Nevada's Fazekas Best Career of Century? Faces McCarter Who Made Drake's Coach Famous

Our last two all-time great teams to debut in the Value Add Basketball Game are Nevada 2004 and Drake 1969 - and like so many others, what a neat story as I looked them both up - with seven total players in this game going onto the NBA.

First on Drake, in Jay Bilas' ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia he suggests except for one drought from 1988 to 2006 Drake "would have a good argument for ranking among the very best of the mid-majors. There's the 1969 Final Four (this team) ... where John Wooden said (after narrowly holding up this team 85-82 in the middle of the dynasty) 'Drake gave us as much trouble - maybe more - than any team we've ever played in any of these tournaments." Drake was talked into recruiting the player Bilas says is their greatest of all time by Bilas, with a high school teammate saying, "Caoch, listen to me, Willie McCarter is going to make you famous."

Nevada played after we invented the Value Add Basketball rankings, and this team included four players who ranked in the top 4% of all players (Kevinn Pinkney, Kirk Snyder, Todd Okeson and one of the top two career players of this century, Nick Fazekas. 

While Value Add Basketball indicates Anthony Davis was by far the best college player this century, and current Duke coach Jon Scheyer had the best senior season, only nine players finished in the top 4% of all players for four years in college. If you ranked those players based on their average rank of the 4,000+ college players the four years they played - here are your greatest nine college basketball careers this century - with Nevada's Nick Fazekas ranking fourth. 

If your criteria is a player who was elite from his freshman season (after which most would leave for the NBA) every year through their senior year - avoiding and injury-plagued or off year at any point, you could put them in this order.

1 - Tyler Hansbrough - UNC 2006-2009, ave. 14th, highest 3rd in 2008 

2 - Trayce Jackson-Davis - Indiana 2020-2023, ave. 17th, highest 12th in 2022 

3 - Jared Dudley - Boston College 2004-2007, ave 27th, highest 3rd in 2011 

4 - Nick Fazekas - Nevada 2004-2007, ave. 29th, highest 3rd in 2006 

5 - Craig Smith - Boston College 2003-2006, ave. 29th - highest 11th in 2006 

6 - T.J. McConnell - Duquesne 2011-12, Arizona 2014-2015, highest 12th in 2011 

7 - J.J. Redick - Duke 2003-2006, ave. 33rd, highest 2nd in 2006 

8 - Robbie Hummel - Purdue 2008-2010, 2012, ave. 39th, highest 29th in 2010 

9 - Aaron Craft - Ohio St 2011-14, ave 48th - highest 22nd in 2012 

This Nevada team will be the underdog against Final Four Drake, but they had a great tournament run - beating Michigan State and then stunning 2-seed Gonzaga. They then lost a close game to Georgia Tech, who would go on the be the runner up. Here are the Value Add Basketball rankings of the all-time great Nevada players. The only accidental omissions are Cody Martin (should be tied for 116th of 4000+) and Caleb Martin (126th) in 2018. 

In setting up our box score, we start with the standard, but we take players who averaged less than 2 points per game and start them at "0" instead of the customary "2" and then we let some of the 3-point shooters start with a 3-pointer instead of a 2-pointer. As long as your total points end up at 20 for the first roll, you can make slight common sense adjustments to your starting stats. Otherwise the stats listed for every other category are always standard at the start of a game.

 

Nevada 2004	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual	Hts
Todd Okeson	3	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	11.2 Pts, 2.8 Reb, 3.9 Ast	6'0
Kirk Snyder	3	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	18.8 Pts, 5.7 Reb, 3.4 Ast-NBA	6'6
Garry Hill-Thomas	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	9.8 Pts, 3.6 Reb, 2.3 Ast	6'4
Kevinn Pinkney	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	9.4 Pts, 5.7 Reb, 0.9 Ast-NBA	6'10
Nick Fazekas	3	1	0	0	0	2	0	1	1	12.6 Pts, 7.6 Reb, 0.5 Ast-NBA	6'11
Kyle Shiloh	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1.8 Pts, 1.2 Reb, 0.9 Ast	6'3
Seth Taylor	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1.0 Pts, 0.4 Reb, 0.0 Ast	6'3
Marcelus Kemp	3	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	4.6 Pts, 1.4 Reb, 0.8 Ast	6'5
Jermaine Washington	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	4.1 Pts, 3.8 Reb, 0.7 Ast	6'5
Sean Paul	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	3.4 Pts, 3.8 Reb, 0.9 Ast	6'9
	20	4	4	0	0	13	2	1	10
Drake 1969	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual	Hts
Willie McCarter	3	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	20.4 Pts, 3.7 Reb-NBA	6'3
Dolph Pulliam	3	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	13.3 Pts, 7.7 Reb	6'4
Al Williams	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	8.8 Pts, 7.3 Reb-NBA	6'6
Willie Wise	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	14.6 Pts, 11.4 Reb-NBA	6'5
Rick Wanamaker	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	1	1	4.4 Pts, 3.4 Reb	6'9
Don Draper	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	12.3 Pts, 2.4 Reb	6'0
Gary Zeller	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6.3 Pts, 1.6 Reb-NBA	6'2
Ron Gwin	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	2.6 Pts, 1.4 Reb	6'2
Larry Sharp	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1.6 Pts, 1.2 Reb	6'9
Garry Odom	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	3.8 Pts, 4.5 Reb	6'8
	20	2	7	0	0	13	2	1	10

Mountain West Perhaps Merge with Pac-12 and Return of Value Add Basketball Rankings

All-Mountain West	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Steven Ashworth	Utah St.	10.72	127.7	98.9	10-seed, 26-9 (PG), Poss 21.6%
Jaedon LeDee	San Diego St.	8.17	111.5	90.4	5-seed, 32-7, Poss 24.5%
Jaelen House	New Mexico	7.59	114	102.5	22-12 (PG), Poss 26.9%
Isaiah Stevens	Colorado St.	6.13	111.9	106.1	15-18 (PG), Poss 28.1%
EJ Harkless	UNLV	6.03	104.3	99.7	19-13 (PG), Poss 33.2%
HM-Mountain West Conf	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Camden Vander Zwaag	Air Force	5.84	121.5	104.5	14-18, Poss 16.7%
Marcus Shaver	Boise St.	5.74	99.8	95.1	10-seed, 24-10 (PG), Poss 26.3%
Patrick Cartier	Colorado St.	5.52	116.3	106.1	15-18, Poss 24.7%
Omari Moore	San Jose St.	5.08	110	102.6	21-14, Poss 28.1%

From the rubble of the disasterous Pac-12 decision to treat revenue sustaining football and basketball as any more important than the Olympic sports they sustain, the one intriguing proposal making the rounds was the Pac-12 partnering to set up a "relegation" system with other conferences. The idea would be to follow the soccer model of having teams in the highest conference (presumably the Pac-12) play and each year the bottom couple drop to a lower conference and the top couple from the lower conference move up to the Pac-12 for the next season.

This is pure speculation, but with Washington State and Oregon State having pure control of all Pac-12 decisions as the only remaining members for next season, if others would agree it seems adding Gonzaga and Saint Mary's and then the four Missouri Conference NCAA tournament teams to a Pac-12 would be a very exciting eight for basketball (we are not pondering football here). The would leave seven in the MWC, add an eighth like maybe UC Irvine, play a season and start the relegation and advancement. Sounds easier on the back of a napkin then the logistics that it would entail, but with the Mountain West headlines for the unheard of four bids they seem like the non-Power Conference bell of the ball right now.

Above is a very late All-Mountain West Conference team from the 2022-23 season, and we will be updating these and the top 300 players at www.valueaddbasketball.com to go along with the rankings going back to the 2001-02 season. While this system received rave reviews from Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Fox Sports and many others, last season we skipped because we lost the ability to rank all 4000 players who take the court for D1 action.

Note from below that Steven Ashworth was not only our MVP of the conference, but an also an all-American, but has transferred to Creighton for this season.

Team	2023	2024	2025	Seed23	Rnk24
Air Force	MWC	MWC	MWC		194
Boise St.	MWC	MWC	MWC	10	81
Colorado St.	MWC	MWC	MWC		26
Fresno St.	MWC	MWC	MWC		155
Nevada	MWC	MWC	MWC	11	44
New Mexico	MWC	MWC	MWC		52
San Diego St.	MWC	MWC	MWC	5	20
San Jose St.	MWC	MWC	MWC		121
UNLV	MWC	MWC	MWC		125
Utah St.	MWC	MWC	MWC	10	60
Wyoming	MWC	MWC	MWC		177

Better late than never - this is one of 32 lists of All-Conference teams based on the "resurrected" Value Add Basketball rankings at www.valueaddbasketball.com. The other 31 releases of Conference teams will all include this same explanation for the rest of the blog, including the 10 returning All-Americans and top 60 players from last season listed further down.

This paragraph is of interest to stat nerds only. The offensive ratings were easier to recreate, since the basis was to pull hundreds of players ranked as the most efficient last season (AdjO at www.kenpom.com) and adjusting their figures for their percent of possessions. A player who can produce about 1.2 points per time he has the ball who also gets the ball 25% of the time against tough competition and as part of a strong defense can be All-American level, but a player who doesn't get the ball nearly as often but produces even more at 1.3 points per possession can still be All-Conference even if fans feel other players handling and shooting the ball more are better due to higher points scored per game.

The new simplified system weighs their ability to produce points against the Adjusted Defense (AdjD) - that is how many points per 100 trips would their team allow against an average D1 team. This accounts both for defense and for level of competition. We also note if a player is a Point Guard, the most important position on the court.

The resulting "Value" listed in the third column is the Value Add of points the player would improve an average team over if he could not play if a decent replacement took his place. Zach Edey was by far the most valuable player in the country last year at 13.17 meaning typically he would turn a 65-70 loss for a team into a 72-64 win - a 13 point swing. The notes off to the first indicated the team's record, their seed if they made the tournament, and then if they went to the NBA in the 2023 draft or are projected to go in the 2024 or 2025 draft.

1st and 2nd Team Returning All-Americans; and Top 60 Players from Last Season

 

The table below is the list of the 30 most valuable players in college basketball for the 2022-23 season according to our simplified www.valueaddbasketball.com rankings. Obviously most of these top players finished their eligibility or went pro so are no longer playing. However, if we made this our All-American teams of returning players including transfers at their new school the headline would be from Creighton.

1st Team Returning All-Americans - Value Add Basketball calculates that Creighton now has two of the three most valuable players in 2022-23 in returning Ryan Kalkbrenner and Utah State transfer Steven Ashworth. Ironically, Thursday it was Colorado State that handed Creighton its first loss - a team that Ashworth had dominated four of seven times in conference games at Utah State. The other 1st Team All-Americans based on last year's Value Add would be J'Wan Roberts returning for Houston, and then Tylor Perry who transferred from North Texas to Kansas State.

Most Valuable Player for 2nd Year. However, the far and away Most Valuable Player in the Country could challenge Anthony Davis, Jon Scheyer and Zion Williamson for as the most Valuable college player of the century in the All-Time Value Add Basketball Rankings - Zach Edey who was almost 2 points better than anyone in the country last year at Purdue and has them at No. 1 this season.

2nd Team Returning All-Americans - The 6th most valuable returning player according to Value Add is Marquette Point Guard Tyler Kolek. He would be joined on a second team All-American squad of returning players by Tennessee's Santiago Vescovi, Texas transfer from Oral Roberts Max Abmas, Duke's Ryan Young, Arizona's Azuolas Tubelis and finally Cam Spencer, who transferred from Rutgers to UConn.

In all, 18 of the top 30 players finished their college careers, leaving those 10 returning All-Americans and then two other players - JaKobe Coles of TCU and USC's Boogie Ellis.
 

All-American 1st Team	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Zach Edey	Purdue	13.17	125.9	94.5	1-seed, 29-6, nba 58 in 2024
Adama Sanogo (gone)	Connecticut	11.37	122.6	90.9	4-seed, 31-8, Poss 26.4%
Marcus Sasser (gone)	Houston	11.25	123.4	90.4	1-seed, 33-4, nba 25 in 2023
Ryan Kalkbrenner	Creighton	10.80	133.4	93.2	6-seed, 24-13, Poss 19.4%
Steven Ashworth (Creigh)	Utah St.	10.72	127.7	98.9	10-seed, 26-9 (PG), Poss 21.6%
All-American 2nd Team	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Tylor Perry (K-State)	North Texas	10.37	124.3	94.1	31-7, Poss 24.4%
Brandon Miller (gone)	Alabama	10.23	117.0	88.2	1-seed, 31-6, nba 2 in 2023
Xavier Castaneda (gone)	Akron	9.94	121.9	103.4	22-11 (PG), Poss 29.4%
J'Wan Roberts	Houston	9.90	127.9	90.4	1-seed, 33-4, Poss 18.4%
Jordan Hawkins (gone)	Connecticut	9.88	121.2	90.9	4-seed, 31-8, nba 14 in 2023
All-American 3rd Team	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Jaime Jaquez (gone)	UCLA	9.80	113.1	88	2-seed, 31-6, nba 18 in 2023
Jalen Pickett (gone)	Penn St.	9.66	118.7	101.1	10-seed, 23-14 (PG), nba 32 in 2023
Jordan Walker (gone)	UAB	9.64	114.7	97.9	29-10 (PG), Poss 30.6%
Tyler Kolek	Marquette	9.63	118	96.7	2-seed, 29-7 (PG), Poss 24.1%
Santiago Vescovi	Tennessee	9.52	114.2	87.5	4-seed, 25-11 (PG), Poss 18.8%
All-American 4th Team	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Max Abmas (Texas)	Oral Roberts	9.47	120.2	102.2	12-seed, 30-5 (PG), Poss 27.6%
Trayce Jackson-Davis (g)	Indiana	9.45	118.5	97.2	4-seed, 23-12, nba 57 in 2023
Ryan Young	Duke	9.37	128.7	93.9	5-seed, 27-9, Poss 18.3%
Kendric Davis (grad)	Memphis	9.24	111.1	96.1	8-seed, 26-9 (PG), Poss 31.6%
Drew Timme (grad)	Gonzaga	9.21	119.6	99.3	3-seed, 31-6, Poss 30.6%
All-American 5th Team	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Markquis Nowell (gone)	Kansas St.	8.92	111	95	3-seed, 26-10 (PG), Poss 27.6%
Souley Boum (gone)	Xavier	8.87	119.2	98.6	3-seed, 27-10 (PG), Poss 21.2%
Oscar Tshiebwe (gone)	Kentucky	8.83	122.6	98.8	6-seed, 22-12, Poss 24.5%
Terence Lewis (gone)	Louisiana	8.74	131.2	102.9	13-seed, 26-8, Poss 20.3%
Darius McGhee (gone)	Liberty	8.68	114.5	97.5	27-9, Poss 33.4%
All-American 6th Team	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Azuolas Tubelis	Arizona	8.68	116.1	96.3	2-seed, 28-7, Poss 28.7%
Cam Spencer (UConn)	Rutgers	8.66	119.4	90.8	19-15, Poss 19.8%
Sir'Jabari Rice (gone)	Texas	8.66	116.3	92.1	2-seed, 29-9, Poss 23.4%
JaKobe Coles	TCU	8.64	118.4	94.3	6-seed, 22-13, Poss 23.4%
Boogie Ellis	USC	8.56	113.3	97.5	10-seed, 22-11 (PG), Poss 25.7%