| All-Western Athletic Conf | Team | Value | AdjO | AdjD | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brandton Chatfield | Seattle | 7.84 | 134.9 | 99.6 | 20-12, Poss 13.7% |
| Tim Fuller | Utah Valley | 7.38 | 127.3 | 95.3 | 28-9, Poss 13.7% |
| Qua Grant | Sam Houston St. | 6.77 | 101.6 | 94.1 | 26-8 (PG), Poss 30.3% |
| Sadaidriene Hall | Stephen F. Austin | 5.64 | 114.2 | 102.1 | 19-13, Poss 21.8% |
| Noah Baumann | Grand Canyon | 5.59 | 122.7 | 106.1 | 14-seed, 24-12, Poss 15.6% |
| HM-Western Athletic Conf | Team | Value | AdjO | AdjD | Notes |
| Ray Harrison | Grand Canyon | 4.31 | 110.4 | 106.1 | 14-seed, 24-12, Poss 30.5% |
| Tevian Jones | Southern Utah | 4.08 | 108.1 | 103.6 | 24-13, Poss 24% |
Above is a very late All-Western Athletic 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.
The WAC lost their football power New Mexico State to Conference USA, along with Sam Houston State. However, the traditional hoops power Stephen F. Austin and newer big time team Grand Canyon remain to give two strong basketball powers.
| Team | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Seed2 | Rnk24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abilene Christian | WAC | WAC | WAC | 152 | |
| Cal Baptist | WAC | WAC | WAC | 185 | |
| Grand Canyon | WAC | WAC | WAC | 14 | 76 |
| New Mexico St. | WAC | CUSA | CUSA | 253 | |
| Sam Houston St. | WAC | CUSA | CUSA | 143 | |
| Seattle | WAC | WAC | WAC | 140 | |
| Southern Utah | WAC | WAC | WAC | 232 | |
| Stephen F. Austin | WAC | WAC | WAC | 92 | |
| Tarleton St. | WAC | WAC | WAC | 170 | |
| UT Arlington | WAC | WAC | WAC | 173 | |
| UT Rio Grande Valley | WAC | WAC | WAC | 295 | |
| Utah Tech | WAC | WAC | WAC | 222 | |
| Utah Valley | WAC | WAC | WAC | 184 |
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% |
