Record-holder AC Green Lead's Oregon State vs WKU for Last Final 4 Spot

The Value Add Basketball Game cards for all 200 teams are in good order and should not require any reprints, but we are adding little things as we continue to play games such as suggestions on any players you may want to start with something but other than 2 points before the first die roll. 

For our final Elite 8 game of this tournament, we did catch a very minor item in that we listed "Stamina 0" for Western Kentucky's Mike Fawcett, Butch Kaufman and Norm Weaver, however every player should get a minimum of "Stamina 5" so we have updated. We do not recommend any of the three players normally play any of the 44 possessions in a Value Add game since all likely played less than 11 possessions per game - so the "None" is correct, but if they come in for someone who fouled out or to put one more player who can hit a 3-pointer or get a steal near the end of a game, all players start with at least 5 in Stamina to play at full strength for 5 possessions. You can print the WKU team below by going to List H and printing page 22.

If you then go to List F and print page 12 you get the Oregon State team below. This was early in AC Green's career, so he isn't as dominant as he would get, but he did jump in a starter as a freshman on the great Oregon State squad. 

In the dunk ranges (51-66) this is the most defensive battle we recall. Western Kentucky is a 51-56 but Oregon State's defense of -6 erases that so there are no automatic dunks from 51-66 and you go straight to the player's 20-sided die. Oregon State starts with 0 dunks (51-50) and with Western Kentucky's -5 that results in a STOP range meaning a 51-55 is a missed shot and the defender gets a rebound.

Note on the Oregon State cards that three reserves averaged fewer than 2 points per game, so we will start them at 0 points as we start in a 20-20 tie for the first due roll - and to make up those 6 points we have suggested on the cards starting the first four starters with a 3-pointer made instead of a 2-pointer made for 3 points, and then starting Green with 4 points based on two 2-point shots made.

Green isn't too likely to miss the game injured for anything as he would go on to set the record by playing in 1,192 consecutive NBA games and overall his NBA teams had a 782-496 record. He was also known for being a virgin through his entire career until getting married after his career. He also did not smoke or drink, including not spraying champaign in locker rooms.

He won awards from Athletes in Action and Humanitarian groups. In other words, while as a freshman he wasn't yet the best player on the team but he was already very good - and he is a better person than you and me and anyone else on the team LOL. 

Oregon State was our 2-seed in this tournament, but with a rating of +2 they are only a slight favorite against WKU (-2). That is a 4-point gap for 100 possessions for each team, but that would be a 3-point favorite for a game of around 70 possessions.

Note we put the suggested starting points on the cards and also all the starting numbers on the starting box score along with the starting stats from the Value Add Basketball Game scoresheet.

Pos	Western Kentucky	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual	Ht
1-PG	Dwight Smith	3	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	16.1 Pts, 9.9 Reb	6'5
2-SG	Clem Haskins	3	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	20.4 Pts, 10.0 Reb	6'3
3-SF	Wayne Chapman	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	13.3 Pts, 4.3 Reb	6'6
4-PF	Greg Smith	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	9.5 Pts, 10.3 Reb	6'5
5-C	Steve Cunningham	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	1	1	15.1 Pts, 7.4 Reb	6'5
1-PG	Mike Fawcett	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	2.1 Pts, 0.6 Reb	5'10
2-SG	Butch Kaufman	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	4.0 Pts, 1.0 Reb	5'10
3-SF	Norm Weaver	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	2.9 Pts, 1.7 Reb	6'5
4-PF	Pearl Hicks	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	2.3 Pts, 3.0 Reb	6'7
5-C	Jack Butler	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1.8 Pts, 1.8 Reb	6'5
	10 Turnovers	20	2	7	0	0	13	2	1	10
Pos	Oregon St. 1982	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual	Ht
1-PG	William Brew	3	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	6'1,9.2 ppg	6'2
2-SG	Lester Conner	3	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	6'4,14.9 ppg,NBA	6'2
3-SF	Danny Evans	3	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	1	6'5,11.3 ppg	6'6
4-PF	Charlie Sitton	3	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	1	6'8,12.9 ppg,NBA	6'7
5-C	A.C. Green	4	0	2	0	0	2	0	1	1	6'9,8.6 ppg,NBA	6'11
1-PG	Alan Tait	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'2,0.5 ppg	6'3
2-SG	Jamie Stangel	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'7,1.4 ppg	6'7
3-SF	Jeff Wilson	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'7,1.2 ppg	6'7
4-PF	Rob Holbrook	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'86.7 ppg	6'9
5-C	Greg Wiltjer	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'11,5.4 ppg	6'9
	11 turnovers	20	4	4	0	0	13	2	1	10

We will add results after, which will set our Final 4 for this tournament. 

Self's Tulsa Plays Like Kansas in 10th Biggest Blowout

Bill Self's breakthrough season was this Tulsa team that finished #7 in www.kenpom.com including a run to the Elite 8 through a previous No. 1 Cincinnati and a near upset of UNC in the Elite 8. Tulsa has never finished in the top 40 since, as Self then went to Illinois for three dominant seasons and then Kansas for national championships. Self reached No. 7 and the Elite 8 with this team despite not having a single future NBA player.

Tulsa was the second team in a row in our current tournament of 16 new teams to produce one of the biggest 10 blowouts in the history of our Value Add Basketball Game - both by teams now in the American Athletic Conference. In the 245th all-time great men's team game we ever played, Cornbread Maxwell led Charlotte to a 95-68 win over New Mexico for a 27-point margin that was our 10th biggest blowout ever in the game.

They stayed in the top 10 for only one game, as Tulsa's 92-64 win over Washington State topped the margin by one point as the 10th biggest blowout in the history of our game.
 

Margin	All-time great teams	Score	All	Marg	Opponent	Yr
1	Houston - 2021 - Grimes - B12	102	50	52	Princeton	2023
2	Connecticut - 2023 - Sanogo - BE	77	39	38	St. Peter's	2022
3	Villanova - 2018 - Bridges - BE	106	72	34	Creighton	2020
4	Gonzaga - 2017 - Williams-Goss - WCC	81	48	33	UCLA	2006
5	Virginia - 2019 - Guy - ACC	97	64	33	Maryland	2002
6	Duke - 2010 - Scheyer - ACC	89	57	32	Wake For	2005
7	Kansas - 2008 - Chalmers - B12	83	52	31	St. Joe's	2004
8	Memphis - 2008 - Rose - Amer	82	52	30	Louisville	1980
9	Villanova - 2018 - Bridges - BE	89	60	29	Butler	2010
10	Tulsa - 2000 - Shelton - Amer	92	64	28	Wash St.	2008
11	Charlotte - 1977 - "Cornbread" Maxwell - Amer	95	68	27	New Mex	2019

The two performances pushed both teams slightly ahead of Memphis among all our American Athletic teams, at 33rd and 38th in our standings based partly on the cards but also on the results of game so far. We track all results and ratings on this google sheet. These are just the six teams who will be in the American Athletic out of our 200 great teams.

 

Rnk	American Athletic	Year	Player	W	L	Score	Allow	SOS
33	Tulsa	2000	Shelton	1	0	92.0	64.0	-9.0
38	Charlotte	1977	Maxwell	1	0	95.0	68.0	-3.0
44	Memphis	2008	Rose	4	2	68.7	65.8	-0.3
73	Temple	1958	Rodgers	0	0	NG	NG	NG
140	Wichita St.	2013	VanVleet	1	2	64.3	71.3	1.7
179	Florida Atlantic	2023	Davis	0	1	64.0	77.0	-2.0

Here is the box score from Tulsa's blowout win.

 

Pos	Washington St. 2008	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual
1-PG	Taylor Rochestie	6	2	0	0	0	2	1	0	5	6'1,10.4 ppg
2-SG	Derrick Low	16	3	3	1	2	1	1	0	1	6'2,14.1 ppg
3-SF	Kyle Weaver	13	1	4	2	4	6	0	0	3	6'6,12.2 ppg,NBA
4-PF	Robbie Cowgill	10	0	5	0	1	4	0	1	2	6'10,7.3 ppg
5-C	Aron Baynes	7	2	0	1	2	4	0	1	3	6'10,10.4 ppg,NBA
1-PG	Thomas Abercrombie	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'6,1.2 ppg
2-SG	Stephen Sauls	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'3,2.1 ppg
3-SF	Daven Harmeling	6	0	3	0	0	1	0	0	3	6'7,5.6 ppg
4-PF	Caleb Forrest	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'8,3.4 ppg
5-C	Nikola Koprivica	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'7,2.5 ppg
	14 Turnovers	64	8	18	4	9	22	2	2	21
Pos	Tulsa 2000	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual
1-PG	Marcus Hill	19	2	4	5	6	3	2	0	1	6'5,11.2 ppg
2-SG	Greg Harrington	11	0	5	1	2	4	1	0	4	6'2,10.8 ppg
3-SF	David Shelton	16	1	4	5	5	6	0	0	1	6'6,13.5 ppg
4-PF	Eric Coley	14	1	4	3	3	6	2	1	1	6'5,11.3 ppg
5-C	Brandon Kurtz	10	0	3	4	4	7	0	1	3	6'10,11.2 ppg
1-PG	Tony Heard	8	0	3	2	2	1	0	1	1	6'0,9.7 ppg
2-SG	Dante Swanson	8	0	4	0	0	4	0	0	3	5'10,5.5 ppg
3-SF	Antonio Reed	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	5'10,1.8 ppg
4-PF	Kevin Johnson	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'7,2.4 ppg
5-C	Charlie Davis	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'7,2.5 ppg
	6 Turnovers	92	4	30	20	22	34	5	3	17

On the flip side, the blowout loss plunged Washington State to the bottom of our combined Pac-12/MWC conference. Oregon State's earlier win against James Madison moved them up to within one spot of the top of the new combined conference, just behind UNLV's dominant 1991 team.

Rnk	P12/MWC	Year	Player	W	L	Score	Allow	SOS
41	UNLV	1991	Johnson	1	2	72.7	76.3	0.7
42	Oregon St.	1982	Green	1	0	81.0	68.0	-12.0
103	San Diego St.	2011	Leonard	2	2	69.3	71.8	-0.3
126	UNLV	1987	Gilliam	0	1	64.0	82.0	-6.0
138	Nevada	2004	Fazekas	0	0	NG	NG	NG
168	Wyoming	1943	Sailors	0	1	60.0	73.0	1.0
174	San Diego St.	2023	LeDee	0	1	78.0	84.0	-1.0
193	New Mexico	1974	Hardin	0	1	68.0	95.0	-3.0
196	Washington St.	2008	Weaver	0	1	92.0	64.0	0.0

Here is the actual scoresheet with Tulsa dominating from the outset.

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

3000+ Unique Visitors for Latest 16 Teams - JMU 2024 vs. Oregon State 1982 Next

We are seeing some of our highest traffic to this page, with more than 3,000 unique visitors in the last 36 hours. Thank you for your interest! 

The newest 16 teams have been created, and we will fold them into the 200 overall great teams shortly. For now, you can pull up any of the 16 teams via this link. As we go through and update the list of 200, we are breaking them into 8 files of 25 great teams each - and have started by creating this "New List A - Alabama 1977 to Connecticut 2004."  With some of the google docs getting up to 50 pages, we were being told they were opening slowly for some, so hopefully these 26 page docs (1 cover sheet with list of teams, then 25 teams) will make it easier to open and print your team.

List A - Alabama 1977 to Connecticut 2004

List B - Connecticut 2023 to Georgia Tech 2004.

List C - Gonzaga 2017to Kentucky 1948

List D - Kentucky 1970 to Miami 1965

List E - Miami 2013 to North Carolina St. 1974

List F - Northwestern 2017 to Seton Hall 1989

List G - Seton 2020 to UCLA 2006

List H - UCLA 2021 to Xavier 2023

Having almost had a 16- over 1- upset in our first game of a modern upcoming Virginia athletic program (Liberty 2023) against an all-time great (Massachusetts 1996), we will try a similar combo next. The current James Madison University team (2024) will play one of the best defensive teams in the entire game, Oregon State 1982.

The JMU 51-55 dunk range combine with the Oregon State -6 defensive adjustment takes the JMU dunk range for the game below 50 to a "49-51," which the chart in the game shows means a 51 is a STOP, with JMU failing to score and the Oregon State defender on the player with the ball getting a rebound. The Oregon State low offensive dunk range of 51-50 is increased slightly by JMU's weaker defense of +3, so on a 51-53 Oregon State gets to the hoop for a dunk, unless they prefer the result of the 20-sided die (a 3-pointer made, or occasionally even drawing a foul if it would be on a player in foul trouble).

Click on the Value Add Basketball Game and the two teams you want to play your own game.

Pac 12 Possible Relegation System Moving Forward and Return of Value Add Basketball Rankings

All-Pac 12 Conf	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Jaime Jaquez	UCLA	9.80	113.1	88	2-seed, 31-6, nba 18 in 2023
Azuolas Tubelis	Arizona	8.68	116.1	96.3	2-seed, 28-7, Poss 28.7%
Boogie Ellis	USC	8.56	113.3	97.5	10-seed, 22-11 (PG), Poss 25.7%
David Singleton	UCLA	8.17	127.2	88	2-seed, 31-6, Poss 13.2%
Oumar Ballo	Arizona	7.40	115.6	96.3	2-seed, 28-7, Poss 22.8%
HM-Pac 12 Conf	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Branden Carlson	Utah	7.16	111.1	95.8	17-15, Poss 27.2%
N'Faly Dante	Oregon	6.90	113.1	97.8	21-15, Poss 25.5%
KJ Simpson	Colorado	4.58	101.1	95.5	18-17, nba 47 in 2025

Above is a very late All-Pac 12 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 the top three players listed were also All-Americans last season, and both Tubelis and Ellis return this season.

After the shocking realignment taking all but Washington State and Oregon State from the conference, the one intriguing idea floated was that those two go to a soccer-style relegation system now that they have complete control of the conference moving forward.  If that were to be pursued, our brainstorm would be to ask the four tournament teams from the Mountain West and Saint Mary's and Gonzaga to join for an 8-team basketball Pac-12 next year, leaving the seven remaining Mountain West teams and perhaps UC Irvine in the "relegated" Mountain West. 

The tournament champion and regular season champion (or 2nd place regular season if they are the same) from the Mountain West move up for the 2024-25 season, while the bottom two Pac-12 teams drop down. 

In the meantime, the conference is going out with a bang as constructed - in position to improve from four NCAA bids to six if the season ended today.

Team	2023	2024	2025	Seed23	Rnk24
Arizona	P12	P12	B12	2	4
Arizona St.	P12	P12	B12	11	113
California	P12	P12	ACC		187
Colorado	P12	P12	B12		34
Oregon	P12	P12	B10		37
Oregon St.	P12	P12	P12		169
Stanford	P12	P12	ACC		70
UCLA	P12	P12	B10	2	31
USC	P12	P12	B10	10	30
Utah	P12	P12	B12		46
Washington	P12	P12	B10		61
Washington St.	P12	P12	P12		72

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%