer shot.  (for a summary of the top players at each position, click here).

Because www.valueaddbasketball.com calculates how many points per game a player improves his team compared to if a typical replacement player took his place, the raw value add is adjusted by position since the replacement player would be at the same position. Therefore, once the formulas are run, and shooting guard's raw value add is increased by multiplying it by 1.10 to get the result you see below and at www.valueaddbasketball.com.

In general, freshmen guards in particular make so many mistakes (turnovers, bad shots etc.) the first half of the season that they do not rank nearly as high as more experienced guards. However, they tend to improve more at the end of the season, so we watch for breakout freshmen first when looking at brackets. Therefore we start with the 10 most valuable freshmen shooting guards in college basketball, starting with the best freshman shooting guard TyTy Washington of Kentucky. His value add of 6.34 indicates there is a better than 50/50 chance Kentucky would have LOST any game that they won by fewer than seven points. 

In his case, he improves the Kentucky's offense by 4.90 points per game, while his defensive rating of -1.44 indicates he takes three to four points more away from the opposing team then a typical replacement shooting guard. Here are the most valuable 10 freshmen power forwards through games of February 15. Arizona's Dalen Terry is one of three Arizona players we would name to our All-American freshmen team - and his defense of -2.35 is by far the best for any shooting guard.

Rnk	Top Freshmen SG	Team	VA5	Conf	HtText	Cl
15	TyTy Washington #3	Kentucky	6.34	SEC	6'3"	Fr
20	Dalen Terry #4	Arizona	5.65	P12	6'7"	Fr
38	Trevor Keels #1	Duke	4.72	ACC	6'4"	Fr
50	Terquavion Smith #0	N.C. State	4.35	ACC	6'4"	Fr
60	Steele Venters #2	Eastern Washington	4.18	BSky	6'7"	Fr
62	Reyne Smith #2	Charleston	4.06	CAA	6'2"	Fr
65	Nate Heise #0	Northern Iowa	4.02	MVC	6'4"	Fr
67	Malaki Branham #22	Ohio St.	4	B10	6'5"	Fr
71	Brandon Murray #0	LSU	3.95	SEC	6'5"	Fr
73	JD Davison #3	Alabama	3.91	SEC	6'3"	Fr

Top overall SG

One reason we love running these numbers is to find truly elite players who will not be noticed because their team either does not get enough TV coverage or is just not winning enough games to draw attention. The biggest case this year comes from teh 13-10 Washington in the Pac-12. We calculte that Washington would be 4-19 instead of 13-10 if Terrell Brown were not on the team, and for us that makes him the truly deserving 1st team All-American shooting guard who will not get any voters for it.

The race for 2nd and 3rd team All-American shooting buard is much closer.  TyTy Washington should be considered because it is truly unusual for a freshman guard to be anywhere near this high - but K-State, St. John's, BYU, Tennessee and the player who may have improved his team the most this year from last year - Alondes Williams of Wake Forest.

 

Rnk	Top Shooting Guards (2)	Team	VA5	Conf	HtText	Cl
1	Terrell Brown #23	Washington	10.42	P12	6'3"	Sr
2	Nijel Pack #24	Kansas St.	9.39	B12	6'0	So
3	Posh Alexander #0	St. John's	8.8	BE	6'0	So
4	Alex Barcello #13	BYU	8.69	WCC	6'2"	Sr
5	Santiago Vescovi #25	Tennessee	8.65	SEC	6'3"	Jr
6	Alondes Williams #31	Wake Forest	8.15	ACC	6'5"	Sr
7	Garrett Sturtz #3	Drake	7.66	MVC	6'3"	Sr
8	Justin Moore #5	Villanova	7.53	BE	6'4"	Jr
9	Jaden Ivey #23	Purdue	7.05	B10	6'4"	So
10	Brad Davison #34	Wisconsin	6.97	B10	6'4"	Sr
11	Ryan Rollins #5	Toledo	6.72	MAC	6'4"	So
12	JD Notae #1	Arkansas	6.66	SEC	6'2"	Sr
13	Jaden Shackelford #5	Alabama	6.63	SEC	6'3"	Jr
14	Josh Jefferson #11	Middle Tennessee	6.39	CUSA	6'2"	Sr
15	TyTy Washington #3	Kentucky	6.34	SEC	6'3"	Fr
16	Eli Brooks #55	Michigan	6.17	B10	6'1"	Sr
17	Umoja Gibson #2	Oklahoma	6	B12	6'1"	Sr
18	Alfonso Plummer #11	Illinois	5.73	B10	6'1"	Sr
19	Hunter Cattoor #0	Virginia Tech	5.71	ACC	6'3"	Jr
20	Dalen Terry #4	Arizona	5.65	P12	6'7"	Fr
21	Reece Beekman #2	Virginia	5.62	ACC	6'3"	So
22	Buddy Boeheim #35	Syracuse	5.56	ACC	6'6"	Sr
23	Adam Flagler #10	Baylor	5.5	B12	6'3"	Jr
24	Michael Jones #13	Davidson	5.49	A10	6'5"	Jr
25	Grayson Murphy #2	Belmont	5.46	OVC	6'3"	Sr
26	Amorie Archibald #3	Louisiana Tech	5.41	CUSA	6'3"	Sr
27	Gibson Jimerson #24	Saint Louis	5.4	A10	6'5"	Fr
28	Mason Archambault #11	South Dakota	5.25	Sum	6'0	Sr
29	Sean McNeil #22	West Virginia	5.23	B12	6'3"	Sr
30	Rasir Bolton #45	Gonzaga	5.11	WCC	6'3"	Sr
31	Jabari Rice #10	New Mexico St.	5.05	WAC	6'4"	Jr
32	D'Moi Hodge #55	Cleveland St.	5.03	Horz	6'4"	Sr
33	Spencer Jones #14	Stanford	4.96	P12	6'7"	Jr
34	James Reese V #0	South Carolina	4.93	SEC	6'4"	Sr
35	Rudi Williams #3	Coastal Carolina	4.92	SB	6'2"	Sr
36	Desmond Cambridge #4	Nevada	4.88	MWC	6'4"	Sr
37	Cameron Tyson #5	Seattle	4.87	WAC	6'2"	So
38	Trevor Keels #1	Duke	4.72	ACC	6'4"	Fr
39	Davion Warren #2	Texas Tech	4.7	B12	6'6"	Sr
40	CJ Fleming #25	Bellarmine	4.7	ASun	6'0	Sr
41	Joe Bryant #4	Norfolk St.	4.62	MEAC	6'1"	Sr
42	Logan Johnson #0	Saint Mary's	4.54	WCC	6'2"	Sr
43	Demaree King #1	Jacksonville St.	4.52	ASun	6'0	Jr
44	Caleb Grill #2	Iowa St.	4.42	B12	6'3"	Jr
45	Courtney Ramey #3	Texas	4.41	B12	6'3"	Sr
46	Alex Hunter #10	Furman	4.41	SC	5'11"	Sr
47	Isaiah Wong #2	Miami FL	4.4	ACC	6'3"	So
48	Michael Forrest #11	Florida Atlantic	4.37	CUSA	6'1"	Jr
49	Tyler Harris #14	Memphis	4.36	Amer	5'9"	Sr
50	Terquavion Smith #0	N.C. State	4.35	ACC	6'4"	Fr

Top Small Forwards in College Basketball This Year

Note: While www.kenpom.com and www.valueaddbasketball.com analytics flagging Chattanooga's Malachi Smith as the 2nd best small forward in the country, we have been informed that in fact he plays point guard - where he would also rank as the 2nd best player at the country barely behind Villanova's Collin Gillespie. We will update for his next post, but we would still consider Smith a 2nd Team All-American at this point - just at a different position. (The analytics are thrown off because he grabs so many defensive rebounds that he appears to be a small forward rather than a point guard statistically).

 In Value Add Basketball we consider the team's "small forward" the player who has some combination of more defensive rebounds, blocked shots and height than two guards on the team, and typically more assists and steals then the two players on the team we consider the center and power forward. In many cases in modern basketball this is really a third guard, but either way it is the "3" position on the court.  (for a summary of the top players at each position, click here).

Because www.valueaddbasketball.com calculates how many points per game a player improves his team compared to if a typical replacement player took his place, the raw value add is adjusted by position since the replacement player would be at the same position. Therefore, once the formulas are run, and other positions are adjusted, but the average Small Forward actually is right about the average overall player, so their calculations are not adjusted before being entered at  at www.valueaddbasketball.com.

In general, freshmen make so many mistakes (turnovers, bad shots etc.) the first half of the season that they do not rank nearly as high as more experienced players. However, they tend to improve more at the end of the season, so we watch for breakout freshmen first when looking at brackets. Therefore we start with the 10 most valuable freshmen small forwards in college basketball, starting with one of three Arizona players we would put on the Freshman All-American team - Bennedict Mathurin - who improves his team by 7.32 points per game. This means Arizona would have LOST any game that they won by fewer than seven points if he had not played..

In his case, he improves the Arizona's offense by 5.55 points per game, while his defensive rating of -1.77 indicates he takes one to two points more away from the opposing team then a typical replacement small forward. Here are the most valuable 10 freshmen small forwards through games of February 15.

Rnk	Top Freshmen Small Forwards	Team	VA5	Conf	HtText	Cl
9	Bennedict Mathurin #0	Arizona	7.32	P12	6'6"	Fr
17	Kendall Brown #2	Baylor	6.07	B12	6'8"	Fr
38	Ricky Council #4	Wichita St.	4.97	Amer	6'6"	Fr
53	Alijah Martin #15	Florida Atlantic	4.41	CUSA	6'2"	Fr
56	Jadon Jones #12	Long Beach St.	4.4	BW	6'5"	Fr
90	Zeke Mayo #2	South Dakota St.	3.44	Sum	6'3"	Fr
93	Houston Mallette #0	Pepperdine	3.41	WCC	6'5"	Fr
100	Caleb Houstan #22	Michigan	3.28	B10	6'8"	Fr
101	Bryce McGowens #5	Nebraska	3.27	B10	6'7"	Fr
105	Ra'Heim Moss #0	Toledo	3.21	MAC	6'4"	Fr

If you were picking an All-American team based by position, the Small Forward or "3" spot would be the toughest choice. Mathurin certainly is close enough to the top players to be considered due to freshmen surging at the end of the year. However, Wisconsin's Johnny Davis, San Diego State's Matt Bradley, Chattanooga's Malachi Smith, Loyola's Lucas Williamson and Iowa State's Izaiah Brockingham could all be serious considered as the most valuable small forward in college basketball.

 

Rnk	Top Overall Small Forwards (3)	Team	VA5	Conf	HtText	Cl
1	Matt Bradley #3	San Diego St.	9.3	MWC	6'4"	Sr
2	Malachi Smith #13	Chattanooga	8.84	SC	6'4"	So
3	Ochai Agbaji #30	Kansas	8.6	B12	6'5"	Sr
4	Lucas Williamson #1	Loyola Chicago	8.28	MVC	6'4"	Sr
5	Johnny Davis #1	Wisconsin	7.9	B10	6'5"	So
6	Izaiah Brockington #1	Iowa St.	7.79	B12	6'4"	Sr
7	Keon Ellis #14	Alabama	7.48	SEC	6'6"	Sr
8	Wendell Moore #0	Duke	7.34	ACC	6'5"	Jr
9	Bennedict Mathurin #0	Arizona	7.32	P12	6'6"	Fr
10	Darryl Morsell #32	Marquette	7.04	BE	6'5"	Sr
11	George Papas #5	Monmouth	7.04	MAAC	6'5"	Sr
12	Tevin Brown #10	Murray St.	6.92	OVC	6'5"	Jr
13	Isiaih Mosley #1	Missouri St.	6.58	MVC	6'5"	Jr
14	Julian Strawther #0	Gonzaga	6.49	WCC	6'7"	So
15	Kameron McGusty #23	Miami FL	6.4	ACC	6'5"	Sr
16	Davonte Gaines #3	George Mason	6.08	A10	6'7"	Jr
17	Kendall Brown #2	Baylor	6.07	B12	6'8"	Fr
18	Colby Jones #3	Xavier	6.04	BE	6'6"	So
19	Mark Smith #13	Kansas St.	6.04	B12	6'4"	Sr
20	Jules Bernard #1	UCLA	5.94	P12	6'7"	Sr
21	Kyler Edwards #11	Houston	5.91	Amer	6'4"	Sr
22	Taz Sherman #12	West Virginia	5.88	B12	6'4"	Sr
23	Teddy Allen #0	New Mexico St.	5.85	WAC	6'6"	Jr
24	Johnny Juzang #3	UCLA	5.78	P12	6'7"	Jr
25	Cam Spencer #12	Loyola MD	5.78	Pat	6'4"	Jr
26	Aaron Estrada #4	Hofstra	5.74	CAA	6'3"	Jr
27	Daylen Kountz #1	Northern Colorado	5.7	BSky	6'4"	Sr
28	Hakim Hart #13	Maryland	5.66	B10	6'8"	Jr
29	Tyler Burton #3	Richmond	5.59	A10	6'7"	Jr
30	De'Monte Buckingham #10	UNC Greensboro	5.49	SC	6'4"	Sr
31	Brandon Slater #3	Villanova	5.45	BE	6'7"	Sr
32	Sasha Stefanovic #55	Purdue	5.37	B10	6'5"	Sr
33	Adrian Delph #20	Appalachian St.	5.3	SB	6'3"	Sr
34	Kellan Grady #31	Kentucky	5.13	SEC	6'5"	Sr
35	Drew Peterson #13	USC	5.07	P12	6'9"	Jr
36	Tanner Holden #2	Wright St.	5.04	Horz	6'6"	Jr
37	Drake Jeffries #0	Wyoming	5.01	MWC	6'5"	Sr
38	Ricky Council #4	Wichita St.	4.97	Amer	6'6"	Fr
39	Charles Pride #5	Bryant	4.92	NEC	6'4"	Jr
40	Hyunjung Lee #1	Davidson	4.88	A10	6'7"	Jr
41	Andrew Jones #1	Texas	4.88	B12	6'4"	Sr
42	Chuck O'Bannon #5	TCU	4.87	B12	6'6"	Sr
43	Taze Moore #4	Houston	4.84	Amer	6'5"	Sr
44	Gabe Brown #44	Michigan St.	4.77	B10	6'8"	Sr
45	Jared Rhoden #14	Seton Hall	4.76	BE	6'6"	Sr
46	Ethan Wright #14	Princeton	4.61	Ivy	6'4"	Sr
47	Erik Stevenson #10	South Carolina	4.6	SEC	6'4"	Sr
48	David Jones #32	DePaul	4.59	BE	6'6"	So
49	Alex O'Connell #5	Creighton	4.53	BE	6'6"	Sr
50	Kane Williams #12	Georgia St.	4.52	SB	6'4"	Sr

Pac 12 Conference Top 15 Men’s Basketball Players To Date

 For Immediate Release

John Pudner, 404.606.3163, johnp@takebackaction.org

Pac 12 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.”

“Last year we calculated that Isaiah Mobley’s brother was actually the National Player of the Year over Luka Garza, and this year Isaiah himself is dominating as the 3rd most valuable player in the Pac-12 to give USC a chance to compete against loaded UCLA and Arizona teams. In addition to placing Jaime Jaquez and Tyger Campbell as 4th and 5th for 1st team all-Pac 12 status, note that we listed Peyton Watson and Johnny Juzang among likely future NBA players, and for Arizona both Christian Koloko and

Bennedict Mathurin are likely to end up in the NBAand give the Pac-12 an impressive seven of the top 100 players in the country.”

“While Washington is unlikely to challenge Pac-12 powers for the title, Arizona transfer Terrell Brown is playing at an All-American level in leading the Huskies. His ranking as the 13th best player in the country is calculated based on incredible numbers of steals and assists with very few turnovers, and of drawing fouls while rarely fouling.”

In addition to the top 15 players, we list five other outstanding defenders in the conference, and several other players likely headed to the NBA who could begin to dominate at some point this season.

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	P12	Team	Value Add	Class	Ht	AdjD	NBA
1	Terrell Brown	Washington	8.93	Sr	6'3"	-2.04	1%
2	Andre Kelly	California	7.66	Sr	6'9"	-2.22	1%
3	Isaiah Mobley	USC	7.24	Jr	6'10"	-3.11	17%
4	Jaime Jaquez	UCLA	6.98	Jr	6'7"	-3.5	56%
5	Tyger Campbell	UCLA	6.96	Jr	5'11"	-0.89	1%
6	Christian Koloko	Arizona	6.65	So	7'1"	-3.96	43%
7	Bennedict Mathurin	Arizona	6.61	Fr	6'6"	-1.83	94%
8	Michael Flowers	Washington St.	6.28	Sr	6'1"	-0.97	1%
9	Jules Bernard	UCLA	6.11	Sr	6'7"	-1.08	26%
10	Azuolas Tubelis	Arizona	5.95	Fr	6'11"	-2.6	5%
11	Chevez Goodwin	USC	5.49	Sr	6'9"	-1.46	1%
12	Will Richardson	Oregon	5.48	Sr	6'5"	0.25	30%
13	Kimani Lawrence	Arizona St.	5.42	Sr	6'6"	-2.42	1%
14	DJ Horne	Arizona St.	5.22	So	6'1"	0.18	1%
15	Harrison Ingram	Stanford	5.05	Fr	6'8"	-1.36	41%
Def	Myles Johnson	UCLA	5.01	Sr	6'10"	-3.8	1%
Def	Marco Anthony	Utah	3.2	Sr	6'5"	-2.8	1%
Def	Kim Aiken	Arizona	3.05	Jr	6'7"	-2	1%
NBA	Jabari Walker	Colorado	4.6	So	6'9"	-2.27	74%
NBA	Peyton Watson	UCLA	1.68	Fr	6'8"	-2.1	66%
NBA	Dalen Terry	Arizona	4.4	Fr	6'7"	-1.8	48%
NBA	Boogie Ellis	USC	4.68	Jr	6'3"	-1.63	45%
NBA	Warith Alatishe	Oregon St.	3.82	Sr	6'8"	-1.35	22%
NBA	Johnny Juzang	UCLA	4.06	Jr	6'7"	-1.28	57%
NBA	De'Vion Harmon	Oregon	2.81	Jr	6'2"	-0.4	14%
NBA	Marcus Bagley	Arizona St.	0.35	So	6'8"	0.18	37%