Defending champion Florida should battle Kentucky for the title, but Value Add Projections have seven SEC teams in the tournament with a potential eighth being defending tournament champion Mississippi. Florida’s Kasey Hill should be back in time to give Florida a good shot at Kentucky. The preseason Value Add First Team All-Conference team included three Kentucky players in Julius Randle, Andrew Harrison, and Alex Pythress, the latter of which has taken a back seat to the younger stars.
Alabama’s Trevor Releford and Florida’s Michael Frazier round out the All-Conference team in a conference the includes 17 NBA prospects.
There is no shame in a 59-53 loss at Wisconsin or one-point loss at UConn for Florida, and while Kentucky lost 78-74 to Syracuse to lose the top spot, their young team projects just behind in-state rival Louisville as the second best by the end of the season.
The PROJECTED Value Add projections below for Conference teams and players are meant to give a GENERAL idea of how good each could be. They are by no means an exact science like the ACTUAL www.valueaddbasketball.com figures: Rnk, Southeast, Value Add
2, Kentucky, 49.29
5, Florida, 47.25
34, Louisiana St., 25.98
36, Arkansas, 31.81
42, Missouri, 26.17
45, Tennessee, 22.68
47, Alabama, 24.95
71, Mississippi, 16.9
84, South Carolina, 18.1
86, Vanderbilt, 16.43
92, Texas A&M, 17.1
140, Mississippi St., 14.73
240, Auburn, 7.28
249, Georgia, 4.22
About these rankings: The player rankings references are the projections (2014 Proj) at www.valueaddbasketball.com. During the season the updated Value Add for each player, which represents how much he has improved his team’s offense and defense, will appear on under the “2014 Act” search no www.valueaddbasketball.com. The team rankings are based 51% of the sum of each players’ projected Value Add rankings and 49% on the team rankings at www.kenpom.com as of November 29. You can follow the inventor of Value Add on twitter @jpudner.
Preseason All-Conference/Projected Value Add Rank (based purely on average progression from stats prior to this season)
26, Releford, Trevor, Alabama-PG NBA
35, Randle, Julius, Kentucky-SF/PF NBA
45, Harrison, Andrew, Kentucky-PG/SG NBA
51, Poythress, Alex, Kentucky-SF/PF NBA
62, Frazier, Michael, Florida-
68, Young, Patric, Florida-C NBA
71, Stokes, Jarnell, Tennessee-PF NBA
85, Henderson, Marshall, Mississippi-
86, Wilbekin, Scottie, Florida-
91, Johnson, Dakari, Kentucky-C NBA
101, Harrison, Aaron, Kentucky-NBA Pros
107, Walker, Chris, Florida-PF NBA
108, Young, James, Kentucky-SG NBA
118, Hill, Kasey, Florida-NBA Pros – should be back from high ankle for conference
155, Cauley-Stein, Willie, Kentucky-NBA Pros
331, Pressey, Phil, Missouri-PG NBA
340, Young, BJ, Arkansas-SG NBA
423, Lee, Marcus, Kentucky-PF/C NBA
519, McRae, Jordan, Tennessee-SG/SF NBA
1726, O’Bryant, Johnny, Louisiana St.-NBA Pros
Martin, Jarell, Louisiana St.-NBA NBA
About these rankings: The player rankings references are the projections (2014 Proj) at www.valueaddbasketball.com. During the season the updated Value Add for each player, which represents how much he has improved his team’s offense and defense, will appear on under the “2014 Act” search no www.valueaddbasketball.com. The team rankings are based 51% of the sum of each players’ projected Value Add rankings and 49% on the team rankings at www.kenpom.com as of November 29. You can follow the inventor of Value Add on twitter @jpudner.