Big East Returns Most Dominant All-Americans in Return of Value Add Basketball Rankings

All-Big East Conf	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Adama Sanogo	Connecticut	11.37	122.6	90.9	4-seed, 31-8, Poss 26.4%
Ryan Kalkbrenner	Creighton	10.80	133.4	93.2	6-seed, 24-13, Poss 19.4%
Jordan Hawkins	Connecticut	9.88	121.2	90.9	4-seed, 31-8, nba 14 in 2023
Tyler Kolek	Marquette	9.63	118	96.7	2-seed, 29-7 (PG), Poss 24.1%
Souley Boum	Xavier	8.87	119.2	98.6	3-seed, 27-10 (PG), Poss 21.2%
2nd T-Big East Conf	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Joel Soriano	St. John's	7.95	120.1	98	18-15, Poss 22.4%
Oso Ighodaro	Marquette	7.93	123.8	96.7	2-seed, 29-7, Poss 18.2%
Ed Croswell	Providence	7.79	123.3	100.8	11-seed, 21-12, Poss 21.3%
Alex Karaban	Connecticut	7.77	124	90.9	4-seed, 31-8, nba 32 in 2024
Jack Nunge	Xavier	7.73	120.2	98.6	3-seed, 27-10, Poss 21.9%
HM-Big East Conf	Team	Value	AdjO	AdjD	Notes
Eric Dixon	Villanova	7.25	116.3	99.7	17-17, Poss 25.6%
Zach Freemantle	Xavier	6.04	110.9	98.6	3-seed, 27-10, Poss 24.7%
Umoja Gibson	DePaul	5.87	110.9	105.2	10-23 (PG), Poss 24.1%

Above is a very late All-Big East 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.

Simply put, the Big East returns the most dominant conference based on having four of the top 10 returning players in the country according to the Value Add Basketball calculations. The Big East not only has four of the top 10 returning players in the country, but just misses having three different teams with two of the top 10 returning players.

Cam Spencer transferred to UConn as a top 10 All-American, and joins Ryan Karaban who just misses the top 10. 

Oso Ighodaro just missed joining Marquette's All-American point guard Tyler Kolek or Marquette would have two of the top 10 returning players.

Finally, while he hasn't shown last year's dominance yet, Steven Ashworth transferred to Creighton to join Ryan Kalkbrenner to give them two of the top 10 returning players.

Its easy to see why UConn, Marquette and Creighton were ranked in Pomeroy's top 8 until Creighton was upset on Thanksgiving. Amazing that the conference that seemed most decimated by realignment a decade ago is the most stable the past year. Then it appeared the conference was the loser and the football programs were ditching them to go from a Power 6 to a Power 5 - while instead it is the Pac-12 that is disappearing as the Big East remains as the basketball-only member of the new Power 5.

There is still talk of UConn leaving as the conference seems to have the best chance to win another title to grab a 4th title in 7 years, but even if that happens it seems Dayton (who may have been the team cost a title by the 2020 Covid cancellation) seems likely to be pulled in to keep the conference at 11. Here are the seeds from last year and current Pomeroy rankings.

Team	2023	2024	2025	Seed23	Rnk24
Butler	BE	BE	BE		77
Connecticut	BE	BE	BE	4	3
Creighton	BE	BE	BE	6	13
DePaul	BE	BE	BE		168
Georgetown	BE	BE	BE		174
Marquette	BE	BE	BE	2	6
Providence	BE	BE	BE	11	47
Seton Hall	BE	BE	BE		55
St. John's	BE	BE	BE		71
Villanova	BE	BE	BE		19
Xavier	BE	BE	BE	3	33

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%

College Hoops 4th Best Conference History - Current Big East (Original BE Could Have Been Best)

The domination in our game of Villanova team that dominated the title game in 2018 for one of two titles in there years and the two UConn teams that won titles in a six year stretch is no surprise.

The biggest surprise in our first 188 all-time great games has been DePaul's 1980 squad, which stunned Kareem and UCLA in route to a 3-0 record. We assume they will end up coming down to earth, but for right now they have helped the top six teams in the Big East to a 17-7 mark and the ranking as the 4th best conference in our game so far.

Add Patrick Ewing's 1984 Georgetown team, and you can remember how the actual 1980s Big East that launched ESPN legitimately challenges the ACC for title of the top conference in the country.

You may ask why Marquette merits four teams in the game is simple - I went there and am completely biased and even wrote a book on Marquette basketball once. Obviously a great program, but so far all four teams rank slightly below average of the all-time great teams. However, most of us would argue the actual all-time great team out of Marquette was Jim Chones squad in the early 70s that went 49-1 with only a last second loss to Ohio State in the tournament, and then loss Chones to the ABA before No. 2 Marquette could make a run at the UCLA dynasty. Of course none of team Marquette teams ranked from 8 to 10 were actually in the Big East - the 2011 team led by Jimmy Butler and Jae Crowder and was in the Big East.

The Creighton 2020 team actually won our 2020 tournament we decided to play after Covid cancelled the actual tournament. They beat Duke for the title, but their six wins in that tournament did not include games against any teams in the All-Time great team.  

Rnk	Great Team	Year	Key Player	W	L	Pts	Allow	Rate
	Top 6 Big East teams			17	7	73.1	68.2	4.7
1	Villanova	2018	Mikal Bridges	7	2	79.4	70.3	10.8
2	Connecticut	2004	Ben Gordon	4	2	73.5	64.0	7.0
3	DePaul	1980	Mark Aguirre	3	0	80.3	67.7	5.6
4	Connecticut	1999	Richard Hamilton	0	1	60.0	64.0	4.0
5	Seton Hall	1989	John Morton	1	1	78.0	78.0	0.5
6	Georgetown	1984	Patrick Ewing	2	1	67.3	65.3	0.4
7	Georgetown	2007	Roy Hibbert	1	2	76.7	75.3	-1.4
8	Marquette	1971	Jim Chones	1	1	68.0	69.0	-1.8
9	Marquette	2003	Dwyane Wade	2	2	73.3	74.0	-2.4
10	Marquette	1977	Butch Lee	1	1	66.0	61.5	-2.8
11	St. John's	1985	Chris Mullin	0	1	75.0	76.0	-2.8
12	DePaul	1945	George Mikan	0	1	51.0	55.0	-5.2
13	Marquette	2011	Jimmy Butler	0	1	82.0	87.0	-7.0
14	Villanova	1985	Ed Pinckney	0	1	65.0	72.0	-9.2
15	Creighton	2014	Doug McDermott	0	3	66.3	80.0	-9.7
16	Creighton	2020	Ty-Shon Alexander	0	1	72.0	106.0	-10.2
17	Butler	2010	Gordon Hayward	0	3	54.7	76.3	-13.0

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!

March Madness 5: Teams with the Experience Guards to Pull Upsets

 As of March 12 at 9 p.m., a total of 80 teams could still make the tournament either by being selected for winning their conference championship game. Nothing can be more important to an upset bid then good, experienced guards. This is where a Mid-Major can sneak up and stun a more experienced younger team.

To get a mathematical measurement, we take the www.valueaddbasketball.com ranking of each senior guard on each team then take half of the value of each junior guard on the same team to get a total. Of the 80 teams, 22 do not have any junior or senior guards with value so those teams are a zero in these rankings.

The top 3 teams in the tournament based on this metrix are:

1. Villanova looks like the national champion based on this criteria, with a senior point guard Collin Gillespie ranking as the 8th best player in the country (10.15), with junior guard Justin Moore in the top 2% of all players (we include half of his 7.59 in this ranking, and senior guard Brandon Slater in the top 3% of all players (6.73). They won the Big East title today.

2. Illinois star is center Kofi Cockburn, but their next three most valuable players are all senior guards - Trent Frazier (top 2% at 7.30), Alfonso Plummer (top 4%, 6.10) and Jacob Grandison (top 7%, 5.21).

3. Vermont. After watching Vermont's senior guards dominant UMBC 82-43 in the American East title game today, we must wonder if that conference has another big upset brewing. It has been years since Vermont sunned Syracuse in the opening round, but only a few years since their victim today, UMBC, became the first 16-seed to beat a 1-seed with a 74-54 win over a UVA team that went onto win the title the next year.

Our all-time Value Add Basketball rankings indicate senior guard Ben Shungu is the fourth Vermont player to rank in the top 2% of all players, with the first one being the senior Value Add All-American Taylor Coppenrath who scored 16 points in that 60-57 win against Syraucse in 2005. 

Here is how the rest of the team's rank based on good, experienced guards.

Rnk	Best Experienced Guards	Adj Value Add
1	Villanova	25.93
2	Illinois	21.89
3	Vermont	19.26
4	Texas Tech	18.10
5	Texas	18.04
6	UCLA	17.58
7	Seton Hall	17.08
8	San Francisco	16.63
9	Wyoming	15.64
10	SMU	15.40
11	Houston	15.34
12	Connecticut	15.31
13	Gonzaga	15.14
14	Alabama	14.98
15	Oklahoma	14.95
16	Richmond	14.86
17	BYU	14.83
18	Wake Forest	14.64
19	Kansas	13.66
20	UAB	13.59
21	Michigan	12.99
22	Northern Colorado	12.91
23	Providence	12.59
24	Kentucky	11.49
25	Arkansas	11.48
26	Memphis	11.29
27	Baylor	10.42
28	Davidson	10.33
29	Princeton	10.30
30	Purdue	10.00
31	Colgate	9.48
32	Xavier	9.32
33	TCU	9.21
34	Longwood	9.10
35	Rutgers	9.02
36	Iowa	8.52
37	Yale	8.13
38	Marquette	7.95
39	Wisconsin	7.77
40	USC	7.49
41	Bryant	6.67
42	Virginia Tech	6.54
43	Duke	6.09
44	Delaware	5.60
45	Louisiana Tech	5.30
46	Tennessee	5.23
47	Chattanooga	5.19
48	Creighton	5.06
49	Texas A&M	4.95
50	Indiana	4.77
51	Notre Dame	4.38
52	North Carolina	4.21
53	Auburn	4.07
54	Arizona	3.24
55	Southeastern Louisiana	2.92
56	LSU	2.81
57	Akron	2.64
58	Texas Southern	2.44
59	Boise State	0.00
60	Cal State Fullerton	0.00
61	Colorado State	0.00
62	Georgia State	0.00
63	Iowa State	0.00
64	Jacksonville State	0.00
65	Kent State	0.00
66	Long Beach State	0.00
67	Loyola-Chicago	0.00
68	Miami (FLA.)	0.00
69	Michigan State	0.00
70	Montana State	0.00
71	Murray State	0.00
72	New Mexico State	0.00
73	Norfolk State	0.00
74	Ohio State	0.00
75	San Diego State	0.00
76	South Dakota State	0.00
77	St. Mary's (CA)	0.00
78	St. Peter's	0.00
79	Texas A&M-Corpus Christi	0.00
80	Wright State	0.00

Best Point Guards in College Basketball This Year

Note: While www.kenpom.com and www.valueaddbasketball.com analytics flagging Chattanooga's Malachi Smith as the 2nd best small forward in the country, we have been informed that in fact he plays point guard - where he would also rank as the 2nd best player at the country barely behind Villanova's Collin Gillespie. We will update for his next post, but we would still consider Smith a 2nd Team All-American at this point - just at a different position. (The analytics are thrown off because he grabs so many defensive rebounds that he appears to be a small forward rather than a point guard statistically).

In Value Add Basketball we consider the team's "point guard" the player who typically has the most  assists, and typically is the shortest player on the floor and with fewer defensive rebounds, blocked shots and less height. A point guard has the toughest job because he is the player who needs to handle it all the way down the court and create his own shots or create shots for others by working the ball inside to a center or power forward, who will thus typically have even better raw numbers than a great point guard. (for a summary of the top players at each position, click here).

Because www.valueaddbasketball.com calculates how many points per game a player improves his team compared to if a typical replacement player took his place, the raw value add is adjusted by position since the replacement player would be at the same position. Therefore, once the formulas are run, and power guard's raw value add is increased by multiplying it by 1.05 to get the result you see below and at www.valueaddbasketball.com.

In general, freshmen guards in particular make so many mistakes (turnovers, bad shots etc.) the first half of the season that they do not rank nearly as high as more experienced guards. Nowhere is this more true than at point guard.

However, they tend to improve more at the end of the season, so we watch for breakout freshmen first when looking at brackets. Therefore we start with the 10 most valuable freshmen pointing guards in college basketball, and perhaps the most incredible finding in these systems is that the top two freshman point guard in all of college basketball both play for Tennessee. Zakai Zeigler plays the point whenever he is in the game based on analytics - and when he sits Kennedy Chandler moves from shooting guard to point guard and is even better. 

Chandler was unbelievable in the recent double digit win against Kentucky, scoring 17 points despite taking only 9 shots, and dishing out 6 assists without a single turnover. Zeigler has four steals in that game, and scored 14 points only taking eight shots. With the importance of guards able to handle the ball in March Madness, this duo could be scary good in the tournament.

Rnk	Top 10 Freshman PG	Team	VA5	Conf	HtText	Cl
23	Kennedy Chandler #1	Tennessee	6.08	SEC	6'0	Fr
52	Zakai Zeigler #5	Tennessee	4.92	SEC	5'9"	Fr
58	Malachi Smith #11	Dayton	4.71	A10	6'0	Fr
60	Jalen Cook #3	Tulane	4.54	Amer	6'0	Fr
66	Jao Ituka #10	Marist	4.22	MAAC	6'1"	Fr
94	Kino Lilly #10	Brown	3.57	Ivy	6'0	Fr
113	Kerr Kriisa #25	Arizona	3.19	P12	6'3"	Fr
116	Ajay Mitchell #13	UC Santa Barbara	3.14	BW	6'4"	Fr
134	Jeremiah Williams #25	Temple	2.81	Amer	6'5"	Fr
136	Walter Clayton #13	Iona	2.77	MAAC	6'2"	Fr

If anyone had any doubts about Collin Gillespie being the top point guard in the country, they should watch how he has brought Villanova surging back into the top 10 - and the difference it made last year when he was injured for March Madness. It is a very close battle for 2nd Team All-American Point Guard between Mississippi State's Iverson Molinar and SMU's Kendric Davis. 

It may look strange to have Wyoming's super star Hunter Maldonado listed at point guard despite standing 6-foot-7, but he is in the top half percent of all players in assist rate - dishing and making everyone else score for a team that appears to be heading to March Madness.

 

Rnk	Top Point Guards (1)	Team	VA5	Conf	HtText	Cl
1	Collin Gillespie #2	Villanova	9.33	BE	6'3"	Sr
2	Iverson Molinar #1	Mississippi St.	8.68	SEC	6'3"	Jr
3	Kendric Davis #3	SMU	8.54	Amer	6'0	Sr
4	Hunter Maldonado #24	Wyoming	8.08	MWC	6'7"	Sr
5	Jamaree Bouyea #1	San Francisco	8.06	WCC	6'2"	Sr
6	Payton Willis #0	Minnesota	7.92	B10	6'4"	Sr
7	Tylor Perry #5	North Texas	7.77	CUSA	5'11"	Jr
8	Trent Frazier #1	Illinois	7.77	B10	6'2"	Sr
9	Baylor Scheierman #3	South Dakota St.	7.45	Sum	6'6"	So
10	Will Richardson #0	Oregon	7.44	P12	6'5"	Sr
11	RJ Cole #2	Connecticut	7.35	BE	6'1"	Sr
12	Mark Sears #1	Ohio	6.99	MAC	6'1"	So
13	Tyger Campbell #10	UCLA	6.92	P12	5'11"	Jr
14	Jacob Gilyard #0	Richmond	6.71	A10	5'9"	Sr
15	Isaiah Stevens #4	Colorado St.	6.69	MWC	6'0	Jr
16	Jalen Williams #24	Santa Clara	6.59	WCC	6'6"	Jr
17	Foster Loyer #0	Davidson	6.55	A10	6'0	Jr
18	Jamari Wheeler #55	Ohio St.	6.53	B10	6'1"	Sr
19	Andrew Nembhard #3	Gonzaga	6.49	WCC	6'5"	Sr
20	Michael Flowers #12	Washington St.	6.41	P12	6'1"	Sr
21	Sincere Carry #3	Kent St.	6.3	MAC	6'1"	Jr
22	Jordan Goldwire #0	Oklahoma	6.19	B12	6'3"	Sr
23	Kennedy Chandler #1	Tennessee	6.08	SEC	6'0	Fr
24	Jovan Blacksher #10	Grand Canyon	6.07	WAC	5'11"	Jr
25	Javon Freeman-Liberty #4	DePaul	6.06	BE	6'4"	Sr
26	RJ Davis #4	North Carolina	5.93	ACC	6'0	So
27	Wendell Green #1	Auburn	5.83	SEC	5'11"	So
28	Scotty Pippen #2	Vanderbilt	5.74	SEC	6'3"	Jr
29	Ben Shungu #24	Vermont	5.74	AE	6'2"	Sr
30	Michael Devoe #0	Georgia Tech	5.65	ACC	6'5"	Sr
31	Markquis Nowell #1	Kansas St.	5.61	B12	5'8"	Jr
32	Jordan Walker #10	UAB	5.57	CUSA	5'11"	Jr
33	Kevion Nolan #3	Jacksonville	5.55	ASun	6'2"	Jr
34	Darius McGhee #2	Liberty	5.5	ASun	5'9"	Sr
35	Souley Boum #0	UTEP	5.49	CUSA	6'3"	Jr
36	Jamal Shead #1	Houston	5.41	Amer	6'1"	So
37	James Akinjo #11	Baylor	5.41	B12	6'1"	Sr
38	Marcus Domask #1	Southern Illinois	5.38	MVC	6'6"	Jr
39	Tristen Newton #2	East Carolina	5.27	Amer	6'5"	So
40	Marcus Shaver #10	Boise St.	5.2	MWC	6'2"	Sr
41	Justice Hill #14	Murray St.	5.18	OVC	6'0	So
42	Bryce Aiken #1	Seton Hall	5.12	BE	6'0	Sr
43	Max Abmas #3	Oral Roberts	5.09	Sum	6'0	Jr
44	Jared Bynum #4	Providence	5.06	BE	5'10"	Jr
45	Darrion Trammell #2	Seattle	5.05	WAC	5'10"	So
46	Noah Kirkwood #10	Harvard	5.01	Ivy	6'7"	Sr
47	Braden Norris #4	Loyola Chicago	4.99	MVC	6'0	Jr
48	AJ Green #4	Northern Iowa	4.98	MVC	6'4"	Jr
49	KD Johnson #0	Auburn	4.97	SEC	6'0	So
50	Jahmir Young #1	Charlotte	4.96	CUSA	6'1"	Jr

Big East Breakdown of Value Add Basketball Player Rankings

Our last post covered the top 25 players in the country based on www.valueaddbasketball.com, and this CBS piece focuses in on the top 15 players and the other top NBA prospects in the Big East. Read that piece here.

Kentucky Star Tops Updated Hoops Top 25 Players

Not just Kentucky hype - Oscar Tshiebewe is BY FAR the most valuable player in college basketball after the Wildcats destroyed Kansas this weekend. Below this tweet is the email that went to almost all Athletic Departments the morning of January 31 outlining the numbers and then listing the rest of the top 25. Another piece on the www.valueaddbasketball.com ratings appeared on this CBS site.

We ran the updated calculations for college basketball players prior to the 1st kick-off of the two incredible Conference playoff games resulting in a Rams-Bengals Super Bowl.

(Note, if you want updates on John Pudner's non-sports organization simply click on www.takebackaction.org to sign up.)

You can click on the image below or www.valueaddbasketball.com to pull up the ratings for all 4,281 Division 1 college players, or simply sort by conference, team or player as shown in the image.

Click here for our posts on all 32 all-conference teams, or on this CBS/247 site for more information.

You can look up the following numbers for all players, but we will use the top-rated player for the explanation of what each number means.

Oscar Tshiebwe's 17 point, 14 rebound, 4 steal performance in Kentucky's dominant win at Kansas followed his 21,22,3 performance in the same categories against Mississippi State to move into the clear lead in the Value Add Basketball Player of the Year calculations.

The system calculates a players points above replacement in the same way www.kenpom.com calculates the offensive and defensive and overall ratings for college basketball teams.

Tshiebwe improves Kentucky by +6.94 on offense (same as a 106.94 team rating at www.kenpom.com) and takes -4.33 away from the Wildcats opponents on defense (same as a 95.67 for teams in www.kenpom.com as 4.33 less than 100).

The offense of 6.94 and defense of -4.33 adds up to a total 11.27 Value Add, the same as a +11.27 overall team rating for www.kenpom.com.

The Notes field includes information on the most common position played, and the weighting on that position to make the measurement a true measure of points above replacement at his position.

For example, Tshiebwe actually calculates with an even higher points above average replacement, but because most centers calculate higher than players at other possessions, his 11.27 rating was lowered from the non-position specific calculation.