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!

3-pointer strategy and substitution tips as 2021 Colorado Springs Stuns 1989 Illinois

 Yes, I'm watching the NFL playoffs. I actually find it easier to PLAY a different sport in a board game then I am watching on TV to avoid confusion. So while Dax tried to bring the Cowboys back against the 49ers ...

The new we created from the past two seasons have now won four straight against the additional teams we created from past years. A couple of notes for those who have already been playing the Value Add Basketball Game and want to focus on rotating players in and out.

First of all, you do not need to do this - the basic way to play the game is to play the subs across the bottom row for the first 7 possessions (44 to 38 on the scoresheet) and then play the starters (top row) for the final 37 possessions of the game. However, here are some tips on what I've found easiest to track who is in the game if you want to play everyone the right number of possessions (the Stamina number).

1. To take a tough case, Illinois is one of the very high possession teams that add 4 possessions to the normal 44 we play (if you want to play this advanced rule). If you look at the scoresheet further down, we list the score after possessions 48, 47, 46 and 45 before the normal sheet. When we play extra possessions because of a team like this, I simply play the reserves for half the possessions (so the bottom rows for both Illinois and Colorado below played against each other the 48th and 47th possessions) then the top row played the 46th and 45th.

2. Once we hit the normal start of the game - the 44th possession - Colorado had exploded to a 29-23 lead rather than starting at the normal 20-20 start. The two pictures below show which players I had in the game for that 44th possession, based on the suggested playing possessions I put on the bottom of each card. Note for example that McKinley Wright, Colorado's unheralded super star, plays Point Guard on possessions 43-1, meaning this 44th possession is the only possession for which he is NOT in the game. For Illinois, four of five starters were already in the game.n the game. 

PENNIES. The way I do it is use a penny if the player only gets the ball on one number (so on the 8-sided die I just go in order and give it to the player left to right on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) so the backup point guard Bardo would get it on a "1" on this possession for Illinois.

DIMES. I put a dime on each player who has an extra number after "Gets Ball On" and his possession, then just go left to right on the dimes for the 6, 7 and 8. So for Colorado below with the 5 subs all in for this possession, a 6 would go to Barthelemy with the dime furthest left, then a 7 would go to Walker in the middle with the second dime, then an 8 would go to Walton at the far right.

All that being said and the great McKinley Wright pulled a huge upset after really being the incredible but overlooked point guard in the country. He scored 21 points and took Colorado to a double digit lead with 5:43 left minutes left - 76-63.

Illinois went to a 3-point strategy the last 5 minutes (add a 3-point shot made for every 2-point shot you take off from the top of the range, but you can go no more than double the original 3-pointers made) and subbed in their best 3-point shooter PJ Bowman for Kenny Battle who makes no 3-pointers.

That means Bowman was still just the 1-5 three-point range on his card, because you need to take away a 2-pointer made at the top of the range to add a 3-pointers at the bottom of the 2-point range, so with only one 2-pointer made (6-6) he had no place to add any more. However, Gill's 1-3 three-point range could be doubled to 1-6 made by taking away three 3-pointers so 8-10 went from a made 2-pointer to a missed 3-pointer. The system worked and both hit 3-pointers in a furious 21-8 run to cut it to 84-81 with 16 second left, but Colorado center Evan Battey dunked to finalize the Colorado upset.

Cards for Epic Players and Team from 2021 Season to Print

We finally selected an calculated four great teams from the 2021 season to bring the total teams you can choose from to play in the Value Add Basketball Game to 128, going back in history to the inventor of the jumpshot (Kenny Sailors, Wyoming 1943 team). All four teams not only had great seasons, but each had one of the 6 most valuable basketball players in the country last year in the all-time Value Add Basketball Player ratings (click here, then put "2021" in the year search box).

Baylor 2021. The champs certainly earned a spot with their complete domination of excellent Final 4 teams Houston and Gonzaga. Jared Butler ranked as the 6th most valuable player in the country at Value Add Basketball, and www.kenpom.com had him even higher as the 4th best player.

Baylor starts out in our game rankings as the 29th best all-time team in the game, though we don't have games scheduled yet for these four new teams to see if they move up or down.

Colorado 2021. We loved watching McKinley Wright run point guard for Colorado, and ranked him as the 4th most valuable player in the country. He scored 24 points to eventual Elite 8 team USC in the Pac-12 tournament. Then we publicly picked him to destroy a red hot Georgetown team in the NCAA tournament, which he did with an amazing 13 assist performance.

While being a great team is one factor in adding new teams, we also factor in great players like him (e.g. Pistol Pete's LSU team was barely above average but we wanted him in the game). We also factor schools that have not yet had a team in the game. We passed over Final 4 teams UCLA and Houston because they already have multiple teams, and Gonzaga's other National Runner-Up from just a few years ago is in the game - so it was nice to add the first team from the state of Colorado.

Iowa 2021. The National Player of the Year Luka Garza was such an treat to watch his entire career. Even though both Value Add and www.kenpom.com ranked him 2nd in the country last year, KenPom ranked him 1st and Value Add 4th the year before to make him the rare player to be in the top 5 out of 4000+ players in consecutive years.

Even as his final game turned into a 1-on-5 against a great Oregon team in the tournament, watching him score 36 points on the way out was a fantastic sendoff.

USC 2021. As great as Garza was, we calculated 7-footer Evan Mobley was the most valuable player in the country last year. We would have still voted for Garza as the 4-year star against the freshman Mobley, but with the highest possible shot block ranking possible (21-30), a great steal guy for a 7-footer, and scoring or being fouled 65% of the time it gets to him on the 20-sided die (1-13), and an incredibly dominant rebounder at both ends (1-9 offensive and 1-8 defensive), he is the complete package. Seeing a 7-footer then dish out seven assists in a Sweet 16 win (vs. Oregon) just added to the complete picture.

His 13 rebound, MVP performance in the incredible 85-51 win against Kansas to move to the Sweet 16 was epic, and his brother Isaiah has kept it up by leading USC to a 12-0 start - the last undefeated team besides Baylor.