Top 10 Trios in College Basketball

This table provides information for a piece running in Dodds on Sports of the best 10 trios in college basketball. Best Offensive Rating of Top 3 players with at least 15% of possessions for team. The average is then divided by the average level of defense faced during the season, and then balanced against how good the team's defense is to get an overall rating of their top three players.

Rnk	Team with best Trio	Ortg	Poss	Opp Def	AdjO Big 3	AdjD	Best 3
10	Kentucky	123.8	77.15	1.03	120.55	102.20	1.18
	Antonio Reeves	126.3	27.00
	Reed Sheppard	128.6	26.60
	Rob Dillingham	116.5	23.55
9	Indiana St.	127.9	53.70	1.06	120.86	102.20	1.18
	Jayson Kent	130.5	20.85
	Julian Larry	124.8	17.50
	Robbie Avila	128.3	15.35
8	Clemson	123.4	67.90	1.02	120.48	100.20	1.20
	Ian Schieffelin	131.2	25.60
	Joseph Girard	124.1	24.15
	PJ Hall	114.8	18.15
7	Gonzaga	127.5	63.10	1.06	120.14	99.00	1.21
	Anton Watson	126.6	20.25
	Ben Gregg	131.2	24.35
	Graham Ike	124.6	18.50
6	Marquette	120.6	64.10	1.01	119.29	96.10	1.24
	Kam Jones	121.8	24.50
	Oso Ighodaro	120.8	22.90
	Tyler Kolek	119.2	16.70
5	Alabama	129.5	64.45	1.01	127.68	102.70	1.24
	Grant Nelson	122.8	21.95
	Latrell Wrightsell	136.3	22.95
	Mark Sears	129.3	19.55
4	Arizona	122.0	65.50	1.02	119.81	95.50	1.25
	Caleb Love	120.1	21.35
	Oumar Ballo	119.6	20.60
	Pelle Larsson	126.2	23.55
3	Creighton	127.1	65.85	1.02	125.25	96.70	1.30
	Baylor Scheierman	118.1	21.15
	Mason Miller	133.3	23.10
	Ryan Kalkbrenner	130	21.60
2	Auburn	124.8	69.55	1.03	121.02	93.20	1.30
	Chad Baker-Mazara	124.4	21.50
	Jaylin Williams	132.6	25.05
	Johni Broome	117.3	23.00
1	Connecticut	133.6	55.10	1.02	131.01	94.70	1.38
	Alex Karaban	131.2	17.80
	Cam Spencer	138.8	21.45
	Donovan Clingan	130.9	15.85

Pettit & LSU Survive Ferocious Walt Frazier Rally, 75-73

With no player taller than 6-foot-4 having been dominated by one of the greatest rebounders of all time (LSU's Bob Pettit, 6-foot-9, 36 points including 11 of 12 from line), Southern Illinois put on a ferocious defensive rally at the end.

Trailing 65-71 with 1:30 to play, Walt Frazier came up with his 6th and 7th steals of the game. On the first one he scored on a dunk, and then he passed to Craig Taylor, only in the game because Dick Garrett had fouled out early trying to guard Pettit, who drained a rare 3-pointer for the 1967 Southern Illinois squad to cut the lead to 71-70. 

LSU's 1953 squad did survive when Benny McArdle score and Southern Illinois turned it over, giving LSU the 75-73 win to advance and face Allen Iverson and Georgetown. 

Please do check out the preview of this game and link to Frazier talking about the 1967 NIT title in a year in which Southern Illinois was not yet considered a major program.
 

Pos	Southern Illinois 1967	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual
1-PG	Walt Frazier	26	0	11	4	4	5	7	0	2	6'4, 45th best ever
2-SG	Jay Westcott	8	2	1	0	0	4	2	0	1	6'4,5.5 ppg
3-SF	Willie Griffin	8	0	3	2	2	4	0	1	2	6'3,10.8 ppg
4-PF	Dick Garrett	8	0	3	2	2	1	0	2	5	6'3,20.1 ppg
5-C	Chuck Benson	6	0	3	0	0	6	1	2	1	6'4,11.9 ppg
1-PG	Craig Taylor	7	1	2	0	0	2	0	0	3	6'1,3.9 ppg
2-SG	Bobby Jackson	10	0	3	4	6	5	0	0	1	6'0,5.2 ppg
	14 Turnovers	73	3	26	12	14	27	10	5	15
Pos	LSU 1953	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual
1-PG	Norman Magee	5	0	2	1	2	2	1	1	2	5'11,13.3 ppg
2-SG	Benny McArdle	10	0	4	2	2	2	3	1	1	5'10,8.1 ppg
3-SF	Don Belcher	7	0	3	1	1	6	0	0	5	6'2,12.7 ppg
4-PF	Bob Pettit	36	1	11	11	12	7	1	3	1	6'9,31st best ever
5-C	Ned Clark	6	0	3	0	0	3	0	2	1	6'5,9.7 ppg
1-PG	Kenny Bridges	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	5'11,1.7 ppg
2-SG	Leslie Jones	5	0	2	1	2	1	0	0	1	6'2,2.5 ppg
3-SF	Don Sebastian	2	0	1	0	0	3	0	0	1	5'10,3.2 ppg
4-PF	Bob Freshley	2	0	1	0	0	3	1	0	2	6'6, 2.1 ppg
	15 Turnovers	82	1	28	16	19	28	6	7	15

Unknown Teams Feature All-time Great Players - LSU 1953 v. SIU 1967 NIT Champs

 Please read this great piece on the Southern Illinois NIT title. After this blog was posted, we played out the LSU 1953 vs. Southern Illinois 1967 game with results here.

Our next "great player" tournament game features and SIU 1967 team that is still not listed as a major basketball program, but proved their 24-2 mark against lesser competition was not a fluke as they beat Al McGuire's Marquette for the NIT title. Stats are not recorded for their season, so we had to use the 1968 state for most players and Walt Frazier's stats from his all-star NBA career.

Meanwhile they face another all-time greatp player in Bob Pettit but from another somewhat mysterious team in LSU 1953. On the one had the Tigers went undefeated in the SEC. Today that would surely result in a team ranked No. 1 in the country, but SEC basketball 70 years ago was not what it is today, as LSU did not beat a single ranked team all season - including losing both Final 4 games.

Thats the set up for two somewhat unknown teams but each with one of the greatest players of all time.

Lineups at the start of the game - remember read all coins from left to right for a 1-5 on 8-sided die, then left to right reading only dimes for the 6,7 or 8. Neither team has "8" covered to start the game, so if that comes up roll again but in the second roll a 6-8 is a shot clock turnover.

Love Towers Over Tiny - UCLA 79, UTEP 64

 With no one taller than 6'5, Tiny Archibald's 1970 UTEP had no answer for 6'10 Kevin Love, who scored 24 points and grabbed 9 rebounds to advance 2008 UCLA 79-64.

Archibald put on another dazzling performance in an incredible point guard matchup against Russell Westbrook. He hit two 3-pointers, had a dunk and added another basket in the first five possessions of our game to give UTEP a 30-23 lead before Love even entered the game. 

But by half time UCLA had a 38-35 lead and never looked back, advancing to the Elite 8. Love will face a much tougher challenge next against the all-time shot blocking duo of Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo.

This truly was one of the greatest teams to never win the title. It was a third straight Final Four appearance, and their loss there to Memphis and one loss to USC during the season were both vacated by those teams - so really just the losses to Texas and Washington were pure. The Bruins also allowed 29 points total in their actual first round tournament game that year. 

We notes the top 6 teams getting byes in the tournament all seemed much better than the other 20 teams in this tournament BUT actually this was the first easy win if the four teams with a bye that have played so far.

Tale of 2 Halves: Durant vs. Tiny Archibald

In the ultimate tale of two halves, Kevin Durant put up an incredible 21 first half points to give the 2007 Texas Longhorns a 40-31 lead. The only teammate to score was Matt Hill, who hit a free throw. One of the problems for the 1970 UTEP Miners was that the two players defending Durant - Scott English and Len Stewart - both had the highest foul range (33-36 on defensive dice all fouls) and kept fouling Durant.

However, in the second half it was one of the greatest point guards in the history of basketball, Tiny Archibald, who scored 23 or his 31 points after half time to lead an incredible turnaround with a 51-22 domination to win going away 82-62.   

	1st H	2nd H	Final
Texas 2007	40	22	62
UTEP 1970	31	51	82

Archibald's backcourt teammate Bob Doyle also had a huge night with 21 points and UTEPs front court dominated the boards to give them a 32-21 edge on the boards. UTEP now faces Durant's long-time OKC teammate Russell Westbrook and his UCLA team.

 

Pos	Texas 2007	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl
1-PG	D.J. Augustin	10	0	4	2	2	1	2	0	4
2-SG	A.J. Abrams	10	2	1	2	2	3	1	0	1
3-SF	Justin Mason	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	1
4-PF	Kevin Durant	25	1	7	8	11	4	0	3	1
5-C	Damion James	2	0	1	0	0	7	0	3	1
1-PG	J.D. Lewis	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1
2-SG	Craig Winder	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1
3-SF	Connor Atchley	4	0	2	0	0	2	0	1	1
4-PF	Dexter Pittman	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1
5-C	Matt Hill	3	0	1	1	2	0	0	2	2
	11 Turnovers	62	3	20	13	17	21	4	9	14
Pos	UTEP 1970	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl
1-PG	Tiny Archibald	31	3	8	6	6	2	4	1	2
2-SG	Bob Doyle	21	1	8	2	2	4	1	0	1
3-SF	Mike Switzer	8	0	4	0	0	6	1	1	1
4-PF	Dick Gibbs	4	0	2	0	0	5	0	2	3
5-C	Ples Vann	6	0	3	0	0	8	0	1	1
1-PG	Sam Samuels	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	2
2-SG	John Ruud	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	2
3-SF	Tom Issac	4	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	1
4-PF	Len Stewart	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	4
5-C	Scott English	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	2
	13 Turnovers	82	4	31	8	8	32	6	6	19

All-Time Great Player Tournament Returns: Westbrook vs. Durant or Tiny Archibald

After weeks of being swamped at work, we finally plan to resume our tournament of the remaining Value Add Basketball Game teams who featured one of the greatest 75 players of all time.

Russell Westbrook's UCLA team (2008) has the bye and waits to see if he will face his long-time Oklahoma City Thunder Teammate Kevin Durant and his 2007 Texas Longhorns. If Westbrook's hand heals in time they could face each other in the NBA Western playoffs this year.  Durant is still at his career average of more than 27 points a game after all these years, while Westbrook is on the downside of his career at 11 points a game almost a decade after being the NBA's MVP as Durant's teammate.

And let's not forget, Westbrook also has Kevin Love as a teammate on that great UCLA team.

However, for that Thunder teammate match, Durant's Longhorns will need to first upset Tiny Archibald and UTEP's squad. How good was Tiny? Three years after this college season he finished third in MVP voting despite leading the NBA with both 34 points a game and 11 assists a game to actually finish with more MVP votes than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar but finished behind him and Dave Cowens in MVP voting.

Note - UTEP originally had a math error with Defense at 0.90 and Rating at +3, but it is corrected to 0.96 and-3

6 Women's Teams Might Be Added to Game

 In addition to the 16 great women's teams we previously announced would be added the the Value Game, we are looking at 6 other teams having great correct seasons for possible inclusion. They are in bold.