3rd All-Time Sweet 16 Set with UNC-Xavier Thriller

An incredible game to determine the final Sweet 16 team in our 3rd All-Time Great Value Add Basketball Game. One of the photos at the bottom is the game set-up behind my screen with ESPN+ coverage of the top 6 match-up between Marquette and Iowa State on the computer screen). Here are the updated rankings of the 18 remaining undefeated teams.

Until Zach Freemantle (4 points, 6 rebounds, steal and a block in limited minutes this game) was injured in 2023, Xavier was 17-4 and had just beaten #1 UConn AT UConn. The team that would then win two straight titles fell and this Xavier team was a contender. Freemantle was hurt the next game and Xavier basically had to play a 6-man rotation the rest of the season or they would have been seeded higher and perhaps gone even further than the Sweet 16. 

In this game Xavier dominated until he was out of Stamina, as he led them to a 43-34 lead when he ran out of Stamina with 16 minutes to play.

Once he was out UNC took over, going on a 27-18 run the next 13 minutes to tie the game 61-61 with three minutes to play.

Then center Jack Nunge (15 points, 8 rebounds) hit a 3-pointer and Jerome Hunter (6 points, 7 rebounds) scored to make it 66-61 Xavier with 2 minutes to play.

Then Armando Bacot (game high in both points - 19 - and rebounds - 13) took over for a dominant few possessions each way.

Bacot scored to bring UNC 2002 within 66-63, then blocked Nunge's shot at the other end and grabbed the rebound himself. 

Bacot then drew a foul at the other end to add a possession by stopping the clock, and hit both free throws to cut it 6o 66-65. 

Bacot grabbed another rebound at the other end, came down and was fouled again - but this time his one of two to make it 66-66. 

However on the last trip Caleb Love (10 points) turned it over, to give Xavier the last possession. 

Souley Boum (15 points) missed a shot, but Nunge grabbed a rebound, but his follow missed.

Jerome Hunter grabbed a second offensive rebound, passed to Colby Jones (team-highs in both points - 18 - and rebounds - 9), who hit a buzzer beater to give Xavier the 68-66 win to pull the upset as the 19-seed and advance to play the 6-seed Western Kentucky in the Sweet 16. 

The worse seed went 3-9 in this round, with the other two upset winners being the 25-seed Louisville 1968 with Wes Unseld and the 18-seed Kansas 2022 champs.

The top four seeds did not play this round as they had byes to the Sweet 16.

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Fab 5 Hold Off Spirited Runs by Stockton's Zags

 Michigan's 1993 Fab 5, actually in their sophomore seasons in the Value Add Basketball Game, blitzed 1984 Gonzaga with a 12-0 blitz to start a game but then had to survive spirited runs by John Stockton to advance 73-62. It was the second closer than expected game for the what appears to be one of the best teams of all time - as Dave Collins 1968 Florida State gave them a battle in their first game.

Stockton hit a 3-pointer with 10 minutes left in the game to get the Zags within 54-46, then with 8:54 to play (15 possessions left) stole it, scored and was fouled to gut it to 56-50.

Chris Webber then scored to make it 58-50 and blocked a Stockton shot to keep the 8-point lead, scoring again at the other end to get it back to double digits at 60-50.

The Zags had one more run left. Stockton scored consecutive baskets around the five minute mark to cut it to 64-58, and Michigan missed at the other end. However, Jalen Rose grabbed the offensive rebound and kicked it out to Chris Webber, who drained one of his surprising three 3-pointers of the game to put it away at 67-58 en route to the 73-62 win.

Webber averaged about one 3-pointer a game, and did that again a couple of years later in the NBA when he moved from NBA Center to Power Forward, and both in this college year and that NBA year shot it at better than 33%, but his incredible 68% on 2-pointers is what made him a 1st Team All-American to end his 2-year career en route to being one of the greatest NBA players of all time.

His 9 rebounds combined with Juwan Howard's 10 rebounds spurred the early 12-0 run. Michigan now awaits either the Glove Gary Payton's Oregon State team or the recent Tennessee 2023 team in this tournaments Sweet 16.

This is our third men's tournament. The late Bill Walton's UCLA team beat Michael Jordan's UNC team in our tournament of the first 96 teams we created, then Mario Chalmers Kansas team won the 2nd tournament of the next batch of teams we created before this tournament. 

 

Pos	Gonzaga 1984	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Hts	Season Actual
1-PG	John Stockton	22	2	7	2	3	1	7	1	1	6'1	20.9 Pts, 2.4 Reb, 7.2 Ast
2-SG	Bryce McPhee	11	0	4	3	4	4	1	0	1	6'3	18.2 Pts, 6.7 Reb, 2.7 Ast
3-SF	Jeff Condill	5	0	2	1	1	5	0	1	1	6'3	12.1 Pts, 4.3 Reb, 2.8 Ast
4-PF	Jason Van Nort	5	0	2	1	2	5	0	0	2	6'9	11.0 Pts, 4.6 Reb, 0.4 Ast
5-C	Tim Ruff	9	0	3	3	4	6	0	0	1	6'10	9.0 Pts, 6.6 Reb, 0.8 Ast
1-PG	Mark Matthews	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	6'4	4.8 Pts, 1.5 Reb, 0.9 Ast
2-SG	Jeff Reinert	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'7	6.7 Pts, 5.3 Reb, 2.4 Ast
3-SF	Dave Clement	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'6	3.1 Pts, 2.3 Reb, 0.5 Ast
4-PF	Danny Roe	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	6'7	1.2 Pts, 1.1 Reb, 0.5 Ast
5-C	Blair Anderson	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	2	6'9	7.3 Pts, 4.8 Reb, 1.0 Ast
	Zags Totals	62	2	23	10	14	28	8	2	13		1.0 Pts, 0.0 Reb, 0.0 Ast
Pos	Michigan 1993	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Hts	Season Actual
1-PG	Jimmy King	19	1	8	0	0	2	4	0	4	6'2	10.8 Pts, 4.4 Reb, 3.1 Ast
2-SG	Jalen Rose	8	0	4	0	0	2	1	2	2	6'3	15.4 Pts, 4.2 Reb, 3.9 Ast
3-SF	Ray Jackson	6	0	3	0	0	7	0	0	2	6'3	9.0 Pts, 4.1 Reb, 2.2 Ast
4-PF	Chris Webber	20	3	5	1	3	9	3	4	2	6'7	19.2 Pts, 10.1 Reb, 2.5 Ast
5-C	Juwan Howard	14	0	6	2	2	10	0	2	2	6'8	14.6 Pts, 7.4 Reb, 1.9 Ast
3-SF	Rob Pelinka	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'1	4.3 Pts, 2.1 Reb, 1.0 Ast
5-C	Eric Riley	4	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	2	6'0	5.6 Pts, 4.8 Reb, 0.4 Ast
	Wolverines Totals	73	4	29	3	5	32	8	8	15

Seed	Men's unbeaten	Player #All-Time Rank	Round of 32 & Sweet 16
1	Connecticut 2023, #7	Adama Sanogo	bye (next Gonz-TX)
2	Connecticut 1996, #14	Ray Allen #52	bye (next SMU-KS)
3	Western Kentucky 1966, #24	Clem Haskins	bye (next UNC-Xavier)
4	Houston 2021, #26	Quentin Grimes	bye (next Duke-Mia)
5	Purdue 2024, #35	Zach Edey	W 69-42 vs. UMass 1971, #219 (2nd R Gtown-ASU)
6	Michigan 1993, #36	Chris Webber #65	W 73-62 vs Gonzaga 1981, #216 (if W TN-Ore St)
7	Rutgers 1976, #39	Phil Sellers	W 84-82 OT vs. Duquesne 2024, #203 (Col-LSU)
8	North Carolina 1972, #40	Bob McAdoo #54	vs. Louisville 1968, #178 (if W UCLA-NC St)
9	UCLA 2008, #44	Russell Westbrook #46	vs. NC St. 2024, #153 (if W UNC-Lville)
10	Colorado 2021, #56	McKinley Wright	vs. LSU 1953, #147 (if W Rutg-Duqu)
11	Tennessee 2023, #59	Santiago Vescovi	vs. Oregon St. 1990, #140 (if W MI-Gonz)
12	Georgetown 1989, #63	Alonzo Mourning #69	vs. Arizona St. 2009, #139 (if W Purdue)
13	Duke 2015, #65	Justise Winslow	vs. Miami 2023, #131 (if W Houston)
14	North Carolina 2022, #67	Armando Bacot	vs. Xavier 2023, #86 (if W West KY)
15	SMU 2017, #70	Semi Ojeleye	vs. Kansas 2022, #79 (if W Uconn 1996)
16	Texas 2023, #71	Marcus Carr	vs. Gonzaga 2023, #76 (if W Uconn 2023)
17	Gonzaga 2023, #76	Drew Timme	vs. Texas 2023, #71 (if W Uconn 2023)
18	Kansas 2022, #79	Ochai Agbaji	vs. SMU 2017, #70 (if W Uconn 1996)
19	Xavier 2023, #86	Jack Nunge	vs. North Carolina 2022, #67 (if W West KY)
20	Miami 2023, #131	Norchad Omier	vs. Duke 2015, #65 (if W Houston)
21	Arizona St. 2009, #139	James Harden #33	vs. Georgetown 1989, #63 (if W Purdue)
22	Oregon St. 1990, #140	Gary Payton #48	vs. Tennessee 2023, #59 (if W MI-Gonz)
23	LSU 1953, #147	Bob Pettit #31	vs. Colorado 2021, #56 (if W Rutg-Duqu)
24	NC St. 2024, #153	D.J. Burns	vs. UCLA 2008, #44 (if W UNC-Lville)
25	Louisville 1968, #178	Wes Unseld #60	vs. North Carolina 1972, #40 (if W UCLA-NC St)
26	Duquesne 2024, #203	Jimmy Clark	L 84-82 OT vs Rutgers 1976 (Eliminated)
27	Gonzaga 1981, #216	John Stockton #25	vs. Michigan 1993, #36 Eliminated
28	Massachusetts 1971, #219	Julius Erving #19	L 42-69 vs. Purdue 2024 #35, Eliminated

Can Anyone Stop Indiana State's Bird or UCF's 7'6 Tacko Fall? Final added - 74-70 ISU

Post game update: Scroll to the bottom for the scoresheet on Indiana State's 74-70 survival against UCF. Larry Bird was a perfect 4 of 4 on 3-pointers for a game-high 16 points, but that was well below his average in 1979. He was guarded by Johnny Dawkins son and Michigan transfer Aubrey Dawkins and 7-foot-6 Tacko Fall rejected two of Bird's shots among Fall's six blocks in the Value Add Basketball Game matchup.

However it was the other NBA player on the court in Indiana State point guard Carl Nicks who stole the ball after a UCF offensive rebound with less than a minute left and a 72-70 score. UCF then had to use the "turnover or foul" defense to keep the game from ending. It was Nick's who they fouled after failing to get a steal, and despite being only an average free throw shooter (1-13 made in 20-side die or 65%) Nick's sank them both for the 74-70 final and UCF's final jumper at the horn was no good but irrelevant.

Indiana State advances with the win and will definitely be one of the top 11 seeds remaining so will get a bye to the third round while the 12th to 21st best first round winners will play in the 2nd round to make the Sweet 16.

The following was written before the game, and the scoresheet is at the bottom.

Pre game write up

Perhaps the most fun match-up in the first round of our current 42-team tournament is Indiana State's 1979 Runner-up team vs. Central Florida's (UCF).

For the set-up, Bird may have the best card in the entire Value Add Basketball Game. His "Gets ball on: 3 SF 6&8" means he gets the ball on three numbers on the 8-sided die, or 37.5 percent of the time, and once he gets it he hits a 3-pointer 30% of the time (1-6 on the 20-sided die). Keep in mind that doesnt mean he misses 70% of 3sz but rather 6 of 20 times he gets the ball in the game he makes a 3. Bird is an incredible rebounder on offense and defense (1-8) and has the max steals (11-20 which is the same as 11-16, 31 All) and almost as good at blocking shots (21-26). With the dunk range of 51-56 that could be the best offensive card in the game.

However, Indiana State is only a fair defensive team (+0 on dunk adjustment) and will need to go up against the only player who scores or is fouled on 17 numbers on the 20-sided die in Fall. He makes a 2-point shot on 1-11 and is fouled on 12-17, only missing a shot on an 18-20. His offensive rebound range of 1-9 means anytime a rebound comes up as "high on court" he would grab the rebound even over Larry Bird's defensive 1-8. He never steals the ball, but he does have the maximum blocked shot range of 21-26, 32 all (listed as 21-30 on some teams) which means he blocks a shot on the opposing center on 21-26 and when anyone in the game shoots on a 32. 

At first glance, someone might think his card would produce even more points than Bird's because of only missing on 3 numbers out of 20, but actually it is great but not nearly as great s Bird's for three reasons. First, his stamina is 30 of 44 possessions, so like many big men he is not on the court as much as Bird's 37 of 44. Second, while he goes to the foul line a lot, his free throws made are only good on a 1-7 out of 20 for a 35% free throw range. Finally Central Florida's 51-51 dunk range makes for a very low overall offensive rating due to lighter opponents during the year compared to Indiana State's 51-56 for a high powered overall offense.

Due to Central Florida's tough defense (-2) they hold Indiana State's dunk range down to 51-54, while Indiana State's weaker defense of 0 leaves Central Florida's dunk range for the game at 51-51.

We showed Indiana State's player cards at the top. Below that are the list of Offensive (Adj0) and Defensive (AdjD) overall point expectations of cards, with Indiana State at 1.14 points per trip in the game, and defense (AdjD) at 0.98. UCF is a weaker offense (1.03) but better defense (0.93).  Finaly for the stat nerds we include the calculation of both teams dunk range with formulas available in this google sheet.

We set up the box score at the bottom and will fill it in after the game.

Game Results to follow with conclusion of game.

Box Score. Next to each player there are 4 numbers for points, rebounds, steals and blocked shots. For Bird that was 16 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block. For Fall that was 12 points, 8 rebounds, 0 steals and 6 blocks.

Pos	Central Florida 2019	Season Stats	Ht	Pts	Reb	Stl	Blk	Foul
1-PG	Terrell Allen	6.7 Pts, 3.2 Reb, 4.3 Ast	6'3
2-SG	B.J. Taylor	15.9 Pts, 2.3 Reb, 3.2 Ast	6'2
3-SF	Aubrey Dawkins	15.6 Pts, 5.0 Reb, 1.4 Ast	6'6
4-PF	Collin Smith	8.0 Pts, 5.2 Reb, 1.5 Ast	6'11
5-C	Tacko Fall	11.1 Pts, 7.6 Reb, 0.5 Ast	7'6
1-PG	Frank Bertz	3.1 Pts, 1.4 Reb, 0.5 Ast	6'5
2-SG	Ceasar DeJesus	3.4 Pts, 0.9 Reb, 0.7 Ast	6'2
3-SF	Chance McSpadden	0.9 Pts, 1.9 Reb, 0.4 Ast	6'4
4-PF	Dayon Griffin	4.6 Pts, 2.1 Reb, 1.1 Ast	6'4
5-C	Chad Brown	4.5 Pts, 5.0 Reb, 0.4 Ast	6'9
Pos	Indiana State 1979	Season Stats	Ht	Pts	Reb	Stl	Blk	Foul
1-PG	Carl Nicks	19.3 Pts, 3.5 Reb, 5.0 Ast	6'1
2-SG	Bob Heaton	7.3 Pts, 3.3 Reb, 1.8 Ast	6'5
3-SF	Larry Bird	28.6 Pts, 14.9 Reb, 5.5 Ast	6'9
4-PF	Leroy Staley	7.0 Pts, 3.5 Reb, 0.7 Ast	6'4
5-C	Alex Gilbert	9.6 Pts, 6.1 Reb, 0.4 Ast	6'7
1-PG	Steve Reed	5.0 Pts, 1.9 Reb, 7.0 Ast	6'3
2-SG	Rich Nemcek	1.7 Pts, 1.0 Reb, 0.6 Ast	6'6
3-SF	Scott Turner	2.1 Pts, 1.1 Reb, 0.3 Ast	6'5
4-PF	Brad Miley	5.7 Pts, 6.0 Reb, 1.6 Ast	6'8
5-C	Tom Crowder	1.9 Pts, 1.3 Reb, 0.2 Ast	6'5

1976 Rutgers Crushes Clemson Despite Horace Grant's 17, 10

Rutgers put on an offensive fireworks display and James Bailey threw the block party.

Yes, we know Labor Day is a baseball and football 3-day weekend, but with the college conference realignment sending us scrambling to create new all-time Value Add Basketball Game teams this weekend we had to get in at least one game from our tournament.

Clemson's Horace Grant looked every bit the dominant inside force who averaged a double-double at the next level during the Bulls first three NBA titles. He registered 17 points and 10 rebounds including the pictured roll in the first photo in which his and-one stick back gave the Tigers an early lead in the 48th possession (counting down to possession 1). However, his great teammate big man Elden Campbell was still just a freshman during this 1987 season so could only play 21 possessions, and that was not nearly enough.

The 1976 Rutgers team looked every bit the squad that averaged more than 93 points a game and went 31-0 until losing in the Final Four. Phil Sellers had a steal and score at the other end to finish the half with a 47-38 lead. From there, Rutgers pulled away for a 97-77 win that improves their ranking among our all-time great teams in our Pomeroy type rankings from a +1.2 to a +6.7 to improve from 68th to 28th in the rankings. Clemson drops from a -7.2 to -12.3 to fall from 155th to 174th.

Note: we had just increased the rating of all 178 teams by +2.2 because, like the www.kenpom.com ratings, this figure calculates the average score margin we would expect if the team played all 177 other great teams in the game. Against an average team (not the average of these great teams) each team would be a good 20 points better than their rating in this game of only playing other great teams. We we'd expect Clemson's player cards to average a 12 point loss against other all-time teams in the game, but at least an average of an 8-point win against an average team in a given season.

The dimes on the score sheet show the players who get the ball more often (on the 6, 7 and 8 die rolls on the 8-sided die) and Clemson relies on their inside game with dimes on the SF, PF and C positions, while Rutgers up tempo team relies on their small guys with the dimes on the PG, SG and SF. Rolls of 1-5 go to the player in that position, and if there are not enough dimes to cover a roll of 6,7 or 8 then the team rerolls all dice to see if a 1-5 gets it, but on the second roll it is a shot clock violation on a 6, 7 or 8. 

However, while Rutgers PG, SG and SF combined for an incredible 58 points in the game that included 7 extra possessions due to Rutgers up tempo style (click for 14 fast paced teams), the most incredible performance came from the Scarlet Knight's center and it was on defense. Center James Bailey easily set a record for the hundreds of VABG games with have played with a record 10 blocked shots to lead the team to 16 blocked shots.

Five years after averaging 3 blocked shots in only 23 minutes a game as a freshman on this Rutgers team, Bailey would go onto block 6 shots in three different NBA games in the 1980-81 NBA season.

Rutgers will await their next opponent in our 42-team tournament of our new teams but will get a bye as they are now assured of being one of the six top teams who will get byes in the next round of 21 first round winners. 

In the tournament of the first 96 teams we created, Bill Walton's UCLA beat Michael Jordan's UNC in the title game in which we only allowed a max of one team from each century per school. We then created another 50 teams and Paul Pierce' Kansas Mateen Cleaves Michigan State for the second title. Those two were not included in the first batch because I had gone with Wilt Chamberlain's Kansas team and Magic Johnson's Michigan State team. On the women's side Pat Summit's Tennessee beat Notre Dame for the title.

The lopsided win for Rutgers leaves them ranked only behind #14 Duke with Justise Winslow and the last two national champions - #21 defending National Champ UConn with Adama Sanogo and the previous champion Kansas with Ochai Agbaji. Below are pictures of tonight's game in action, as well as the box score. Instructions for playing your own match-ups appear at the bottom of the blog.

On the box score, keep in mind the game starts at 20-20 with the assumption all 10 player have already played 11 possessions each, However, because Rutgers has a +7 on tempo, there were 51 possessions played in this game, with the starters playing half (actually 4 of the extra 7). Horace Grant is the only player with the max Stamina of 44 on either team, so with the extra 4 that gives him the 48 possessions listed. However, this would really amount to 59 with the extra 11 from the beginning 20-20 tie. Lastly, while we say we play 44 possessions, in the final five minutes any position that starts with either team being fouled or a fast break off a steal creates and extra possession below the line in the far right column - and that happened five times in this game so really that was an extra 5 possessions for Grant and in real terms he would have played 64 of 68 possessions in this game. However, it is listed as 48 for the reasons in this paragraph.

Clemson 1987	Poss	Starter	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks	Fouls
Grayson Marshall	44	1-PG	7	2	2	0	3
Michael Tait	44	2-SG	8	3	3	0	1
Jerry Pryor	38	3-SF	15	4	0	2	5
Horace Grant	48	4-PF	17	10	1	1	1
Elden Campbell	22	5-C	10	8	0	1	1
Clemson 1987	Poss	Bench	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks	Fouls
Larry Middleton	15	1-PG	6	1	0	0	2
Michael Brown	20	2-SG	4	1	0	0	1
Tim Kincaid	8	3-SF	2	3	0	1	1
Ricky Jones	8	4-PF	2	1	0	0	1
Anthony Jenkins	29	5-C	6	1	0	0	1
Clemson Totals	51		77	34	6	5	17
Rutgers 1976	Poss	Starter	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks	Fouls
Eddie Jordan	40	1-PG	18	4	2	0	1
Mike Dabney	45	2-SG	16	4	3	2	1
Phil Sellers	47	3-SF	24	5	2	0	5
Hollis Copeland	41	4-PF	12	6	1	4	4
James Bailey	33	5-C	4	4	0	10	2
Rutgers 1976	Poss	Bench	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks	Fouls
Steve Hefele	11	1-PG	8	2	0	0	3
Mark Conlin	9	2-SG	4	1	0	0	1
Jeff Kleinbaum	8	3-SF	3	3	0	0	1
Mike Palko	8	4-PF	2	2	0	0	1
Abdel Anderson	25	5-C	6	5	0	0	1
Rutgers Totals	51		97	36	8	16	20

This blog contains everything you need to play the Value Add Basketball Game. We added a couple of dozen teams, several from 2022 and 2023, and broke the teams into four lists because the file was opening and printing slowly for some people. Start by choosing two teams to play, click on the appropriate link below, and print the page number indicated for the team.

Click on the all-time great women's teams (we are just starting to have enough stats to make women's cards based on the great work by basketball reference, and will keep adding more teams as they fill in stats.

Men's Teams:

List A - Alabama 1977 to Georgia Tech 2004 (accidentally put UCF here under "Central Florida" for now

List B - Gonzaga 2017 to Marquette 2011

List C - Marquette 2023 to San Francisco 1956

List D - Seattle 1958 to Xavier 2023 

Images of 10 New Value Add Basketball Teams for Printing

We did finish calculated the 10 new teams so that every basketball program in one of the power conferences for 2024 is now represented. That Rutgers 1976 team does look to be the best of the 10. The do appear alphabetically with the other teams on the free Value Add Basketball Game, but you can also click on the image below to print any one of them if that is easier than google docs for you.

The new Rutgers and Virginia Tech teams played before the 3-point line. We use a standard formula by position to break down those players shots and misses into 2-point and 3-point makes and misses. We do then adjust for some famous players for whom there is footage of long shots (eg Pistol Pete at LSU).

We also look at NBA 3-pointers for players who had the line for their pro careers. For example the Rutgers made few or no 3-pointers in the NBA. Virginia Tech's Dell Curry hit more than 40 percent of his 3-pointers from the NBA line over a long career - 

and he seemed to pass on some pretty good shooting genes to Stephen as well, so maybe a 1986 Virginia Tech vs 2008 Davidson father son shootout may be in the future.

The following is the top of that blow with the links: 

This blog contains everything you need to play the Value Add Basketball Game. We added a couple of dozen teams, several from 2022 and 2023, and broke the teams into four lists because the file was opening and printing slowly for some people. Start by choosing two teams to play, click on the appropriate link below, and print the page number indicated for the team.

Click on the all-time great women's teams (we are just starting to have enough stats to make women's cards based on the great work by basketball reference, and will keep adding more teams as they fill in stats.

Men's Teams:

List A - Alabama 1977 to Georgia Tech 2004 (accidentally put UCF here under "Central Florida" for now

List B - Gonzaga 2017 to Marquette 2011

List C - Marquette 2023 to San Francisco 1956

List D - Seattle 1958 to Xavier 2023 

Your teams will look something like this, 10 players to a team with the starters in the top row. The are the teams that won our first tournaments - John Wooden's 1972 UCLA team featuring Bill Walton and Pat Summitt's 1998 Tennessee team featuring Tamika Catchings. 

16-Game NL Statis-Pro Summary: Giants Beat Marlins; Face Brewers

Our NL Statis-Pro season hits the 16-game mark season - four times through each 4-man rotation - with our upcoming San Francisco Giants vs. Milwaukee Brewers 2-game series. The link to all player cards and the game is at the bottom of this blog.

We include the box scores and line-ups for the Gants big 7-5 and 5-4 win over the Marlins, both reflected in this tracker of our games. Under our system in which each game counts as three games, won 3 games to 0 only if a team wins by 5 runs or more, the Marlins hit the mark at 26-22 for fourth place in our game - behind the Braves, Dodgers and Brewers in our overall standings.

Game 1	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Miami	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	1	0		5	9	0
San Fran	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	4	x		7	9	0
Game 2	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
San Fran	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	1	1		5	10	2
Miami	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	1		4	8	0

The Giants and Marlins were originally relegated (the Cardinals, Pirates, Rockies and Nationals still are to leave an 11-team league). Therefore we had to play all 16 games for both teams to catchup to the other nine teams at the 16-game mark. 

Starting Pitcher Rotations: To make sure we can always play teams against each other even when one has played more games and at a different part of their rotation, we play all 2-game series and pitch either the No. 1 and No. 4 pitchers in the rotation, or the No. 2 and No. 3 pitchers neither team has a big disadvantage like they would if a series were to set up a No. 1 and No. 2 for one team, and No. 3 and No. 4 for the opponent.

Reliever Pitcher Usage: We also want each team to go in with the bullpen rested so one team doesn't have an advantage. Therefore each team can use each of their relievers in one but not both of their games in a 2-game series. Most relievers have an SR/RR: 0/3 and Max IP 2 on their card. In Statis-Pro the "3" means in relief they start with 3 endurance, and any time an inning ends, or they allow a player to reach base other than an error, or an earned run scores, then the endurance drops one. The "Max 2" means the pitcher can go part of 2 innings, but we normally have them pitch only 1 inning each unless they come in to get out of a jam in one inning and then stay on for another inning. However, this is dangerous because if they allow even a single runner, then the inning ends, they have dropped from RR 3 to RR 1 going into their one full inning. One more runner in their full inning and their endurance would already be out and their PB would drop by one (e.g. from a PB 2-8 to a PB 2-7) and continue to drop for any of the items listed above.

San Francisco Giants 2-game Box Score

Below is the combined box score for the Giants' batters in the two games against the Marlins. As noted in the line score above, the Giants trailed 4-0 in the first game until a th inning homer by JD Davis and then a game-winning 8th inning homer by Michael Conforto for the 7-5 win. In the second game Davis homered again, offsetting an error (he is a poor fielding third baseman with an E6, CD-1) to allow two unearned runs in the 5-4 win.

The Giants 20-22 mark going into the Brewers series is much better than last year's record, the last stats factored into the projected player cards, and but not as good as this year's incredible season. 

 

Giants Line-up	Order	Pos	AB	R	H	RBI	Notes
Thairo Estrada	1	2B	9	2	2	0	2b
Casey Schmitt	2	SS	8	2	3	1	2b
Joc Pederson	3	LF	7	1	0	0
Mike Yastrzemski	4	CF	7	2	3	1	3b
JD Davis	5	3B	7	2	3	4	2-HRs
Michael Conforto	6	RF	7	1	3	3	GW-HR
Wilmer Flores	7	DH	8	1	1	0	2b
LaMonte Wade Jr./td>	8	1B	6	0	0	0
Blake Sabol	9	Ca	7	0	2	1
SF .258 BA, .470			66	11	17	10	0.258

In the first game ace Alex Cobb pitched four no-hit innings, but was hit hard in the fifth inning and the bull pen needed to be strong to get the win. In the second game Alex Wood pitched well, but two fifth inning errors allowed two unearned runs and he ran out of endurance in the prolonged 5th inning.  Tylor Rogers (not the same pitcher as Taylor Rogers who saved the first game), did give up a homer to Jazz Chisholm Jr to allow the Marlins within 5-4  but then held on.

In facing the Brewers in the next series, a PB 2-8 righty Logan Webb will pitch the first game, then lefty Sean Manaea, who is not as dominant as some past years at PB 4-7.

 

Game 1 SF Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	W	K	Notes
Alex Cobb	5	5	4	4	1	5
Scott Alexander	1	2	0	0	0	0
Cole Waites	1	0	0	0	0	2
Camilo Doval	1	2	1	1	0	1	W
Taylor Rogers	1	0	0	0	0	0	S
Game 2	IP	H	R	ER	W	K	Notes
Alex Wood	4.3	5	3	1	3	4
Jakob Junis	2.7	1	0	0	2	3	W
John Brebbia	0.7	1	0	0	0	0
Tyler Rogers	1.3	1	1	1	0	0	S
SF 3.50 ERA	18	17	9	7	6	15	3.50
1st Gm vs. Mil
Logan Webb
2nd Gm vs. Mil
Sean Manaea

Miami Marlins  2-game Box Score

The following are the Marlins stats for the 2-games. Note that unlike the Giants, their line-up did vary during the two games since the Giants threw a lefty and a righty in the two games. Under "order" you see Chisholm has a "1" and hit first both games, but then Jorge Soler's "3/2" means he batted 3rd against the lefty Alex Wood but 2nd against the righty (right of the slash) Alex Cobb.

 

Marlins Line-up	Order	Pos	AB	R	H	RBI	Notes
Jazz Chisholm Jr	1	SS	7	3	2	2	HR,SB
Jorge Soler	3/2	RF	9	0	3	1
Luis Arraez	2/3	2B	7	0	0	1
Jean Segura	x/4	DH	4	0	0	0
Garrett Cooper	4/5	1b	3	1	0	0
Yuli Gurriel	4/5	1B	7	0	2	0	2b
Jesús Sánchez	6	CF	8	1	3	0
Joey Wendle	8/7	3b	6	1	1	1
Bryan De La Cruz	7/9	LF	8	2	4	0
Nick Fortes	9/8	Ca	8	1	2	0	2b
Mia .254 BA, .328 Slug			67	9	17	5	0.254

On the pitching front, last year's Cy Young Award Winner Sandy Alcantara carried the lead and looked save until Drew's homer, but did not get the win after Tanner Scott gave up Conforto's homer.  The second game featured our first use of the new PB 2-7 card for rookie Eury Perez, who has been the best Marlins pitcher based purely on ERA, but does not have the endurance of Alcantara, who has a rare "Max 8 IP" in the modern game.

 

Game 1 Mia Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	W	K	Notes
Sandy Alcantara (Gm 1)	7	5	3	3	2	7
Tanner Scott	0.7	1	3	3	2	0	L
David Robertson	0.3	1	1	1	0	0
Game 2 Mia Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	W	K	Notes
Eury Pérez (Gm2)	3.3	5	3	3	2	2
Andrew Nardi	1.7	0	0	0	0	2
Tommy Nance	1	1	0	0	0	1
Huascar Brazoban	1	0	0	0	0	0
Steven Okert	0.3	1	1	1	2	0	L
AJ Puk	1.3	3	1	1	0	2
Jorge Lopez	0.3	0	0	0	0	0
Mia .4.76 ERA	17	12	9	9	6	14	4.76

Milwaukee Brewers Line-up for Giants Series

Note that the Brewers also rotated a couple of players based on if they hit lefties or righties better, but the line-up does not change - just the order.

The Brewers received three good batters in trades before the deadline, but the only one to crack the Statis-Pro starting line-up is 1st baseman Carlos Santana. He is both a much better 1st baseman than Rowdy Tellez, letting Tellez move to DH, but also kills left-handed pitching so we will bat him 3rd against Manaea while he will hit 6th in the opener.

While we have all 11-teams in one league rather than divisions, the Brewers are among the same three Division Leaders form real MLB in our Statis-Pro Standings (with the Braves and Dodgers).
 

Brewers Line-up	Order	Pos	AB	R	H	RBI	Notes
Christian Yelich	1	LF
Rowdy Tellez	2	DH
Jesse Winker	5/3	RF
Roansy Contreras	4	Ca
Willy Adames	5	SS
Carlos Santana	3/6	1B
Brian Anderson	7	3B
Mike Brosseau	8	2b
Tyrone Taylor	9	CF

And here are the two starting pitchers who will face the Giants.

 

Game 1 Mil Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	W	K	Notes
Brandon Woodruff
Game 2 Mil Pitching
Freddy Peralta

The following are all the links you need to play the game yourself.

Click for the free Statis-Pro Master Baseball Game. Click here for 60 of the all-time great MLB teams, or on teams of many of the all-time great players on teams by nation or state with one sheet for each team. Or click on the 2023 pitchers and 2023 batters in card form. You simply print two teams cards and then either print theaster link above and fast action cards in master link or buy the dice to start playing. 

If you are playing the current 2023 season, you can use these optional adjustments for 149 players who were playing much better or worse than than their projected 2023 pitchers or 2023 batters in card form.