8-team tournament for new teams

 Even after our ongoing 30-team tournament concludes, there will be 7 teams left who we've yet to use in a game. Three of those are 2021 teams, while we moved Baylor 2021 to the ongoing tournament, and one is the 2020 Dayton team,.so 4 new teams who we don't want to face off in the opening round.

We also added 3 older teams to even our regions, so that makes 7 teams, so we added to them the best 0-1 team in our game - Kentucky 1996 which was upset 67-64 by Tim Duncan's Wake Forest team.

Here are the seedings for that mini tournament to come.

	Team (Year) Player you might know
1	Kentucky (1996) Antoine Walker
2	Illinois (1989) Nick Anderson
3	Iowa (2021) Luka Garza
4	USC (2021) Evan Mobley
5	Marquette (2011) Jimmy Butler
6	Brigham Young (1981) Danny Ainge
7	Dayton (2020)
8	Colorado (2021) McKinley Wright

Danny Ainge's 1981 BYU Elite 8; Crowder and Butler's 1st of 3 Marquette Sweet 16 Teams,

The loaded Brigham Young trio of Danny Ainge, Fred Roberts and Greg Kite not only led the team to the Elite 8, but all three of those players had long NBA careers to show just how good they were. Both teams are on the updated google doc of 136 of the greatest college teams and players of all time. The cards are used with our free Value Add Basketball Game, still our most popular post with 56,800 visitors so far.

After adding a few teams from 2020 and 2021 we ended up with an odd number of teams per region, so we added the 1981 BYU team to the West Region and the 2011 Marquette team to the Midwest Region.

Ainge was WAC player of the year as three ranked teams battled through the season, with BYU finishing one game behind both Utah and Wyoming for the title. Not many saw BYU play as their only two nationally televised games before the tournament were a win against Washington early in the season, and then a crushing win over rival Utah to close out the season.

However the twin towers of future NBA players Roberts and Kite took over with Ainge to beat Princeton, destroy UCLA in an upset, and then stun Notre Dame 51-50 to reach the Elite 8, where they fell to Ralph Sampson and UVa. 

Both teams start ranked right around 75th of the 136 great all-time teams in the game.

The additional team to round out the Midwest is the 2011 Marquette team, which made a stunning run to the Sweet 16 as a No. 11 seed to set the stage for three straight Marquette teams to make the Sweet 16.

Under-the-radar Jimmy Butler led this team before his shocking selection by the Chicago Bulls in the 1st round of the next NBA draft, then going all-NBA within a few years.

Also off the radar was Jae Crowder, who was setting the stage to team up with his buddy DJO (Darius Johnson-Odom) to take the team the next year to the Sweet 16 before also being a surprise NBA pick who has gone onto hit 1,000 3-pointers in the NBA.

Coming off the bench were the much more heralded 5-star Vander Blue as well as Davante Gardner, who would survive near certain 1st round elimination by Davidson, then went all the way to the Elite 8.

How good is Baylor? Crushes Notre Dame 1981

 The defending National Champs Baylor crushed a team I remember from my high school days - Orlando Woodridge's Notre Dame 1981.

The 91-68 win in our game follows the last 4 times the real team has played a team KenPom's top 20 they have won by between 16 and 19 points (Houston and Gonzaga in the Final 4, the Michigan State and Villanova this year).

While Woodridge, the second greatest Bulls dunker behind Jordan, had 17 points and 11 rebounds, this one was never in doubt. Five Baylor players scored in double digits and they won every category including the turnover battle 19-8.

The win moves Baylor from 34th all the way up to 19th in our KenPom ratings of the 134 all-time Great teams in our game. As the 7- seed, the win also means all 7 top seeds in our current tournament are still alive for the second round, while there were 5 upsets in 11 first round games so far.

Baylor Replaces Illinois in All-Time Great Tournament

Our first 2021 Value Add Basketball Game player cards will be used in a game. We have substituted the 2021 National Champions from Baylor into our current tournament as the No. 7 seed in place of Nick Anderson's 1989 Illinois team. 

In recent blogs we announced we added four teams from 2021 as well as Obi Toppin's 2000 Dayton squad to bring our total to 134 Great All-Time teams. It turned out Baylor and the 1989 Illinois squad were tied for 34th in our simulated KenPom Ratings, and since Illinois had yet to play their opener against Orlando Woolridge's 1981 Notre Dame team, we discovered that the Challong.com site I use to set up my brackets does allow you to edit teams in a bracket that have yet to play we subbed them in as an equal level replacement.

Below is the new bracket. As the 7-seed, a Baylor win would mean the top seven seeds will all play in Round 2. However, because of many upsets in other games, a Notre Dame win would mean the worse seeds would be 6-5 in the tournament to date. In our original tournament of 96 teams the favorites 63-32.

Dayton 2020 and Obi Toppin Added to Make Cards for 134 Great Teams - All Ranked Here

 A few final touchups to finish my work break. In addition to the four 2021 teams I added to the Value Add Basketball Game, I also added Dayton 2020. We did already play an entire tournament from that "lost season" that was cancelled, but in looking back the player and team that was the biggest loss from that season was Obi Toppin and Dayton since he went pro and was done. They had a real shot to win the title that year if Covid had not cancelled the season, and I had already added Creighton just because they won our game tournament we played that year.

I also did a good bit of double checking, and we do have player cards for 134 great teams with these few additions, and I updated my all-time KenPom ratings to include all 134 teams. You can see that at the bottom of this blog. When we make a team we estimate the KenPom rating based on there SRS, then adjust the team's rating every time we play a game based on how he adjusts based on each result.

The cards for all 134 teams are on this same google doc, and we will update the pdf soon too. We track all scores of the games we play here.

Rnk	Team (Year) Player you might know	Pre-SRS	Win	Lose	Pom	SoS	Score	Allow	Marg
1	Kansas (2008) Mario Chalmers	27	5	1	26.8	20	75	56	19
2	UCLA (1972) Bill Walton	34	6	0	18.6	21	72	62	10
3	North Carolina (2005) Sean May	29	4	2	17.8	23	73	63	10
4	Villanova (2018) Mikal Bridges	27	6	2	16.4	22	76	70	6
5	Duke (2010) Jon Scheyer	26	5	2	14.8	21	74	67	7
6	North Carolina (1982) Michael Jordan	21	5	1	14.6	25	69	65	4
7	Auburn (2019) Chuma Okeke	21	8	1	14.4	18	71	65	6
8	Virginia (2019) Kyle Guy	26	4	1	13.6	23	73	65	8
9	Connecticut (2004) Ben Gordon	23	4	2	13.6	20	74	64	10
10	Duke (2001) Shane Battier	33	0	0	13.0	0	0	0	0
11	Indiana (1976) Scott May	27	3	1	12.8	20	71	60	11
12	Houston (1968) Elvin Hayes	25	3	1	12.2	22	73	64	9
13	Purdue (2018) Carsen Edwards	24	5	1	12.2	24	72	69	3
14	Gonzaga (2017) Nigel Williams-Goss	28	3	2	11.4	21	69	59	10
15	Michigan St. (2009) Draymond Green	18	6	2	10.4	23	72	70	2
16	UCLA (1967) Lew Alcindor	30	0	0	10.0	0	0	0	0
17	Louisville (2013) Russ Smith	25	2	1	9.2	23	74	66	8
18	Kentucky (1996) Antoine Walker	33	0	1	8.6	19	64	67	-3
19	Cincinnati (1960) Oscar Robertson	27	1	1	7.0	31	70	74	-4
20	Kansas (1997) Paul Pierce	27	1	0	6.6	4	84	68	16
21	Memphis (2008) Derrick Rose	24	4	2	6.6	21	69	66	3
22	Duke (1992) Christian Laettner	25	1	1	6.4	22	72	65	7
23	NC State (1989) David Thompson	26	1	0	6.2	21	81	80	1
24	North Carolina (1998) Vince Carter	27	1	0	6.2	12	72	66	6
25	Oregon (2017) Dillon Brooks	21	3	2	6.2	24	69	68	1
26	NC State (1974) David Thompson	26	1	1	6.0	28	68	69	-1
27	UNLV (1991) Larry Johnson	32	1	1	6.0	16	77	76	1
28	Michigan St. (1979) Magic Johnson	23	2	1	6.0	19	70	63	7
29	Michigan (1989) Glen Rice	28	0	1	5.6	22	69	70	-1
30	Wake Forest (1996) Tim Duncan	19	2	1	5.6	27	66	65	1
31	Illinois (2005) Deron Williams	25	3	2	5.6	22	72	70	2
32	Kentucky (2012) Anthony Davis	25	4	2	5.4	16	72	66	6
33	Oklahoma (1985) Wayman Tisdale	19	3	1	5.2	23	75	74	1
34	Baylor (2021) Jared Butler	25	0	0	5.0	0	0	0	0
35	Illinois (1989) Nick Anderson	25	0	0	5.0	0	0	0	0
36	Houston (1983) Hakeem Olajuwon	23	1	0	5.0	13	79	64	15
37	Syracuse (2003) Carmelo Anthony	20	2	1	4.6	24	76	74	2
38	Michigan St. (2000) Mateen Cleaves	25	1	0	4.0	9	108	104	4
39	Wisconsin (2015) Frank Kaminsky	25	2	2	4.0	22	65	63	2
40	Connecticut (1999) Richard Hamilton	25	0	1	3.4	26	60	64	-4
41	Ohio St. (1960) Jerry Lucas	26	0	1	3.2	18	78	79	-1
42	Missouri (1982) Steve Stipanovich	19	2	0	3.2	21	70	66	4
43	Arizona (2015) Stanley Johnson	25	3	1	2.8	15	75	71	4
44	Georgetown (1984) Patrick Ewing	19	2	1	2.4	21	67	65	2
45	Arkansas (1994) Corliss Williamson	24	0	1	2.2	21	78	79	-1
46	Michigan (2013) Trey Burke	22	2	3	2.2	22	71	70	1
47	Indiana (1981) Isaiah Thomas	22	0	0	2.0	0	0	0	0
48	Iowa (2021) Luka Garza	22	0	0	2.0	0	0	0	0
49	Syracuse (1987) Rony Seikaly	18	2	1	1.8	19	72	69	3
50	UTEP (Texas Western) (1966) Bobby Joe Hill	14	2	1	1.8	28	64	66	-2
51	Loyola-Chicago (1963) Jerry Harkness	25	0	1	1.6	19	62	68	-6
52	Seton Hall (1989) John Morton	21	1	1	1.6	23	78	78	0
53	Cincinnati (2002) Jason Maxiell	25	2	2	1.6	20	73	72	1
54	Texas Tech (2019) Jarrett Culver	23	3	2	1.6	22	66	67	-1
55	DePaul (1980) Mark Aguirre	15	1	0	1.4	24	82	64	18
56	USC (2021) Evan Mobley	21	0	0	1.0	0	0	0	0
57	Arizona (1997) Mike Bibby	22	2	1	0.4	20	69	71	-2
58	Purdue (1969) Rick Mount	22	0	1	0.2	19	86	87	-1
59	Dayton (2020)	20	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0
60	Jacksonville (1970) Artis Gilmore	20	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0
61	Duke (1986) Johnny Dawkins	23	0	1	0.0	15	106	108	-2
62	Loyola Marymount (1990) Bo Kimble	17	1	1	0.0	22	101	98	3
63	Marquette (1971) Jim Chones	17	1	0	-0.4	16	67	58	9
64	Marquette (2003) Dwyane Wade	17	2	2	-0.4	21	73	74	-1
65	Georgetown (2007) Roy Hibbert	20	1	2	-0.6	19	77	75	2
66	Kansas (1957) Wilt Chamberlain	21	1	1	-0.8	23	68	74	-6
67	Pittsburgh (2009) DeJuan Blair	22	1	3	-0.8	23	60	62	-2
68	Colorado (2021) McKinley Wright	19	0	0	-1.0	0	0	0	0
69	Michigan (1965) Cazzie Russell	19	0	0	-1.0	0	0	0	0
70	Maryland (1984) Len Bias	15	1	0	-1.0	20	74	64	10
71	Marquette (1977) Butch Lee	17	1	1	-1.6	16	66	62	4
72	LSU (1992) Shaquille O'Neal	21	0	1	-1.8	15	85	88	-3
73	St. John's (1985) Chris Mullin	19	0	1	-1.8	21	75	76	-1
74	San Diego St. (2011) Kawhi Leonard	18	2	2	-1.8	21	69	72	-3
75	Georgia Tech (1990) Dennis Scott	18	0	0	-2.0	0	0	0	0
76	Holy Cross (1950) Bob Cousy	15	1	0	-2.0	23	108	106	2
77	Creighton (2020) Ty-Shon Alexander	18	1	1	-2.0	18	77	77	0
78	Kansas St. (2008) Michael Beasley	16	1	1	-2.0	22	75	76	-1
79	San Francisco (1956) Bill Russell	19	0	1	-2.2	25	67	74	-7
80	Kentucky (1948) Alex Groza	15	1	0	-2.2	21	88	85	3
81	UNLV (1987) Armen Gilliam	24	0	1	-2.4	15	64	82	-18
82	South Carolina (2017) Sindarius Thornwell	18	1	2	-2.6	19	65	66	-1
83	Ohio St. (2007) Greg Oden	22	2	4	-3.6	22	69	72	-3
84	Florida (2006) Joakim Noah	21	3	3	-3.8	16	72	71	1
85	Arkansas (1978) Sidney Moncrief	16	0	0	-4.0	0	0	0	0
86	St. Bonaventure (1970) Bob Lanier	20	0	1	-4.0	15	64	74	-10
87	Iowa (2002) Reggie Evans	15	1	2	-4.0	23	71	75	-4
88	Oklahoma St. (2004) John Lucas	21	1	3	-4.0	20	69	71	-2
89	DePaul (1945) George Mikan	15	0	1	-4.2	28	51	55	-4
90	Davidson (2008) Stephen Curry	14	1	3	-4.2	22	64	67	-3
91	Virginia (1981) Ralph Sampson	19	0	1	-4.4	18	61	72	-11
92	Tennessee (1977) Bernard King	15	1	1	-4.6	23	76	83	-7
93	Indiana (2002) Jared Jeffries	20	1	3	-4.6	22	67	73	-6
94	California (1959) Jack Grout	16	0	1	-4.8	19	69	71	-2
95	North Carolina (1957) Lennie Rosenbluth	15	0	0	-5.0	0	0	0	0
96	St. Joe's (2004) Jameer Nelson	21	1	2	-5.0	20	68	76	-8
97	Georgia Tech (2004) Jarrett Jack	21	2	4	-5.0	26	61	69	-8
98	Seattle (1958) Elgin Baylor	15	0	1	-5.2	21	62	64	-2
99	Utah (1998) Andre Miller	18	0	1	-5.2	17	69	79	-10
100	Oklahoma (2016) Buddy Hield	20	1	3	-5.4	23	60	67	-7
101	Alabama (1977) Reggie King	15	0	1	-5.6	18	70	71	-1
102	Texas (2003) T.J. Ford	19	1	2	-5.6	21	69	76	-7
103	Wichita St. (2013) Fred VanVleet	15	1	2	-5.6	23	64	71	-7
104	West Virginia (2010) Kevin Jones	20	1	3	-5.8	21	70	76	-6
105	Notre Dame (1981) Orlando Woolridge	14	0	0	-6.0	0	0	0	0
106	UCLA (2006) Jordan Farmar	18	2	3	-6.0	21	66	72	-6
107	Kansas (1988) Danny Manning	16	0	1	-6.6	17	58	67	-9
108	Indiana St. (1979) Larry Bird	15	0	1	-6.8	18	69	76	-7
109	LSU (2006) Glen Davis	18	1	2	-6.8	20	66	75	-9
110	Dayton (1967)	13	0	0	-7.0	0	0	0	0
111	La Salle (1954) Tom Gola	15	0	1	-7.2	18	67	76	-9
112	Oklahoma St. (1946) Bob Kurland	15	0	1	-7.2	11	80	82	-2
113	South Carolina (1973) Mike Dunleavy	12	0	1	-7.2	27	66	72	-6
114	Wyoming (1943) Ken Sailors	15	0	1	-7.2	22	60	73	-13
115	Notre Dame (1970) Austin Carr	13	1	1	-7.2	22	67	77	-10
116	Maryland (2002) Juan Dixon	24	1	3	-7.2	22	67	76	-9
117	West Virginia (1959) Jerry West	14	0	1	-7.4	13	68	69	-1
118	Auburn (1984) Charles Barkley	13	1	1	-7.4	18	72	77	-5
119	Kentucky (1970) Dan Issel	18	0	1	-7.6	17	116	138	-22
120	Navy (1986) David Robinson	14	0	1	-8.0	25	61	77	-16
121	Villanova (1985) Ed Pinckney	13	0	1	-8.2	19	65	72	-7
122	Georgia (1982) Dominique Wilkins	11	1	1	-8.6	20	70	78	-8
123	Miami FL (1965) Rick Berry	9	0	1	-8.8	5	104	108	-4
124	Arizona St. (1980) Byron Scott	13	0	1	-9.0	23	64	79	-15
125	Louisville (1980) Darrell Griffith	16	0	1	-9.4	24	52	82	-30
126	George Mason (2006) Jai Lewis	13	0	3	-9.6	21	59	67	-8
127	Creighton (2014) Doug McDermott	19	0	3	-11.8	20	66	80	-14
128	LSU (1970) Pete Maravich	6	0	1	-12.0	22	66	67	-1
129	Princeton (1965) Bill Bradley	11	0	1	-12.0	18	62	79	-17
130	Wake Forest (2005) Chris Paul	21	0	3	-12.0	25	64	85	-21
131	VCU (2011) Bradford Burgess	9	0	3	-12.8	22	60	71	-11
132	Loyola-Chicago (2018) Cameron Krutwig	11	0	2	-13.0	22	58	73	-15
133	Butler (2010) Gordon Hayward	15	0	3	-14.8	25	55	76	-21
134	Niagara (1970) Calvin Murphy	4	0	1	-15.6	27	68	84	-16

Cards for Epic Players and Team from 2021 Season to Print

We finally selected an calculated four great teams from the 2021 season to bring the total teams you can choose from to play in the Value Add Basketball Game to 128, going back in history to the inventor of the jumpshot (Kenny Sailors, Wyoming 1943 team). All four teams not only had great seasons, but each had one of the 6 most valuable basketball players in the country last year in the all-time Value Add Basketball Player ratings (click here, then put "2021" in the year search box).

Baylor 2021. The champs certainly earned a spot with their complete domination of excellent Final 4 teams Houston and Gonzaga. Jared Butler ranked as the 6th most valuable player in the country at Value Add Basketball, and www.kenpom.com had him even higher as the 4th best player.

Baylor starts out in our game rankings as the 29th best all-time team in the game, though we don't have games scheduled yet for these four new teams to see if they move up or down.

Colorado 2021. We loved watching McKinley Wright run point guard for Colorado, and ranked him as the 4th most valuable player in the country. He scored 24 points to eventual Elite 8 team USC in the Pac-12 tournament. Then we publicly picked him to destroy a red hot Georgetown team in the NCAA tournament, which he did with an amazing 13 assist performance.

While being a great team is one factor in adding new teams, we also factor in great players like him (e.g. Pistol Pete's LSU team was barely above average but we wanted him in the game). We also factor schools that have not yet had a team in the game. We passed over Final 4 teams UCLA and Houston because they already have multiple teams, and Gonzaga's other National Runner-Up from just a few years ago is in the game - so it was nice to add the first team from the state of Colorado.

Iowa 2021. The National Player of the Year Luka Garza was such an treat to watch his entire career. Even though both Value Add and www.kenpom.com ranked him 2nd in the country last year, KenPom ranked him 1st and Value Add 4th the year before to make him the rare player to be in the top 5 out of 4000+ players in consecutive years.

Even as his final game turned into a 1-on-5 against a great Oregon team in the tournament, watching him score 36 points on the way out was a fantastic sendoff.

USC 2021. As great as Garza was, we calculated 7-footer Evan Mobley was the most valuable player in the country last year. We would have still voted for Garza as the 4-year star against the freshman Mobley, but with the highest possible shot block ranking possible (21-30), a great steal guy for a 7-footer, and scoring or being fouled 65% of the time it gets to him on the 20-sided die (1-13), and an incredibly dominant rebounder at both ends (1-9 offensive and 1-8 defensive), he is the complete package. Seeing a 7-footer then dish out seven assists in a Sweet 16 win (vs. Oregon) just added to the complete picture.

His 13 rebound, MVP performance in the incredible 85-51 win against Kansas to move to the Sweet 16 was epic, and his brother Isaiah has kept it up by leading USC to a 12-0 start - the last undefeated team besides Baylor. 

Color Coded "Map" of 32 All-Time Great Teams in the 4 Regions

We finally calculated the four additions from the 2021 season, which leaves us with 32 teams in each of four regions, as shown on this grid roughly laid out like a US map.

States that did not have any of our great teams are left off the map.

The 32 Blue Teams are in our Western Region, which includes Texas Western/UTEP team on the western edge of Texas.

The 32 Bolded Teams are in our Midwestern Region, which includes Tennessee but no the other team from the state Memphis, and includes Indiana, Indiana State and Purdue, but not the other teams from the state - Notre Dame and Butler. It also includes the closest team from Texas, Texas Tech.

Those two are among the 32 Green Teams in our Eastern Region.

The 32 Red Teams are in our Southern Region, which includes the rest of the Texas teams as well as Memphis due to it being a little further south then Knoxville but also so close to Arkansas.

We are not limiting teams to playing team in their region, but might use this if we have a future tournament.