Stockton, the Glove Payton Score 30 to Wrap Our Hoops Season of 234 All-Time Great Teams

 We have now played all 234 Value Add Basketball Game teams at least once, and we finished with two of our biggest offensive performances ever. "The Glove," Gary Payton, scored 31 points to lead Oregon State 1990 past Yale 2024 then John Stockton outdid him with 36 points to lead Gonzaga 1984 to an upset win over Grand Canyon 2024.(Box Scores Added at bottom from both games).

Click here for all our scores to date and our updated rankings.

The impressive 84-73 win for Oregon State moves them up from being ranked 170th to 140th in our all-time rankings, and they are now the 5th best of 11 teams who will compete in the Mountain West/Pac-12 next season. With Yale not able to repeat an upset like they had in the actual 2024 March Madness against Auburn, they dropped from 226th to 228th and to 13th of 18 all-time Mid-Major games.

Gonzaga is still 7th of 7 all-time West Coast Conference teams in the game, including three later teams from Gonzaga, but they moved up from 229th to 216th of the all-time teams in the game. Their 84-79 win dropped Grand Canyon 2024 from 217th to 225th overall, and one spot ahead of Yale in the all-time Mid-Major standings at 12th of 18.

The following is our all-time top 10 after all teams have played at least once and the better teams were in big tournaments we played. The biggest surprise is #10 Kansas 2008, who we ranked only at 51st overall before games were played. We do still have women's teams who have yet to play, and may pick that up later with the WNBA season starting May 14. Their scores and rankings are tracked here.

 

Rnk	Pre	Team	Year	Player(s)	W	L	Score	Allow	SOS	Rating	Conf	Conf Rnk
1	1	UCLA	1972	Bill Walton #64	6	0	72.0	62.0	2.8	16.2	B10	1
2	17	Kansas	1997	Paul Pierce #50	5	0	76.8	62.4	-1.0	12.8	B12	1
3	6	Ohio St.	1960	Jerry Lucas #72, John Havlicek #29	2	1	84.0	76.3	5.0	11.8	B10	2
4	7	Indiana	1976	Scott May	3	1	71.3	59.8	-0.8	11.3	B10	3
5	14	Houston	1968	Elvin Hayes #41	3	1	73.0	63.8	4.3	11.1	B12	2
6	4	Duke	2001	Shane Battier	3	1	78.3	72.5	3.5	11.1	ACC	1
7	8	Connecticut	2023	Adama Sanogo	2	0	78.5	58.0	-11.0	11.0	BE	1
8	12	North Carolina	1982	Michael Jordan #1, James Worthy #59	5	1	68.8	65.0	6.2	10.8	ACC	2
9	15	North Carolina	2005	Sean May	3	2	72.2	64.4	3.8	10.4	ACC	3
10	51	Kansas	2008	Mario Chalmers	5	1	74.7	56.0	-0.7	10.3	B12	3

Gonzaga (1984) 84, Grand Canyon (2014) 79

 

Pos	Gonzaga 1984	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Actual Stats
1-PG	John Stockton	36	4	11	2	2	2	2	0	4	20.9 pts, 6'1
2-SG	Bryce McPhee	19	0	8	3	4	5	3	0	4	18.2 pts, 6'3
3-SF	Jeff Condill	6	0	3	0	0	7	0	0	2	12.1 pts, 6'3
4-PF	Jason Van Nort	4	0	2	0	2	3	0	1	2	11 pts, 6'9
5-C	Tim Ruff	2	0	1	0	0	9	0	2	1	9 pts, 6'10
Pos	Bench Players	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Actual Stats
1-PG	Mark Matthews	4	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	4.8 pts, 6'4
4-PF	Jeff Reinert	3	0	1	1	2	1	0	0	2	6.7 pts, 6'7
5-C	Dave Clement	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	3.1 pts, 6'6
	Danny Roe	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	1.2 pts, 6'7
	Blair Anderson	6	0	3	0	0	4	0	0	1	7.3 pts, 6'9
	13 Turnovers	84	4	33	6	10	34	6	3	19
Pos	Grand Canyon 2024	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Actual Stats
1-PG	Ray Harrison	13	0	4	5	5	2	2	0	3	13.5 pts, 6'4
2-SG	Collin Moore	9	1	1	4	4	3	1	0	3	8.2 pts, 6'4
3-SF	Tyon Grant-Foster	24	3	6	3	3	5	1	5	2	20.1 pts, 6'7
4-PF	Gabe McGlothan	14	2	2	4	4	7	1	1	2	12.8 pts, 6'7
5-C	Duke Brennan	6	0	3	0	0	5	0	2	1	6.9 pts, 6'10
Pos	Bench Players	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Actual Stats
1-PG	Jovan Blacksher	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	4.2 pts, 5'11
2-SG	Josh Baker	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	2.6 pts, 6'4
3-SF	Isaiah Shaw	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	2.3 pts, 6'8
4-PF	Sydney Curry	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	2.9 pts, 6'8
5-C	Lok Wur	5	0	2	1	1	4	0	2	1	5.4 pts, 6'9
	15 Turnovers	79	6	22	17	17	30	5	10	17

Oregon State (1990) 84, Yale (2024) 73

 

Pos	Yale 2024	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Actual Stats
1-PG	Bez Mbeng	11	1	3	2	2	2	3	0	1	11.2 pts, 6'4
2-SG	August Mahoney	7	1	2	0	0	2	3	0	2	10.6 pts, 6'4
3-SF	John Poulakidas	10	2	1	2	2	3	0	0	1	13.6 pts, 6'6
4-PF	Matt Knowling	12	0	5	2	4	6	0	0	2	11.7 pts, 6'6
5-C	Danny Wolf	17	2	4	3	4	10	0	3	2	14.5 pts, 7'0
Pos	Bench Players	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Actual Stats
1-PG	Yassine Gharram	6	0	3	0	0	1	0	0	1	2.5 pts, 6'3
2-SG	Nick Townsend	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	2	5.8 pts, 6'7
3-SF	Casey Simmons	4	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	2	3.2 pts, 6'6
4-PF	Jack Molloy	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	1.2 pts, 6'8
5-C	Samson Aletan	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	1.7 pts, 6'10
	16 Turnovers	73	6	23	9	12	29	6	3	15
Pos	Oregon St. 1990	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Actual Stats
1-PG	Will Brantley	6	0	3	0	0	3	2	0	2	12.5 pts, 5'5
2-SG	Gary Payton	31	3	11	0	2	2	5	1	1	11.4 pts, 6'0
3-SF	Earl Martin	14	2	4	0	0	6	1	0	2	10.9 pts, 6'0
4-PF	Teo Alibegovic	8	0	3	2	2	3	1	0	3	17.1 pts, 6'4
5-C	Scott Haskin	8	0	3	2	2	11	0	2	4	15.2 pts, 6'7
Pos	Bench Players	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Actual Stats
1-PG	Charles McKinney	4	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	4.6 pts, 5'6
2-SG	Allan Celestine	8	1	2	1	2	1	1	0	2	4.8 pts, 5'7
3-SF	LaMont McIntosh	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	8.5 pts, 6'0
4-PF	Karl Anderson	3	0	1	1	2	2	0	0	1	2.2 pts, 6'2
5-C		0
	10 Turnovers	84	6	30	6	10	30	10	3	17

Based on each team's cards, we assigned them a preseason ranking based only on the cards. That is their preseason ranking. We then adjust for the result of each game played.

The first list below is the list of the 10 biggest disappointments - teams who played much worst in the games we played then how good we believe they actually are. For example, we thought Kareem's UCLA as the third best team in the game, and Florida's repeat champs were the 13th best. But Florida is only 5-3 in the season, and UCLA was stunned by DePaul's 1980 team.

That leads to the flip side, which is that DePaul 1980 heads the list of our biggest surprises. That win over Kareem and two other big wins moved them up from our 124th preseason ranking to 28th of all time. Beneath them is the top 10 nicest surprises.

Rnk after games	Rnk based on cards	10 Disappointments	Year	Player(s)	W	L	Score	Allow	SOS
202	83	Wake Forest	2005	Chris Paul #30	0	3	64.3	85.3	4.0
234	229	Princeton	2023	Tosan Evbuomwan	0	1	50.0	102.0	0.0
68	13	Florida	2006	Joakim Noah	5	3	74.4	72.0	-5.1
34	3	UCLA	1967	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar #3	2	1	83.0	87.0	0.7
194	122	Creighton	2014	Doug McDermott	0	3	66.3	80.0	-0.3
206	141	New Mexico	1974	Bernard Hardin	0	1	68.0	95.0	-3.0
218	181	Butler	2010	Gordon Hayward	0	3	54.7	76.3	3.7
222	193	Texas	2007	Kevin Durant #13	0	1	62.0	82.0	-13.0
18	2	Kentucky	2012	Anthony Davis #53	4	2	72.2	65.7	-3.5
190	121	Louisville	1980	Darrell Griffith	0	1	52.0	82.0	3.0
Rnk after games	Rank based cards/ how good we believe team is	10 Nicest Surprises	Year	Player(s)	W	L	Score	Allow	SOS
28	124	DePaul	1980	Mark Aguirre	3	1	76.8	68.8	5.3
56	182	Colorado	2021	McKinley Wright	3	0	82.3	78.0	1.3
22	98	Auburn	2019	Chuma Okeke	8	1	71.0	65.3	1.9
24	99	Western Kentucky	1966	Clem Haskins	4	0	79.8	69.3	-0.3
10	51	Kansas	2008	Mario Chalmers	5	1	74.7	56.0	-0.7
67	183	North Carolina	2022	Armando Bacot	2	0	80.5	68.0	-2.5
13	52	Baylor	2021	Jared Butler	2	2	86.0	78.5	6.0
39	100	Rutgers	1976	Phil Sellers	2	0	90.5	75.5	-4.0
26	70	Houston	2021	Quentin Grimes	1	0	102.0	50.0	-16.0
17	53	Connecticut	2004	Ben Gordon	5	2	74.7	66.0	0.6

38 in NBA Playoffs Also On All-Time Great College Team

 Only 1% of Division I college players make the NBA, so just sitting on an NBA bench in the playoffs is a huge accomplishment. The following are the 38 players who were on one of the all-time great college teams featured in our Value Add Basketball Game AND were on the floor for one of the last few NBA games as one of the 16 teams still alive. 

The earliest team represented is the 2006 Florida Gators with Al Horford still playing for the No. 1 seed Boston Celtics. Two of the all-time greats from 2007 teams in our game put up amazing numbers 17 years later with Kevin Durant of Texas putting up 25 points and Mike Conley of Ohio State having 15 points and seven assists for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Obviously it is more likely a more recent team will still have players in the NBA, and the 2018 and 2019 NCAA champs from Villanova and Virginia are the only two all-time great college teams with three players alive in the NBA playoffs. The best of those is Nova's Jalen Brunson who just put up 39 points and 13 assists.

The other great teams in our game with two players still alive in the NBA playoffs are UCLA 2008 (Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook still under the big lights 16 years later), Marquette 2011 (Jae Crowder and Jimmy Butler), Iowa State 2014 (Monte Morris and Georges Niang) and finally UConn 2023 (already Jordan Hawkins and Andre Jackson since most stayed around for the 2024 title run).

Some players just got on the court (0 points), others did not get in the game either because they were injured (Jimmy Butler) or just didn't get on the rotation, but all of these are in the elite group that is coming out to warm up as one of the remaining 16 NBA Playoff teams and a member of an all-time great college team in our game.

The first 230 All-time great teams have already played at least one games, leaving only our 25th greatest player of all time John Stockton with his 1984 Gonzaga against the 2024 Grand Canyon team with Danny Wolf, and our 48th greatest player of all time Gary Payton leading his 1990 Oregon State team against the Yale 2024 team and Tyon Grant-Foster. 

While this is not as issue for the players alive in the playoffs below since they all played witha. College 3-point line, you will notice we include 3-point shots even for players who played before the line was there. This was estimated in various ways such as later mapping of Pistol Pete Maravich's shots to see which would have been 3-pointers to Stockton's card above based on him hitting more than 40 percent if his 3-pointers in 7 NBA seasons from the deeper line.

Team in Game	Year	Player	NBA Playoff Team	Last Playoff Game
Florida	2006	Al Horford	Boston Celtics	9 pts, 6 reb, +15
Ohio State	2007	Mike Conley	Minnesota Timberwolves	15 pts, 4 reb, 7 ast
Texas	2007	Kevin Durant	Phoenix Suns	25 pts, 4 reb, 5 ast
Stanford	2008	Brook Lopez	Milwaukee Bucks	14 pts, 4 reb
UCLA	2008	Kevin Love	Miami Heat	2 reb
UCLA	2008	Russell Westbrook	Los Angeles Clippers	1 pt, 3 reb
Arizona State	2009	James Harden	Los Angeles Clippers	21 pts, 5 ast
Butler	2010	Gordon Hayward	Oklahoma City Thunder	4 reb
Weber State	2010	Damian Lillard	Milwaukee Bucks	28 pts, 8 ast
Duke	2010	Mason Plumlee	Los Angeles Clippers	7 pts
Marquette	2011	Jimmy Butler	Miami Heat	did not play
Marquette	2011	Jae Crowder	Milwaukee Bucks	0 pts
San Diego State	2011	Kawhi Leonard	Los Angeles Clippers	7 pts, 5 reb, 5 ast
Kentucky	2012	Anthony Davis	Los Angeles Lakers	33 pts, 15 reb
Creighton	2014	Doug McDermott	Indiana Pacers	did not play
Iowa State	2014	Monté Morris	Minnesota Timberwolves	2 pts
Iowa State	2014	Georges Niang	Cleveland Cavaliers	2 pts
Oklahoma	2016	Buddy Hield	Philadelphia 76ers	0 pts
SMU	2017	Shake Milton	New York Knicks	did not play
Oregon	2017	Payton Pritchard	Boston Celtics	7 pts, 3 reb
Villanova	2018	Jalen Brunson	New York Knicks	39 pts, 13 ast
Villanova	2018	Donte DiVincenzo	New York Knicks	5 reb, 4 pts
Villanova	2018	Collin  Gillespie	Denver Nuggets	0 pts
Virginia	2019	Mamadi Diakite	New York Knicks	did not play
Virginia	2019	Jay  Huff	Denver Nuggets	0 pts
Virginia	2019	Braxton Key	Denver Nuggets	0 pts
Auburn	2019	Chuma Okeke	Orlando Magic	3 pts
Dayton	2020	Obi Toppin	Indiana Pacers	15 pts, 6 reb
Iowa	2021	Luka Garza	Minnesota Timberwolves	0 pts
UCLA	2021	Jaime Jaquez	Miami Heat	12 pts, 5 reb, 5 ast
USC	2021	Evan Mobley	Cleveland Cavaliers	14 pts, 9 reb
Duke	2022	Paolo Banchero	Orlando Magic	9 pts, 4 reb, 5 ast
Kansas	2022	Christian Braun	Denver Nuggets	5 pts, 2 reb
Duke	2022	Wendell Moore	Minnesota Timberwolves	0 pts
Connecticut	2023	Jordan Hawkins	New Orleans Pelicans	1 reb
Connecticut	2023	Andre Jackson	Milwaukee Bucks	2 pts, 3 reb
Michigan	2023	Caris LeVert	Cleveland Cavaliers	5 pts, 1 reb
Gonzaga	2023	Julian Strawther	Denver Nuggets	did not play

Burns Leads NC State Past Lilliard, Leaving Just 2 Debut Games Left

 After the extensive preview, Weber State had an upset within reach at 47-47 with 16 possessions to play. However, D.J. Burns then scored on three straight possessions and on the fourth grabbed an offensive rebound and kicked the ball out to DJ Horne who nailed the 3-pointer with the benefit of Burns assist (the 20-sided die roll was lowered from 4 to 3 due to coming off an offensive rebound, and that fell just within Horn's 1-3 three-point made range. 

That made the score 56-51 NC State with 12 possessions to play. With six possessions to play, Burns scored and was fouled, hitting the free throw to make it 65-58 to put it out of reach en route to a 72-60 win.  NC State won the turnover battle 15-8, which could have been the difference in the game. Mohamed Diarra's five blocked shots were huge as well.

That leaves only four all-time great teams who have yet to be used in our Value Add Basketball Game, leaving two games between the new 2024 teams and new teams with a top 75 all-time player.  Right now it's three games a piece, so either the 2024 or all-time great players would need to win the remaining two games to take the series 5 games to 3.

The all-time great Oregon State 1990, ranked 153rd of all teams in the game, will be the favorite led by our 48th greatest player ever Gary Payton against Danny Wolf and 2024 Yale. It was actually John Poulakidas who scored 28 points to stun Auburn in this year's tournament to qualify this Yale team for the game with their first tournament win since upsetting Baylor in 2016. Yale is ranked 227th in our game.

In the other game it will be the 2024 team that is favored, with 212th Grand Canyon led by Tyon Grant Foster taking on 228th ranked Gonzaga 1981 lead by our 25th ranked player of all-time - John Stockton.

Pos	Weber State 2010	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Actual Stats
1-PG	Damian Lillard	14	2	2	4	5	7	4	0	2	6'2, 19.9 Pts
2-SG	Franklin Session	13	0	5	3	4	3	2	1	1	6'3, 10.2 Pts
3-SF	Nick Hansen	11	3	1	0	0	7	0	1	1	6'4, 9.2 Pts
4-PF	Darin Mahoney	4	0	2	0	2	6	0	4	2	6'8, 2.9 Pts
5-C	Steve Panos	8	0	2	4	4	8	0	2	2	6'8, 10.6 Pts
Pos	Home Bench	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Actual Stats
1-PG	Lindsey Hughey	4	0	2	0	4	1	0	0	1	6'3, 7.8 Pts
4-PF	Kyle Bullinger	2	0	1	0	0	1	2	0	2	6'6, 8.7 Pts
5-C	Trevor Morris	4	0	2	0	0	3	0	0	3	6'9, 4.9 Pts
	15 Turnovers	60	5	17	11	19	36	8	8	14
Pos	NC State 2024	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Actual Stats
1-PG	Michael O'Connell	4	0	2	0	0	3	3	0	4	6'2, 5.7 Pts
2-SG	DJ Horne	16	3	3	1	1	2	2	0	2	6'1, 16.9 Pts
3-SF	Casey Morsell	10	0	5	0	0	8	1	0	4	6'3, 11.1 Pts
4-PF	Mohamed Diarra	6	0	3	0	0	9	0	5	1	6'10, 6.3 Pts
5-C	D.J. Burns	17	0	8	1	1	8	0	2	3	6'9, 12.9 Pts
Pos	Home Bench	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Actual Stats
1-PG	Breon Pass	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'0, 1.3 Pts
2-SG	Kam Woods	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'2, 1.2 Pts
3-SF	Jayden Taylor	11	0	5	1	2	1	2	0	2	6'4, 11.2 Pts
4-PF	Dennis Parker	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	2	6'6, 4.7 Pts
5-C	Ben Middlebrooks	2	0	1	0	2	4	1	0	1	6'10, 5.7 Pts
	8 Turnovers	72	3	30	3	6	39	9	7	21

Debuts for Final 17 Great Teams Starts with Edey vs. 1948 NYU

Our 234 All-Time Great Men's teams, listed alphabetically here with records and average scores in our game, have combined for 269 games played leaving only these 17 teams listed yet to have played. Our primary focus is always to play every new team created at least once to catch any mistakes - a missing player, stamina that doesn't add up, a player seemingly out of position etc.

The following shows where each team ranks among our 234 all-time great teams - with UNC's Bob McAdoo team the highest ranked at 39th of all time and about +4 points better than the average great team in our game. the 2024 Purdue team is the only team from this season in the top 100 all time (since we already have the UConn 2023 team which ranked 7th of all time) and comes in at 27th place at one point higher than that UNC team at +5.
 

Prev	Team	Year	Top Player (top 75 all-time?)	Rating
164	Arizona St.	2009	James Harden #33	-6
166	California	1993	Jason Kidd #36	-6
152	Colorado St.	2024	Isaiah Stevens	-5
221	Duquesne	2024	Jimmy Clark	-15
227	Gonzaga	1981	John Stockton #25	-16
213	Grand Canyon	2024	Tyon Grant-Foster	-12
168	Louisville	1968	Wes Unseld #60	-6
230	Massachusetts	1971	Julius Erving #19	-18
189	NC State	2024	D.J. Burns	-7
39	North Carolina	1972	Bob McAdoo #54	+4
232	NYU	1948	Dolph Schayes #61	-19
234	Oakland	2024	Jack Gohlke	-20
174	Oregon St.	1990	Gary Payton #48	-6
27	Purdue	2024	Zach Edey	+5
207	Utah St.	2024	Great Osobor	-10
231	Weber St.	2010	Damian Lillard #68	-18
226	Yale	2024	Danny Wolf	-15

We started one tournament of a bunch of newer teams from the last few years a while ago, but then moved our attention to a tournament of all the teams we added to the game because they featured one of the best players of all-time but had not been in the game.

The bracket at the bottom of the games played so far among those 26 teams. Nine of those teams had yet to play, but we decided to mix up that tournament a bit when we chose the eight 2024 teams to add to the game, we decided to match them up with eight of the great players teams so that we wouldn't be playing 2024 teams against each other in this round.

The debut for the 1972 UNC team featuring Bob McAdoo was already scheduled in the bracket at the bottom - the 1960 Providence team led by great player Lenny Wilkens , who won their first game in the tournament against Marshall. The winner of that game will play a surprise Elite 8 team - LSU 1953.

The next pairing of 2024 teams against great player teams features these four games, with the winners playing a mini tournament and the winner filling the line in the great players bracket below to play Connecticut 1996 in that Elite 8.

We will start with one of our newest teams - Zach Edey and Purdue, against our second oldest team NYU from 1948. Only Wyoming has an older team in our game. We did not have stats to feature the 1945 team which somehow was national runner-up with a 14-7 mark, but they still had Dolph Schayes in 1948 when they went 22-4 so we used that team.  

The second pairing is below, and the winner will now face the Michigan 1993 team.

With the adjustment of the games above to fill the lines below, we will continue with that Elite 8 once the 17 teams above played their games.

New Cards for 22 of Greatest 75 Players for New Teams

Click here for the google sheet or on the images below for the 22 all-time great players for the new Value Add Basketball Game teams we are now creating.

The four other new teams we are adding are from the www.kenpom.com era, so I can make them based on those stats and do the whole team at a time. The coincidentally are based on four incredible players in four consecutive seasons who made the Athletic list of the greatest 75 players of all time;

Texas 2007 Kevin Durant #13 player of all time.

UCLA 2008 Russell Westbrook #46 player of all time.

Arizona St. 2009 James Harden #33 player of all time.

Weber St. 2010 Damian Lillard #68 player of all time.

The process for the 20^th century teams takes much longer, and one step we always do is compare the NBA stats of the great players, particularly for stats not kept on college when they played (minutes played, three point shots, steals, blocked shots etc).

We basically took each players best NBA season (obviously against much tougher competition than they faced in college, and assumed they’d draw more fouls and hit 10% more of their 3-point shots (much closer arc) and 2-point shots (much easier defenders).

Below are the cards we created for each player. Note the dunk range and adjusted defense range are all the same, 51-56 and -6. These are usually for the whole team to adjust for level of competition, however since these players cards are based on playing against NBA players we don’t need to adjust the cards down for the ones who played lighter competition.

Durant, Westbrook, Harden and Lillard will be created with the rest of their teams from www.kenpom.com, but we will later add the 22 teams that go with these players.

Do note on the cards below that some great players from the days when front line players played inside, often with their backs to the basket, and would never have taken a 3-pointer, have no 3-pointers but do score and get fouled on a "1" on the 20-sided die roll instead.

Blue numbers on these stats were estimated using various methods because those stats were not kept then.

Here are the College Basketball links to the players above.

Jason Kidd Robert Parish Ray Allen Dave Cowens Allen Iverson Alonzo Mourning John Stockton Karl Malone Wes Unseld Bob Pettit Hal Greer Julius Erving Chris Webber Bob McAdoo Billy Cunningham Dolph Schayes Gary Payton Lenny Wilkens Steve Nash Walt Frazier Reggie Miller Tiny Archibald

NBA's Most Famous Virgin Leads Oregon St. 1982 Past JMU 2024

Oregon State's AC Green set some amazing streaks, perhaps most incredibly staying a virgin through a 16-year NBA career and until his marriage in 2002 (see Fox Sports story). As a freshman on this Oregon State 1982 team he stepped in as the starting center and helped lead the Beavers to a third straight Pac-10 championship, No. 4 ranking, and Elite 8 run.

This card was from Green's freshman season, so he was good but not yet dominant, and his the other future NBA players Lester Conner and Charlie Sitton have stronger cards. Green stepped in to a void the year after Oregon State lost three players from their defending Pac-10 champs to the NBA in Ray Blume, Steve Johnson and Mark Radford. Later the great Gary Payton and his son Gary Payton II went from Oregon State to the NBA.

Patrick Ewing finally shut Oregon State down in the Elite 8, holding the rest of the team to 35% shooting, but the only one unfazed was Green who hit 3 of 4 shots in a 10-point performance. Two games later, Georgetown led UNC in the title game 62-61 when Jordan hit the first of many game-winning shots. More famous still were the following few seconds as the Hoyas worked down for a potential game-winning shot only to have Fred Brown, thinking a teammate was behind him, pass the ball back to James Worthy who ran out the clock. Coach John Thompson famously hugged Brown to let him know all was ok.

Green went onto finish second all-time in career rebounds and fourth all-time in scoring and then won multiple titles with the Los Angeles Lakers. Anyone who has talked to an NBA player about the number of suitors who come to their hotel doors at night can appreciate what it took to stay a virgin as a star in Los Angeles.

This great Oregon State team ranks 47th of the all-time great teams in our score tracker, behind those two (Jordan's UNC is ranked 7th and a Ewing Georgetown team 33rd), and was seeded No. 2 of our new 16 teams and thus drew the newest team and 15-seed, James Madison University 2024, which started this season with an upset at Michigan State to start a 13-0 start that propelled them to No. 20 in the AP rankings, though www.kenpom.com is not as impressed with them at 62nd. This is the same year the JMU football team debuted in the Top 25 in only their second year at the top level of football.

Oregon State dominated this match-up, but JMU keep within range during an incredible streak of 20 possessions during which JMU scored an incredible three or more points on 7 possessions to get within 66-71 with only eight possessions or 4:35 to play.

However, the Beavers clamed down on the defense with steals and blocked shots by Conner, Danny Evans and a stop by Green to only allow 2 points the last eight possessions to win 68-82 win and advance to the second round.

The following is the box score, followed by the scoresheet to show the running score, and then some screen shots to show the set up. The bottom image shows the setup with a game note. Games typically start with each of the 10 players having 2 points each for the 20-20 tie. However, if some players averaged less than two points per game (such as Oregon State's Alan Tait, Jamie Stangel and Jeff Wilson) then you can start them at 0 points and give those extra points - 6 in this case - to other leading scorers. 

In this case we started the 2nd NBA player on the team Connor with 5 points - added a 3-pointer made to the 2-pointer made that most teams start with in the game. We changed Evans starting 2-pointer with a 3-pointer so he starts with 3 points instead of 2. Finally we gave Green a 2nd basket at the opening to start him with 4 points instead of 2. As long as your total is 20 points at the outset, you can tweak but only if some of the 10 players averaged less than 2 points per game.

One strategy note from the game, with 12 possessions, JMU switched to a "try for 3-pointers" strategy to try to catchup from a 54-65 deficit. This should only be used if a team is running out of time to catchup or needs a 3-pointer on their final trip down the court to tie.  It gives a team a chance for the bigger come-from-behind, but on average you will lose 2 points for every 1 point you gain from changing a 2-pointer to a 3-pointer.

It paid immediate dividends on possession 12 when Noah Friedel had a "5" on the 20-sided die, which would normally be in his 5-8 2-point shot made range. However, when the strategy is used then half the numbers in this range are changed to a 3-pointer made (5-6 for Freidel) but the other half are changed to missed 2-point shot and rebound to the high defensive rebound rating. The 3-pointers can no more than double the number of 3-pointers on the card, and any numbers remaining in the range stay a 2-pointer made. Changing it to a 3-pointer cut the Oregon State lead to 57-66.

The only other possession the strategy effected was with 3 possessions left when JMU's Terrence Edwards drew a "6" on the 20-sided die. Due to the strategy, his normal 3-7 range for 2-pointers made was adjusted to a 3-4 for 3-pointer made (it can no longer double the original 1-2 3-pointer made), with a 5 still a made 2-pointer, and then his 6 on this roll falling within the 6-7 range a missed 2-pointer with AC Green getting the rebound as the high rebounder and never a chance for the offense to grab an offensive rebound when they miss in this range. 

Here is the box score:

Pos	JMU 2024	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Height, PPG
1-PG	Michael Green	10	2	2	0	0	1	1	0	1	6'0,11.5 ppg
2-SG	Noah Freidel	8	2	1	0	0	1	1	1	4	6'4,10.9 ppg
3-SF	Terrence Edwards	12	2	2	2	2	2	1	0	1	6'6,17.2 ppg
4-PF	Julien Wooden	5	1	1	0	0	2	3	0	1	6'8,9.8 ppg
5-C	TJ Bickerstaff	14	0	6	2	2	2	0	12		6'9,15.8 ppg
1-PG	Bryant Randleman	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'4,1.7 ppg
2-SG	Xavier Brown	7	1	2	0	0	1	1	0	2	6'2,7 ppg
3-SF	Quincy Allen	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'8,3.8 ppg
4-PF	Raekwon Horton	4	0	1	2	2	1	1	0	1	6'6,7 ppg
5-C	Jaylen Carey	6	0	3	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'8,6.8 ppg
	15 Turnovers	68	8	19	6	6	13	7	1	10
Pos	Oregon St. 1982	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Height, Season
1-PG	William Brew	11	1	4	0	0	1	2	0	1	6'1,9.2 ppg
2-SG	Lester Conner	21	3	3	6	7	1	4	0	1	6'4,14.9 ppg,NBA
3-SF	Danny Evans	14	1	5	1	1	2	2	0	1	6'5,11.3 ppg
4-PF	Charlie Sitton	13	1	5	0	0	2	2	0	2	6'8,12.9 ppg,NBA
5-C	A.C. Green	10	0	5	0	0	2	0	1	3	6'9,8.6 ppg,NBA
1-PG	Alan Tait	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'2,0.5 ppg
2-SG	Jamie Stangel	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'7,1.4 ppg
3-SF	Jeff Wilson	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'7,1.2 ppg
4-PF	Rob Holbrook	6	0	3	0	0	1	0	0	2	6'86.7 ppg
5-C	Greg Wiltjer	6	0	3	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'11,5.4 ppg
	13 Turnovers	81	6	28	7	8	13	10	1	10