Flagg Late Steals Hold off 1971 Fordham Basketball, 75-69

 Charlie Yelverton, who averaged an amazing 23 points and 12 rebounds a game at only 6'2" for Fordham before moving to star shooting guard in the Italian professional leagues as a shooting guard, was unstoppable in matching Cooper Flagg's 24 points.

The day after 2025 national champ was stunned by Jimmy Valvano's 1980 Iona Cinderella team, Flagg came up with two late steals and breakaway baskets to hold off 1971 Fordham for a 75-69 win to advance to the tournaments Elite 8. Duke could now get an ACC Elite 8 game against Valvano's other Cinderella team - 1983 NC State, unless the Wolfpack falls to the Dunk City team from Florida Gulf Coast.

Outside of Yelverton, the all-NBA lineup of Duke used their huge size advantage (6'10 to 6'2 average) and all-NBA starting five to hold even the other future NBA Fordham player Ken Charles in check, as Flagg's 11 rebounds gave Duke a 33-24 edge and his 11 field goals give them a 32-25 edge. However, Fordham kept it to 66-63 with 4:30 to go by drawing 21 fouls and hitting 17 of 20 free throws.

With Fordham coming down with a chance to tie, Flagg stepped in front of a pass and laid it in at the other end of the break to make it 68-63. After Yelverton scored to make it 68-65, Flagg stole it against and laid it in for a 70-65 lead with 2:44 (5 possessions) to play.

Both Duke guards came up with offensive rebounds to help secure the win, as Tyrese Proctor grabbed a miss and was fouled - hitting 1 of 2 to keep it a two possession game at 71-67. Then later Kon Knueppel did the same with 3 possessions (1:30 to play) and put it in to stretch the lead to 75-67, and Duke won 75-69.

You can play your own games by clicking on the free Value Add Basketball Game, or printing out any of the all-time great men's or women's teams here.

Pos	Fordham 1971	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season stats, ht,nba
1-PG	John Burik	5	1	1	0	0	2	6	0	1	5'11, 9.5 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 5.6 Ast
2-SG	Bill Mainor	9	1	2	2	2	3	1	0	2	6'1, 14.1 Pts, 3.3 Reb, 1.9 Ast
3-SG	Ken Charles	8	0	2	4	4	5	2	1	1	NBA-6'3, 15.4 Pts, 5.1 Reb, 2.1 Ast
4-PF	Bart Woytowicz	5	0	2	1	2	3	0	1	3	6'6, 10.2 Pts, 6.9 Reb, 1.2 Ast
5-C	Charlie Yelverton	24	0	10	4	4	5	1	3	2	NBA-6'2, 23.3 Pts, 12.0 Reb, 1.8 Ast
Pos	Bench	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Pts, Reb,Ast,Ht,pro?
1-PG	Tom Pipich	6	0	1	4	4	1	0	0	1	6'1, 2.4 Pts, 0.3 Reb, 0.7 Ast
2-SG	P.J. Carlesimo	4	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'1, 0.2 Pts, 0.0 Reb, 0.7 Ast
3-SG	Bob Larbes	3	0	1	1	2	1	0	0	1	6'5, 1.8 Pts, 0.5 Reb, 0.3 Ast
4-PF	George Zambetti	3	0	1	1	2	1	0	0	1	6'5, 6.0 Pts, 3.8 Reb, 1.0 Ast
5-C	Tom Sullivan	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	6'4, 4.7 Pts, 4.9 Reb, 1.1 Ast
	16 Turnovers	69	2	23	17	20	24	10	5	14
Pos	Duke 2025	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Pts, Reb,Ast,Ht,pro?
1-PG	Kon Knueppel	12	2	3	0	0	5	2	0	2	NBA-6'7, 14.4 Pts, 4.0 Reb, 2.7 Ast
2-SG	Tyrese Proctor	8	1	2	1	2	4	1	0	2	NBA-6'5, 12.4 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 2.2 Ast
3-SG	Sion James	4	0	2	0	0	3	0	0	3	NBA-6'5, 8.6 Pts, 4.2 Reb, 2.9 Ast
4-PF	Cooper Flagg	24	0	11	2	2	6	4	2	2	NBA-6'9, 19.2 Pts, 7.5 Reb, 4.2 Ast
5-C	Khaman Maluach	9	1	3	0	0	7	0	3	3	NBA-7'2, 8.6 Pts, 6.6 Reb, 0.5 Ast
Pos	Bench	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Pts, Reb,Ast,Ht,pro?
1-PG	Caleb Foster	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	6'5, 4.9 Pts, 1.7 Reb, 1.4 Ast
2-SG	Isaiah Evans	5	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'6, 6.8 Pts, 1.1 Reb, 0.5 Ast
3-SG	Maliq Brown	3	0	1	1	1	1	0	0	2	6'8, 2.5 Pts, 3.7 Reb, 1.5 Ast
4-PF	Mason Gillis	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	6'6, 4.1 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 0.8 Ast
5-C	Patrick Ngongba	6	0	2	2	2	4	0	0	2	6'11, 3.9 Pts, 2.7 Reb, 0.8 Ast
	17 Turnovers	75	5	27	6	7	33	7	5	21

100 Most Valuable Men's College Basketball Players in VABG 1939 to Now

After playing hundreds of simulated Value Add Basketball games using 300 great college basketball team cards that I researched and calculated myself, this is my updated list of the 100 greatest college basketball players in our game - which includes most players in history.

In addition to overall level and play and impact on the game, we looked at Win Shares per 10 team games played, which allows meaningful comparison across eras with vastly different schedules. About two-thirds of the players on this list have published college Win Share data; for the remaining one-third, I produced estimates using the same Value Add methodology.

To clarify the scale: a player with 4.8 Win Shares per 10 games is worth roughly five wins for every ten games his team plays.

For example, Kansas went 42–8 during Wilt Chamberlain’s tenure. A value of 4.8 WS per 10 games credits Wilt with roughly 24 of those wins, leaving the remaining 18 wins attributable to his teammates, while the team lost eight games overall. This framing makes it possible to compare players fairly across teams, eras, and rule sets. Wilt was clearly the most valuable player to his team, though I rank him third overall.

One caveat on "Most Valuable" vs. "Greatest" (which I originally called this list) is that it is hard to make the list if there were two truly great players on your team because the team likely could have won a lot of games without you. There are two duos on this list - UNC's Michael Jordan and James Worthy and Ohio State's Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek. However, in other cases to site even my alma mater - neither Jimmy Butler or Jae Crowder made the list for the season they played together but when it was just Butler his value went up. The same with Bo Ellis and Butch Lee or with Dean Meminger and Jim Chones. Every university will have similar examples where a tremendously valuable player does not make the top 100 list because they team had another all-time superstar. Also these are only players in the game, and we try to get at least one team per school but also not to have too many teams from any given school so some players were not considered because their team is not among the 300 in the game.

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Why Anthony Davis Ranks 7th All-Time

The ranking most people will debate is Anthony Davis at No. 7. Based on my Value Add Basketball rankings that were covered in this Sports Illustrated article more than a decade ago, I found that Davis was by far the most valuable college basketball player of the 21st century, based on his performance during Kentucky’s 2012 national championship season—ironically, I was in attendance at the only game that team lost (at Indiana).

If players throughout history had competed under the same rules and conditions, I don’t believe there would be any debate that Anthony Davis belongs among the ten greatest college players of all time.

The primary reason Davis is often ranked below many 20th-century stars is structural, not performance-based. Davis played in the one-and-done era, meaning his entire college résumé consists of his freshman season. In contrast, during most of the 20th century, elite players were not allowed to play varsity basketball as freshmen, meaning their first college action came as sophomores—after a full year of development.

The Value Add Basketball research mentioned above shows that MOST CAREER improvement in a player’s career almost always occurs between the freshman and sophomore seasons.

In other words:

• If all great players in history had been limited to only their freshman seasons, Anthony Davis would clearly rank among the top 10 college players ever.

• Conversely, if Davis had been required to sit out as a freshman and then played sophomore and junior seasons at Kentucky, as most historical greats did, he almost certainly would have built a résumé universally recognized as top-10 all-time.

Thus, when all players are evaluated under equal conditions, Anthony Davis emerges as one of the greatest 10 college basketball players in history. The only reason this isn’t universally accepted is that the rules changed, not the level of dominance.

If we ranked only the 65 players on this lost for whom we have actual Win Shares, Kareem and Walton are 1st and 2nd, and Davis is 5th - and tracing normal improvement range Davis would have very likely had the best Win Share in history if he played a sophomore season.

And yes, Michael Jordan is the greatest overall player - but considering only all college careers only with no consideration of the pro career that followed, I have him 4th.

Rank	Player (School)	WS / 10	Draft Pick (Overall)
1	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (UCLA)	4.8	1
2	Bill Walton (UCLA)	4.5	1
3	Wilt Chamberlain (Kansas)	4.8	1
4	Michael Jordan (North Carolina)	2.6	3
5	Oscar Robertson (Cincinnati)	4.2	1
6	Bill Russell (San Francisco)	3.9	2
7	Anthony Davis (Kentucky)	3.9	1
8	Pete Maravich (LSU)	3.8	3
9	Jerry West (West Virginia)	3.7	2
10	Elvin Hayes (Houston)	3.6	1
11	David Robinson (Navy)	4	1
12	Jerry Lucas (Ohio State)	3.5	2
13	Tim Duncan (Wake Forest)	3.4	1
14	Larry Bird (Indiana State)	3.3	6
15	Julius Erving (UMass)	3.4	12
16	John Havlicek (Ohio State)	3	7
17	Elgin Baylor (Seattle)	3.3	1
18	Kevin Durant (Texas)	3.5	2
19	Rick Barry (Miami)	3.3	2
20	Shaquille O'Neal (LSU)	3.1	1
21	Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston)	3	1
22	Carmelo Anthony (Syracuse)	3	3
23	Ralph Sampson (Virginia)	3.1	1
24	Bob Cousy (Holy Cross)	3.2	10
25	Magic Johnson (Michigan State)	2.7	1
26	Danny Manning (Kansas)	3.2	1
27	Bob Pettit (LSU)	3.1	2
28	Clyde Lovellette (Kansas)	3	1
29	Irv Torgoff (Long Island University)	3.6	50
30	Bob McAdoo (North Carolina)	3	2
31	Wes Unseld (Louisville)	2.9	2
32	Christian Laettner (Duke)	2.6	3
33	James Worthy (North Carolina)	2.2	1
34	Frank Kaminsky (Wisconsin)	3.4	9
35	Reggie Miller (UCLA)	2	11
36	Dwyane Wade (Marquette)	2.9	5
37	Dave Bing (Syracuse)	2.9	2
38	Scott May (Indiana)	2.4	2
39	Isiah Thomas (Indiana)	2.4	2
40	Patrick Ewing (Georgetown)	2.9	1
41	Vince Carter (North Carolina)	2.1	5
42	Shane Battier (Duke)	2.7	6
43	Dave Cowens (Florida State)	2.6	4
44	Gary Payton (Oregon State)	2.7	2
45	Ray Allen (Connecticut)	2.6	5
46	Artis Gilmore (Jacksonville)	2.7	1
47	Jameer Nelson (St. Joe's)	3.5	20
48	Bob Lanier (St. Bonaventure)	2.8	1
49	Kawhi Leonard (San Diego State)	3.1	15
50	Bo Kimble (LMU)	2.8	8
51	Jason Kidd (California)	2.5	2
52	Nate Thurmond (Bowling Green)	2.3	3
53	Draymond Green (Michigan State)	2.5	35
54	Glen Rice (Michigan)	3.1	4
55	Ken Sailors (Wyoming)	2.5	100
56	Allen Iverson (Georgetown)	2.3	1
57	Chris Paul (Wake Forest)	3.1	4
58	Kemba Walker (Connecticut)	3.7	9
59	Chris Webber (Michigan)	2.4	1
60	Damian Lillard (Weber State)	3.6	6
61	Zach Edey (Purdue)	4.2	9
62	Walt Hazzard (UCLA)	2.3	1
63	Cooper Flagg (Duke)	2.2	1
64	Austin Carr (Notre Dame)	2.7	1
65	Larry Johnson (UNLV)	3	1
66	John Stockton (Gonzaga)	2.2	16
67	Bernard King (Tennessee)	2.2	7
68	Jimmy Butler (Marquette)	2.4	30
69	Jared Butler (Baylor)	2.7	40
70	Ja Morant (Murray State)	3.8	2
71	Mark Aguirre (DePaul)	2.1	1
72	Johnny Dawkins (Duke)	2.3	10
73	Dominique Wilkins (Georgia)	2.6	3
74	Cazzie Russell (Michigan)	2.6	1
75	Alonzo Mourning (Georgetown)	2.8	2
76	Doug McDermott (Creighton)	3.7	11
77	Steve Nash (Santa Clara)	2.8	15
78	Buddy Hield (Oklahoma)	3.3	6
79	Evan Mobley (USC)	3.2	3
80	Luka Garza (Iowa)	3.9	52
81	Paul Pierce (Kansas)	2.1	10
82	Ben Gordon (Connecticut)	2.9	3
83	Tyler Kolek (Marquette)	3.6	34
84	Walt Frazier (Southern Illinois)	2.4	5
85	Sean May (North Carolina)	3	13
86	Andre Miller (Utah)	3	8
87	Brandon Roy (Washington)	2.9	6
88	Ochai Agbaji (Kansas)	2.8	14
89	Brook Lopez (Stanford)	2.6	10
90	Shane Larkin (Miami)	3	18
91	Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton)	3.3	44
92	Sidney Moncrief (Arkansas)	2	5
93	Armen Gilliam (UNLV)	2.6	2
94	Drew Timme (Gonzaga)	3.4	100
95	Bob Kurland (Oklahoma St.)	2.4	40
96	Nigel Williams-Goss (Gonzaga)	2.9	55
97	Greg Oden (Ohio St.)	2.3	1
98	Reggie King (Alabama)	1.8	25
99	Derrick Rose (Memphis)	2	1
100	Charlie Ward (Florida State)	2.4	26

1st Dynasty Long Island 1939 Crushes Current NIT Champs

Thanks to sources such as the Kentucky Big Blue History box score of Long Island crushing the Wildcats in 1939, the Marquette Archives, and a New York Times account of Marquette coming closest to upsetting Long Island during their 24–0 season—when consensus All-American Irv Torgoff rallied LIU against Marquette’s Converse All-American Dave Quabius—we were able to put together player cards for our earliest dynasty team. Long Island was college basketball’s first true dynasty, winning national titles in 1937, 1939 (undefeated), and 1941.

We went to great detail researching the 1930s for oor book more than a decade ago pictured at the bottom - the Ultimate Hoops Guide: Marquette.

Their first championship was the Metropolitan Title in 1937, the year before the NIT started. LIU then skipped the first NIT tournament, came up just short of repeating as Metro champions, and returned to storm through the undefeated 1939 NIT title at 24–0 with the player cards pictured below. They wrapped their run with another title in 1941. One reason we try to play each new team is to catch any errors, and in this game realize a typo on the free throw range was showing 11- instead of 1-, so we will correct, but if the card show 11-15 that means 1-15, and 11-10 means 1-10 on a free throw made.

One long-time challenge with early-era teams is having enough stats to produce accurate Value Add Basketball Game player cards. We had great luck finding detailed material on the 1942 Wyoming team led by Kenny Sailors, who invented the modern jump shot and carried Wyoming to a national championship, and we have had them as a team all along. However, this is the first year we felt confident in having enough info to produce Long Island 1939. 

Their ranking as a 62nd all-time team of our 300 great teams in the game slotted them against a play-in winner—and they drew one of the newest teams, 2025 NIT Champion Chattanooga, who barely survived their play-in over 2001 Howard.

Back in the early Madison Square Garden era, a first draw to pack the arena was Irv Torgoff, as one of the first great New York Jewish basketball stars, dominating the early NIT years before the NCAA Tournament fully took hold. That legacy continued through occasional modern stars like Jon Scheyer, Duke’s current head coach and when we ran our Value Add Basketball calculations covered by Sports Illustrated years back, Scheyer rated as the most valuable college players of this century in his senior year—just edging out Anthony Davis’ 2012 season (if Davis was not a one-and-done he would have passed Scheyer as the most valuable college player of the century.

In this Value Add Basketball Game matchup, Chattanooga managed to hold Torgoff to single digits scoring—but he still posted 8 rebounds, 6 steals, and 2 blocks, anchoring a defense that held Chattanooga to just 57 points in an 81–57 win that was never in doubt. Long Island advances to the Sweet 16 as the 14th team to clinch a spot, moving from 62nd to 49th all-time based on our KenPom-style rating system.

Their preseason rating of +3.0 (meaning they were projected to be roughly three points better than a baseline “great” AP Top 10 AND Elite Eight–level team) jumped after earning a Game Score of +9.0, driven by a dominant 24-point win over a –18 opponent plus the three-point win bonus. That pushes LIU to +4.5, making them roughly a 10-point favorite in their Sweet 16 game against St. Louis, currently ranked 185th among our 300 great teams in the Value Add Basketball Game.

Point guard Oscar Shechtman shocked Chattanooga with a game-high 22 points, while Arthur Hillhouse controlled the glass with 11 rebounds. LIU also dominated the turnover battle 24–15, fueled by 13 steals and constant transition pressure.

Pos	Long Island 1939	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl
1-PG	Oscar Shechtman	22	3	6	1	2	2	2	0	3
2-SG	Dan Kaplowitz	10	0	3	4	8	2	1	0	4
3-SG	Irving Torgoff	7	1	2	0	0	8	6	2	1
4-PF	John Bromberg	16	1	6	1	1	2	2	0	2
5-C	Arthur Hillhouse	11	0	3	5	6	11	2	1	2
Pos	Bench	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl
1-PG	Si Lobello	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	2
2-SG	Myron Sewitch	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1
3-SG	Irving Zeitlin	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1
4-PF	Joe Shelly	7	1	2	0	0	3	0	0	1
5-C	Butch Schwartz	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1
	15 Turnovers	81	6	26	11	17	33	13	3	18
Pos	Chattanooga 2025	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl
1-PG	Trey Bonham	7	0	2	3	4	1	1	0	2
2-SG	Honor Huff	11	1	1	6	7	3	1	0	5
3-SG	Bash Wieland	14	0	7	0	0	3	2	0	1
4-PF	Garrison Keeslar	8	0	3	2	2	6	3	0	1
5-C	Collin Mulholland	6	1	1	1	2	3	0	1	3
Pos	Bench	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl
1-PG	Frank Champion	3	0	1	1	2	1	0	0	2
2-SG	Jack Kostel	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1
3-SG	Makai Richards	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1
4-PF	Sean Cusano	2	0	1	0	0	6	0	0	4
5-C	Latif Diouf	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1
	24 Turnovers	57	2	19	13	17	27	7	1	21

Sweet 16

Group 1

Florida 2025 vs. Iona 1980

St. John's 2025 vs. Ball State 1990

Group 2

Duke 2025 vs. Fordham 1971

NC State 1983 vs Florida Gulf Coast 2013

Group 3

Oral Roberts 2021 or City College of New York 1950 vs Cleveland St. 1986 or Canisius 1957

Long Beach St. 1972 vs UC San Diego 2025

Group 4

UCLA 2008 vs idaho 1982

Long Island U 1939 vs St. Louis 1952

The Return of College Basketball's Best: Boeheim, Smith, McGuire & the Great New Dynasties Compete

Favorite	Yr	Star (all-time top 75)	vs.	Rnk	Underdog	Yr	Star (all-time rnk if top 75)
Cincinnati	1962	Paul Hogue	vs.	198	Syracuse	1966	Dave Bing #74, Jim Boeheim
UCLA	1964	Walt Hazzard	vs.	141	Villanova	1950	Paul Arizin #66
UCLA	1975	Dave Meyers	vs.	140	Detroit Mercy	1960	Dave DeBusschere #73
Kentucky	1978	Jack Givens	vs.	129	Bowling Green	1963	Nate Thurmond #49
Kentucky	2012	Anthony Davis #53	vs.	128	Dartmouth	1944	Dick McGuire
Duke	1992	Christian Laettner	vs.	95	Connecticut	2011	Kemba Walker
UCLA	1967	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar #3	vs.	85	Kansas	1952	Clyde Lovellette, Dean Smith
UNLV	1991	Larry Johnson	vs.	47	North Carolina	2017	Justin Jackson

In the 4th annual Value Add Basketball Tournament, we’re excited to feature a truly unique matchup: three of the greatest basketball coaches of all time—Jim Boeheim, Dean Smith, and Al McGuire—AS COLLEGE PLAYERS a competing against some of the most iconic players and dynasties in basketball history. 

We’ve created new matchups for our fourth tournament by adding eight new teams based on two key criteria: ensuring that all 28 college dynasties included in my recent CBS Sports piece on the 28 greatest dynasties as well as any team with a player featured in the NBA's recent 75th Anniversary Team.

Seeding and Tournament Breakdown:

The seeding worked out beautifully, with four newly identified dynasties being added to the mix and matched against teams that have either already been in the tournament or are looking to regain their spot in the race for the title. Among the new teams, four are favored against underdog teams added because one of their players was named by the NBA as one of the 75 greatest in history, while the remaining four face off against previous favorites who have had to bounce back after surprising upsets.

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8 New All-Time Great Teams from Dynasties:

While we’ve previously included teams from UCLA, Connecticut, Kentucky, and Kansas in our Value Add Basketball Game (read more here), we realized several key dynasties runs from those schools were missing. To fill this gap, we’ve added six teams from these storied programs, along with two “non-blue blood” teams that also had a lasting impact on college basketball.

Cincinnati 1962 (Paul Hogue)
Seed: 1 | All-Time Rank: 2

Cincinnati, featuring Paul Hogue, is ranked among the top teams, thanks to a dynastic stretch post-Oscar Robertson and his 1960 team already in the game (of the 234 teams, this broke our rule of no two teams within two years of each other to avoid much overlaps in players).



UCLA 1964 (Walt Hazzard)
Seed: 2 | All-Time Rank: 3

With Walt Hazzard leading the way, this UCLA team remains one of the most dominant in history. We originally treated the 1964-75 UCLA run as one dynasty, but decided to instead threat it as four 3-year dynasties to include the 1964 and 1975 teams in addition to Kareem's 1968 and Walton's 1972.

UCLA 1975 (Dave Meyers)
Seed: 3 | All-Time Rank: 14

This team, led by Dave Meyers, brings UCLA’s deep tradition into the fold, and not only did this team get John Wooden one final title, but they faced the toughest competition (Strength of Schedule) of any other dynasty EXCEPT Michigan's Fab 5 and Michael Jordan's UNC champs.



Kentucky 1978 (Jack Givens)
Seed: 4 | All-Time Rank: 18

Jack Givens’ Kentucky squad had a magical run to the title and will be looking to make another deep tournament run.

North Carolina 2017 (Justin Jackson)
Seed: 9 | All-Time Rank: 47

The 2017 Tar Heels, led by Justin Jackson, will try to prove they deserve a higher ranking in this competitive field. They would have one back-to-back titles except for Villanova's buzzer beater the year before these champs.

Kansas 1952 (Clyde Lovellette)
Seed: 10 | All-Time Rank: 85

Clyde Lovellette’s Kansas team is a historical powerhouse, but if they lose their openers they will fall to 5th place among Kansas teams. Paul Pierce and Mario Chalmers both have teams in our all-time Final 5, the recent 2022 champs are ahead of this time, and if they lose their first game they will slip behind Wilt Chamberlain and the 1957 squad.

Connecticut 2011 (Kemba Walker)
Seed: 11 | All-Time Rank: 95

UConn’s 2011 national title squad, led by Kemba Walker, faces an uphill battle to prove themselves once again. This team did not look that strong until the tournament, which they simply picked the dribbles of opponents to never let them set up their offense, which they will definitely have to do again if this surprise champ from 2011 hopes to pull an upset in their first game against the overpowering champ from the year after they claimed their title - Kentucky 2012 and Anthony Davis. Whether or not they win in the game, the actual season was one of Jim Calhoun's most incredible title runs.




Dartmouth 1944 (Dick McGuire)
Seed: 12 | All-Time Rank: 128

The "Dartmouth 1944 and Friends" team is a unique entry, combining players from the 1940s, including NBA legends Dick McGuire and his brother, Al McGuire, alongside military trainees who played during World War II. Though this team near had the same lineup, they nearly captured a national title, and we’re thrilled to see them make their debut.

Make no mistake, the star of this "Dartmouth and Friends 1944" team and the actual 1944 team was Dick McGuire, who would go onto dish out more than 4,000 assists in the NBA en route to being named an NBA All-Star seven times and finishing 11th in MVP voting one year. This is our only team of 310 Value Add Basketball Game teams in the game that does not use the actual roster - but since the roster was changing every game anyway between military training that year, we decided to put together this team to represent the team that came so close to winning the title despite a new line-up every game. As the only team in the game that includes players not actually on the squad, I named them the “Dartmouth 1944 and Friends” team with Dick McGuire - 

Players were sharing time between Marine and Navy training and playing some games but not others - making the win over Big Ten champ Ohio State to improve to 19-1 to make their second national title game in three years before an overtime 40-42 loss to Utah in the title game even more impressive. We had left them out of the game due to how hard it was to cobble together stats but decided to put together a "Dartmouth and Friends" team using stats for five Dartmouth players from the 1940s that made the NBA in addition to the two Marine trainees who played some of those games between training and we let Dick bring his little brother Al McGuire to play as well.

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• 4 New Teams Featuring All-Time Greatest NBA Players:

We also realized that several players who made ESPN’s NBA 75th Anniversary Team (https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33297498/the-nba-75th-anniversary-team-ranked-where-76-basketball-legends-check-our-list) had college teams that deserved to be included. We’ve added these teams to the tournament, ensuring the best of both worlds: dominant college programs and some of the greatest NBA players ever.

Bowling Green 1963 (Nate Thurmond)
Seed: 13 | All-Time Rank: 129

Nate Thurmond led Bowling Green to the NCAA tournament twice, and his rebounding dominance will be critical in this competition. Bowling Green 1963 featuring  Nate Thurmond #49 is our tournament  13 -seed currently ranks as our No. H:H and No.  129 in our rating of the greatest teams ever. Thurmond was the first player NBA player to ever record a dradruple-double during his career, and he once recorded 42 rebounds in a game – only topped by Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain in the history of the NBA. He took  Bowling Green to the NCAA tournament twice and recorded 31 rebounds in his last college game.

Detroit Mercy 1960 (Dave DeBusschere)
Seed: 14 | All-Time Rank: 140

DeBusschere, a unique two-sport athlete, led Detroit Mercy to national recognition before going on to an illustrious NBA career.Detroit Mercy 1960 featuring  Dave DeBusschere #73 is our tournament  14 -seed currently ranks as our No. H:H and No.  140 in our rating of the greatest teams ever. DeBusschere was also an MLB baseball pitcher his first couple of years after taking Detroit Mercy to the baseball and basketball national tournaments, but after two MLB seasons focused on the NBA the rest of his career. According to Wikipedia, the only 12 other athletes to make the NBA and MLB are Danny Ainge, Frank Baumholtz, Hank Biasatti, Gene Conley, Chuck Connors, DeBusschere, Dick Groat, Steve Hamilton, Mark Hendrickson, Cotton Nash, Ron Reed, Dick Ricketts and Howie Schultz.

Villanova 1950 (Paul Arizin)
Seed: 15 | All-Time Rank: 141

Arizin’s remarkable journey from being cut from his high school team to becoming a national player of the year is a testament to his incredible career. Villanova 1950 featuring  Paul Arizin #66 is our tournament  15 -seed currently ranks as our No. H:H and No.  141 in our rating of the greatest teams ever. The coach at Arizin high school deserved to be fired, because he cut Arizin from the team – but a few years later Villanova’s coach saw him playing a CYO game and according to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Arizin), “Severance approached Arizin and asked him if he would like to go to Villanova, to which Arizin answered: ‘I already go to Villanova.’" Perhaps the easiest and best recruiting job ever.  He scored 85 points in a game and was named national player of the year in 1950.

Syracuse 1966 (Dave Bing, Seed: 16 | All-Time Rank: 198

Jim Boeheim is our tournament  16 -seed currently ranks as our No. H:H and No.  198 in our rating of the greatest teams ever. He revolutionized the point guard position as a tall athletic player who did all the distribution you want in a point guard, but also scored at will  - finishing fifth in the nation by his senior season before a great NBA career. While he was certainly well known after becoming Mayor of Detroit, his roommate and teammate  Jim Boeheim went onto be arguably the greatest coach in the history of college basketball. Ironically we stumbled on three coaching legends accidentally by pulling up these teams, so now have player cards for Boeheim, Dean Smith (from Kansas 1952) and Al McGuire’s brother Dick McGuire from Dartmouth 1944.

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4 Teams Rebounding from Surprising Upsets:

Finally, we have four teams that experienced shocking upsets in previous tournaments. These teams are hungry for redemption and will look to prove that their losses were mere flukes.

1. Kentucky 2012 (Anthony Davis)
   Seed: 5 | All-Time Rank: 21 Kentucky 2012 featuring  Anthony Davis #53 is our tournament  5 -seed currently ranks as our No. H:H and No.  21 in our rating of the greatest teams ever. Kentucky is 4-2 in our game, and has looked dominant in winning those four games by an average of 17 points – just what we thought would happen in our game. One of their two losses was in our first big tournament of 96 teams, where they can be excused for being upset by Michael Jordan. However, when we had only developed teams since the www.kenpom.com pages were compiled in 2002, they were stung by another upset by the Auburn 2019 team.  We put them at No. 2 in our preseason rankings, but they dropped to their current No. 21 due to that loss, so we want to see if they are elite.

2. Duke 1992 (Christian Laettner)
   Seed: 6 | All-Time Rank: 26
   

   Duke 1992 featuring  Christian Laettner is our tournament  6 -seed currently ranks as our No. H:H and No.  26 in our rating of the greatest teams ever. The legendary Duke 1992 team was No. 10 all-time in our preseason ranking, and the Laettner years is ranked as one of the best five dynasties of all time in our recent CBS Sports piece https://247sports.com/college/marquette/article/john-pudner-marquette-kryptonite-only-blemish-as-22-24-uconn-soars-in-top-10-all-time-rankings-242853394/. However, after never losing the heartbreakers during their actual run, they did lose two heartbreakers – on a last second shot by Michael Jordan and their hated rivals, and then again to their hated Big East rivals UConn 2004 to drop from our 10^th all-time best team to 26^th for now – hoping for a win to shoot back up.

3. UCLA 1967 (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)
   Seed: 7 | All-Time Rank: 35
   

   UCLA 1967 featuring  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar #3 is our tournament  7 -seed currently ranks as our No. H:H and No.  35 in our rating of the greatest teams ever. Kareem’s UCLA only lost once in our game – as they did in real life against Houston in the “Game of the Century,” but it was the biggest upset in the 304 games we’ve played since inventing the Value Add Basketball Game.  UCLA’s team is rated a +13 in our Value Add Basketball Game, good enough to start the season as our No. 3 team in addition to being ranked our No. 1 dynasty, and was therefore a 16-point favorite up against the DePaul 1980 team that was a -3. Hoewver, Mark Aguire and Terry Cummings no only pulled the biggest upset in our 304 games, but kept the tempo fast with steals to not let UCLA settle and work it into Kareem, and the Blue Demons not only won but pulled away 86-71 to send UCLA plunging all the way to 35^th all-time in our game.

4. UNLV 1991 (Larry Johnson)
   Seed: 8 | All-Time Rank: 45
   The Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV were once considered a top-tier team, but a string of upsets has dropped them down the rankings. Now, they’re back for redemption.UNLV 1991 featuring  Larry Johnson is our tournament  8 -seed currently ranks as our No.   45 in our rating of the greatest teams ever. This story was familiar – UNLV looked like one of the best ever as the 11^th ranked team all-time in our game. However, they dropped all the way to 45^th after two losses and need this tournament to try to reestablish themselves as elite. It was the 1991 Christian Laettner team that stunned them in the rematch in real life in 1991, and in the game it was the 2001 Duke team from a decade later that beat them.  That was not the game that dropped them a lot though – rather it was the 1966 national champs from Texas Western, the same team that would become UTEP and made history as the first all-Black starting team in a title game that beat the all-white Kentucky team of Adolf Rupp and his white socks.

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Conclusion:

This year's Value Add Basketball Tournament promises to be one of the most exciting and unpredictable yet, with fresh faces, familiar dynasties, and historic players competing for the ultimate title. Will the new additions prove their place among the greatest teams of all time, or will the established powers reclaim their spots? Only time will tell, but one thing is certain: it’s going to be an unforgettable tournament for someone like me who loves to relive and learn about the greatest teams and players by seeing their strengths in the course of games..

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.