Broome Sweeps Auburn to Come-From-Behind Thriller Over 1982 Idaho

The 1982 Idaho VABG basketball player cards had the most balanced and strongest shooting ranges of any team we’ve seen among our 300 great all-time teams. All five starters either scored or were fouled on at least all rolls of 1–12 on the 20-sided die, making them look scary hard to beat. They look like a team that played at a slightly slower pace but would have been one of the top offenses on www.kenpom.com if it had existed then.

They won their first 12 games, including neutral-site wins over #16 Oregon State, Oregon, and Iowa State by an average margin of over 20 points per game. They then lost back-to-back games at Montana and Notre Dame by two points each — yes, they were four points from starting 25–0 — because they followed that with 11 more wins in a row to get to 23–2, ending with a Sweet 16 win over then-#16 Iowa and a surge to #6 in the country.

By then, AC Green and Oregon State had recovered from the early-season blowout loss and were up to #4 in the country, setting up an Elite 8 rematch as a #4 vs. #6 game. Oregon State won the rematch to end Idaho’s incredible season at 23–3.

We honestly looked at the cards and thought they looked very tough to beat, even though our math showed 2025 Auburn as a slight favorite. Auburn looked like the top team in the country for most of the 2025 season before slowing down a little near the end and finally losing in the Final Four.

Idaho led most of the way, as you can see from the scoresheet, and only an incredible game by Johni Broome (28 points, 14 rebounds, four blocked shots) kept the game close, as Auburn trailed 58–53 with six minutes (11 possessions) left to play.

However, Broome went inside for two, then Chad Baker-Mazara hit a three-pointer to make it 58–58. Broome then dominated the boards and scored two more buckets, including one off an offensive rebound. He grabbed yet another offensive rebound and kicked it out to Miles Kelly, who nailed a three-pointer (the three-point range increases by one in the Value Add Basketball Game if a teammate grabs an offensive board and passes it out to you) to cap a 12–0 run and make it 65–58.

Idaho fought back to within four points twice in the closing minutes, but when they had to go for the steal or foul while trailing 66–70, they ended up fouling Baker-Mazara. He sank both free throws as a 90% shooter (free throws are good on a 1–18 on the 20-sided die), and Auburn won 74–68, holding the ball on the final possession.

That makes Auburn one of two 2025 teams in our Elite 8 of new teams added to the game. They will play the oldest team in our game, the 1939 dynasty Long Island University team, which has been dominant in the tournament so far. The bracket and box score are below, and the final spot to be filled will face the other 2025 team in the tournament — Duke — with their opponent coming from either Jim Valvano’s amazing national champion NC State team or the exciting Dunk City Florida Gulf Coast squad from 2013.

Pos	1982 Idaho	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl		Actual Season Stats,Ht
1-PG	Kenny Owens	8	0	4	0	0	3	2	0	2		15.6 Pts, 2.1 Reb, 4.2 Ast,6'0
2-SG	Brian Kellerman	18	2	6	0	0	3	3	0	1		12.5 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 4.4 Ast,6'5
3-SG	Phil Hopson	8	0	3	2	4	4	1	0	1		12.9 Pts, 6.6 Reb, 1.3 Ast,6'6
4-PF	Gordie Herbert	14	0	7	0	0	6	1	0	1		12.6 Pts, 6.5 Reb, 3.6 Ast,6'6
5-C	Kelvin Smith	10	0	5	0	0	8	0	2	3		10.3 Pts, 6.6 Reb, 1.0 Ast,6'6
Pos	Bench	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl		Actual Season Stats,Ht
1-PG	Freeman Watkins	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1		3.2 Pts, 1.2 Reb, 0.3 Ast,6'3
2-SG	Matt Haskins	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1		1.0 Pts, 0.3 Reb, 0.4 Ast,6'4
3-SG	Ben Ross	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1		1.5 Pts, 0.5 Reb, 0.2 Ast,6'4
4-PF	Antwine Murchison	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1		1.1 Pts, 0.6 Reb, 0.4 Ast,6'7
5-C	Pete Prigge	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	1	1		2.6 Pts, 1.9 Reb, 0.7 Ast,6'8
	14 Turnovers	68	2	30	2	4	30	7	3	13		,
Pos	2025 Auburn	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl		Actual Season Stats,Ht
1-PG	Denver Jones	5	1	1	0	0	1	1	0	1		10.9 Pts, 2.0 Reb, 2.6 Ast,6'4
2-SG	Miles Kelly	8	2	1	0	0	1	2	0	1		NBA-11.3 Pts, 3.7 Reb, 1.1 Ast,6'4
3-SG	Chad Baker-Mazara	14	2	4	0	0	3	1	3	4		12.3 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 2.7 Ast,6'7
4-PF	Chaney Johnson	6	0	1	4	4	6	1	0	1		9.1 Pts, 4.9 Reb, 1.3 Ast,6'7
5-C	Johni Broome	28	0	13	2	2	14	2	4	1		NBA - 18.6 Pts, 10.8 Reb, 2.9 Ast,6'10
Pos	Bench	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl		Actual Season Stats,Ht
1-PG	Tahaad Pettiford	3	0	1	1	2	2	1	0	1		11.6 Pts, 2.2 Reb, 3.0 Ast,6'1
2-SG	JP Pegues	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1		1.4 Pts, 1.2 Reb, 0.9 Ast,6'1
3-SG	Chris Moore	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1		1.1 Pts, 1.5 Reb, 0.4 Ast,6'6
4-PF	Ja'Heim Hudson	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1		1.4 Pts, 1.0 Reb, 0.4 Ast,6'7
5-C	Dylan Cardwell	4	0	2	0	0	3	0	0	1		NBA-5.0 Pts, 5.1 Reb, 1.6 Ast,6'11
	12 Turnovers	74	5	26	7	8	34	8	7	13		4.7 Pts, 4.9 Reb, 1.1 Ast,6'4

SHOCKER - Jimmy V's Iona, Ruland Stun Florida 2025 Champs

In 1980, Alex Middleton put up 18 points and 12 rebounds to almost stun Georgetown in the NCAA tournament, but the Hoyas survived 74-71 – Iona’s win streak ended at 17 games, and Jimmy Valvano was then recruited to NC State for the next season where he quickly built the team to stunning NCAA Champ.

Iona’s Jeff Ruland from that end went onto be a dominant NBA center. leading the league in rebounds and minutes played four years later as an All-Star for the Washington Bullet's who finished 9th in MVP voting.

In our Value Add Basketball Game Sweet 16 of newly created teams, Iona came down to the wire in another Cinderella game, and this time Middleton came through with one more big play to help Iona 1980 pull off the shocker over the 2025 NCAA champ Florida.

Iona led most of the way until the Gators Walter Clayton came through with a 4-point play to give Florida the 77-76 lead with a minute 30 to play.

Ruland and Clayton traded baskets to make ti 79-78 Florida and then both defenses tightened up, and with one possession to go Florida had the ball.

Iona’s only option was to create and extra possession with the “turnover or foul” strategy where the 20-sided die is not rolled because there will be no shot, but rather the other three dice are rolled to see who gets the ball (on the 8-sided die) and then all results are a foul EXCEPT if a steal or turnover results.

Luckily for Iona the 8-sided die was a “4” to put the ball at the powerforward’s hands, and the 14 was barely within Middleton’s defensive range of 11-14 for a steal, creating the extra possession to give both team’s one extra chance.

Mike Palma missed a potential game-winner, but Ruland grabbed the rebound and passed to Middleton, who score the 80-79 game-winner, as the Gators turned it over at the other end to advance Iona to our Elite 8 on another Jim Valvano Cinderella stunner. 

In our Elite 8, Iona will either get one of the four other 2025 teams to make our Sweet 16 - St. John's - or they will get the only ever Sweet 16 Ball State team - a team that almost stunned UNLV in the Sweet 16.

Here is Florida's starting line-up.

Here is Iona's starting line-up.

Valvano's "Survive and Advance" Team Added to Top 300 All-Time

 

We decided to create just a few more all-time great teams to get the Men's game to 300 teams even. Here are notes on the final six teams that will soon appear on this link to all 300 teams and rules of the Value Add Basketball Game.

We realized we had not included two of the teams most immortalized on screen. The legendary Jim Valvano and his Cinderella 1983 NC State team—just three years after his great Iona tournament run, which is also represented in our game—were the subject of ESPN’s 30 for 30 feature Survive and Advance. HBO, meanwhile, produced City Dump: The Story of the 1951 CCNY Basketball Scandal. It remains a shame that points were shaved (though games were not thrown), because otherwise the 1950 CCNY squad we included in our game would simply be remembered as the last team to win both the NIT and the NCAA Tournament, back when the two were considered equal championships.

We ran all 300 teams through AI to see if there were any others we should include. As a result, we added six teams total, swapping them in for five teams in our “New Team Tournament” that were essentially filler and not truly new. The image above shows how we reworked the tournament.

Perhaps most exciting for us, we assembled enough information to create player cards for the undefeated 1939 Long Island University champions. This team replaces the 1943 Wyoming squad as the oldest team in the game. Click here for the rankings of all 300 all-time great men’s teams in the Value Add Basketball Game—and click here to pull two teams and score sheets to play your own games.

But the biggest surprise was not realizing how good the 1986 Cleveland State team was - I thought they were just a fluke Sweet 16 team but definitely not. Being the first ever 14-seed to make the Sweet 16 with one of the wins coming against Bobby Knight and Indiana was a nice story, but modern computer ratings show they should have been a 7-seed to start. See notes below on their match-ups and they debut as the 193rd best of the now even 300 great teams in the Value Add Basketball Game. Here are the all-time rankings and results.

The following are the players from the six new teams. Unfortunately the format only lets us make cards for the 10 player cards we would use the most in a game, so cards will be made for the Starters and Bench players only, but we will list the other players on the bottom of the team sheet.

Here are the links

Starters	CCNY 1950	Cleveland St 1986	Hampton 2001
1-PG	Alvin Roth	Eddie Bryant	Marseilles Brown
2-SG	Floyd Layne	Mouse McFadden	Tommy Adams
3-SF	Ed Warner	Clinton Ransey	Lasean Howard
4-PF	Irwin Dambrot	Clinton Smith	Cleveland Davis
5-C	Ed Roman	Eric Mudd	Tarvis Williams
Bench	CCNY 1950	Cleveland St 1986	Hampton 2001
1-PG	Meyer Wittlin	Shawn Hood	Isaac Jefferson
2-SG	Ronnie Nadell	Steve Corbin	Donald Didlake
3-SF	Herb Cohen	Bob Crawford	Mackel Purvis
4-PF	Joe Galiber	Ray Salters	David Johnson
5-C	Norman Mager	Paul Stewart	Dwayne McNeal
Others	CCNY 1950	Cleveland St 1986	Hampton 2001
	Leroy Watkins	Vince Richards	Arthimus Howard
	Arnold Smith	Elgin Womack	Maurice Pitts
	Seymour Levy	Warren Bradley	Jamaal James
	Larry Meyer	Pat Vuyancih	Micah Owens
	Arthur Glass	Tyrone Kingwood
		Marty Sweeney
Starters	Long Island 1939	NC State 1983	Oral Roberts 2021
1-PG	Ossie Schectman	Sidney Lowe	Max Abmas
2-SG	Danny Kaplowitz	Dereck Whittenburg	RJ Glasper
3-SF	Irv Torgoff	Ernie Myers	Carlos Jurgens
4-PF	Jack Bromberg	Lorenzo Charles	Kareem Thompson
5-C	Art Hillhouse	Thurl Bailey	Kevin Obanor
Bench	Long Island 1939	NC State 1983	Oral Roberts 2021
1-PG	Si Lobello	Terry Gannon	Francis Lacis
2-SG	Mike Sewitch	George McClain	DeShang Weaver
3-SF	Irving Zeitlin	Alvin Battle	D'Mauria Jones
4-PF	Joe Shelly	Walter Dinky Proctor	Justin Lovvorn
5-C	Butch Schwartz	Cozell McQueen	Nate Clover
Others	Long Island 1939	NC State 1983	Oral Roberts 2021
	Max Sharf	Mike Warren	Sheldon Stevens
	Hank Lagerenberg	Harold Thompson	Jonathan Alexandre
	George Newman	Quinton Leonard	Ismael Plet
		Walt Densmore	Jamie Bergens
		Tommy DiNardo	Lorenz Ross

Here are the matchups.

Tournament Matchups (Top Seed Down)

Below are the first-round matchups featuring the updated field. Games already played are noted with results.

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1 Florida (2025) vs 32 Weber State (2010)

• Result: Florida 74, Weber State 69
  Walter Clayton Jr. survived a scare from Damian Lillard’s legendary 2010 squad.

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2 City College of New York (1950) vs 31 Oral Roberts (2021)

• Floyd Lane vs Max Abmas
  A dream matchup between NYC’s golden era and modern mid-major shot-making.

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3 UCLA (2008) vs 30 UAB (2025)

• Result: UCLA 84, UAB 78
  Russell Westbrook’s relentless pace outlasted Yaxel Lendeborg and UAB’s defense.

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4 Duke (2025) vs 29 NYU (1948)

• Result: Duke 92, NYU 52
  Cooper Flagg overwhelms Dolph Schayes’ era in a clash of generations.

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5 NC State (1983) vs 28 Maryland (2025)

• Lorenzo Charles vs Derik Queen
  A contrast in styles: Valvano’s chaos against modern Big Ten power. Both these teams are more toward the middle of the teams, but because I'd already set up the bracket I had to seed one too high (#5) and one too low (#28) meaning the winner gets an easier 2nd round match-up vs the 12 vs 21-seed winner.

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6 Long Island University (1939) vs 27 Chattanooga (2025) / Hampton (2001)

• Irv Torgoff vs Honor Huff or Travis Williams
  A perfect collision of New York’s early dynasty and modern Cinderella energy. Chattanooga vs. Hampton will be a play-in game but the top few seeds has already won in our tournament, so the winner gets the 6-seed, but LIU would actually be seeded even higher if the top teams had not already played. 

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7 Long Beach State (1972) vs 26 UC Irvine (2025)

• Ed Ratleff vs Jurian Dixon
  Big West history meets Big West present.

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8 St. John’s (2025) vs 25 UAB (1982)

• Result: St. John’s 80, UAB 78
  A classic Big East grind escapes the Blazers team that stunned Ralph Sampson in 1982.

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9 BYU (2025) vs 24 Ball State (1990)

10 Kent State (2002) vs 23 UC San Diego (2025)

• Result: UC San Diego 79, Kent State 68
  Modern pace and spacing knocks off a classic MAC Cinderella. This has been the stunner of our tournament so far.

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11 St. Louis (1952) vs 22 Oklahoma (2025)

12 Illinois (2025) vs 21 Florida Gulf Coast (2013)

13 New Mexico (2025) vs 20 Fordham (1971)

14 Idaho (1982) vs 19 VCU (2025)

15 Canisius (1957) vs 18 McNeese (2025) vs Cleveland St. (1986 Winner)

• I am embarrassed to say I had NO idea how good this Cleveland State team was even though a friend and former Cleveland City Councilman Marty Sweeney was on the team. I knew they went Sweeet 16 but thought it was just a fluke. But no, the computer says they were the #27 team for the season so actually favored to win one game and just slight underdog to go Sweet 16. They had an NBA player in Clinton Smith. And they had the #2 offense in the country so these cards will be fun to make with extra possessions in their games. I still remember I almost made it to play pickup with Sweeney one morning and he told me to expect a perfect pass if I broke to the basket, but if I missed the shot, I would never see another pass again. Wow.

• Cleveland State was only beaten badly once, 85-105 at No. 2 Michigan, but other than that they were 9 points from a perfect season. They lost by 4 at Ohio State, by 4 again on the road at a tough Missouri State to go 13-1 in conference after winning the rematch by 27 points (suspecting some home cooking by Missouri State back in the days few games were televised.

• Then they beat Bobby Knight and Indiana to open the NCAA, beat St. Joseph's and their season only ends in a 1-point loss to the Admiral - David Robinson and Navy - or they would have been Elite 8.

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16 Drake (2025) vs 17 Iona (1980)

• Bennett Stirtz vs Jeff Ruland
  A fitting 16–17 matchup to close the opening round.

Top 10 Programs We Missed, and Now Adding to Value Add Basketball Game

We did one final run through of programs with no teams in the Value Add Basketball Game for anyone we might have missed over time, and after searching all teams from those schools who made a Sweet 16 and/or were ranked in the top 25 (a few dozen) we picked this 10 to add to the game, and you can now see a full list of the ranking for all teams in the game here. 

We rank the 10 new teams here:

1. Long Beach State – 1972

Jerry Tarkanian built an instant powerhouse at Long Beach State, taking the program to four straight Sweet 16s in its first four D-I seasons. In 1972, the school’s third season at the top level, Tark put five future NBA players on the court and produced the first of two straight Top-5 AP finishes. Their Elite Eight loss came only because regional rules forced them into an early showdown with Bill Walton and the UCLA dynasty—otherwise they would likely have faced the Bruins in the Final Four or national title game. The combination of NBA talent, sustained excellence, and national respect makes this the strongest résumé of these ten teams.
Best Player: Ed Ratleff – 21.4 Pts, 7.6 Reb, 6.5 Ast

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2. Kent State – 2002

Kent State’s run to the Elite Eight remains one of the greatest mid-major tournament pushes ever. They finished the season #12 AP and then defeated three ranked, power-conference teams: #20 Oklahoma State, #8 Alabama, and #9 Pitt. Antonio Gates—who would become an NFL Hall-of-Fame caliber tight end—played like a star forward before switching sports. The Value Add Basketball Game places a higher emphasis on elite wins over major opponents, and few teams on this list can match Kent State’s three-game barrage.
Best Player: Antonio Gates – 16.0 Pts, 8.1 Reb, 2.7 Ast

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3. St. Louis – 1952

St. Louis was one of the stingiest defensive teams in college basketball history, allowing under 50 points per game while finishing #5 in the AP Poll. Their most remarkable week included three straight wins over ranked teams—#14 Villanova, #1 Kentucky, and #13 LaSalle—before an Elite Eight exit. They hold the distinction of beating the highest-ranked opponent (#1 Kentucky) of any team on this list, giving them one of the premier résumés.
Best Player: Bob Koch – 11.1 Pts, 4.3 Reb

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4. Idaho – 1982

Idaho’s 1982 squad peaked at #8 AP, reached the Sweet 16, and dominated multiple ranked opponents. They destroyed #16 Iowa State by 22 points, then beat #16 Iowa in the NCAA Tournament. Few teams combined a top-10 national ranking with such decisive wins over tournament teams.
Best Player: Gordie Herbert – 12.6 Pts, 6.5 Reb, 3.6 Ast

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5. Canisius – 1957

Canisius reached the Sweet 16 in three straight years (1955–57), something the Value Add Basketball Game places a higher emphasis on to recognize consistency and demonstrate that success was no fluke. The 1957 team climbed to #10 AP, beat #17 Alabama, upset #7 West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament, and lost only to #1 North Carolina before winning the consolation game. They don’t have the NBA talent of some others, but they have one of the most consistent résumés.
Best Player: Hank Nowak – 20.1 Pts, 10.7 Reb

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6. Iona – 1980

Jim Valvano’s Iona team opened the season by crushing #14 Texas A&M by 26 points, then closed with 17 straight wins before a narrow Sweet 16 loss to Georgetown. They finished #19 AP, and Jeff Ruland provided NBA-level dominance in the paint. This was the high point of Valvano’s pre-NC State career, showcasing the coaching brilliance that would soon lead to the 1983 national championship.
Best Player: Jeff Ruland – 20.1 Pts, 12.0 Reb, 1.0 Ast

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7. Fordham – 1971

A fast-paced, high-scoring team that finished #9 AP and reached the Sweet 16, Fordham remains one of the more explosive squads in Value Add Basketball Game history. They scored 100 points six different times, including a 100–90 win over #6 South Carolina in the consolation round. Two players—Charlie Yelverton and Ken Charles—went on to the NBA, making this one of the most talented Fordham teams ever assembled.
Best Player: Charlie Yelverton – 23.3 Pts, 12.0 Reb, 1.8 Ast

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8. Florida Gulf Coast – 2013

The Dunk City team remains a national phenomenon. As a #15 seed, FGCU stunned both Georgetown and San Diego State by double digits before falling in the Sweet 16. Their highlight-reel style and charisma made them one of the most memorable Cinderella runs ever. And their success had instant coaching ramifications—Andy Enfield was hired by USC immediately after the tournament, where he rebuilt the program into a Pac-12 contender. The Value Add Basketball Game places a higher emphasis on historic upsets, which keeps FGCU in the upper tier despite a lack of ranking or multiple marquee regular-season wins.
Best Player: Bernard Thompson – 14.3 Pts, 4.4 Reb, 1.7 Ast

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9. Ball State – 1990

Ball State’s Sweet 16 run included two down-to-the-wire tournament wins over ranked opponents—#22 Oregon State (54–53) and #16 Louisville (62–60)—before nearly shocking national champion UNLV in a 67–69 thriller. The Cardinals also played Memphis to a nail-biter earlier in the season. They were one of the toughest outs in the 1990 tournament, though without major regular-season wins or an AP ranking, their résumé slots just below FGCU.
Best Player: Paris McCurdy – 11.8 Pts, 8.3 Reb, 0.9 Ast

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10. UAB – 1982 

UAB’s Elite Eight run in just its third season of existence remains one of the best coaching achievements ever. They shocked National Player of the Year Ralph Sampson and Virginia, 68–66, behind Oliver Robinson—Bartow’s first recruit. But the full story becomes far richer when viewed through Gene Bartow’s astonishing decade:

• Memphis State:
Bartow took a struggling program from an 0–3 start to its first Final Four, upsetting three top-10 teams and taking Memphis into the AP Top 10 for the first time in school history.

• UCLA:
He then accepted what many consider the toughest job in sports—replacing John Wooden. Bartow still delivered, taking the Bruins back to the 1976 Final Four, losing only to Bob Knight’s undefeated Indiana team.

• Building UAB from scratch:
Bartow created the UAB program from the ground up, making the Sweet 16 in year two and the Elite Eight in year three, coming within one win of becoming the first coach ever to take three schools to the Final Four.

Only two coaches have ever accomplished that feat—Rick Pitino and John Calipari—and both took far longer (18 years and 15 years respectively). Bartow nearly beat both to it within a single decade.

The Value Add Basketball Game places a higher emphasis on historically significant teams, and while the 1982 roster is difficult to card accurately, the modern UAB team now included in the game reflects the continuing relevance of the program Bartow built.
Best Player: Oliver Robinson – 21.1 Pts, 3.7 Reb, 2.8 Ast