MILWAUKEE – College basketball kicks off with 150 games today, including both teams from here in Milwaukee being involved in coaching debuts. Long-time Duke head assistant Steve Wojciechowski takes over Marquette against Tennessee-Martin, while Milwaukee visits their old coach Bruce Pearl, who has given Auburn their biggest jump in Value Add of any team – from 138th last year to 56th now. Separate posts will rank the teams and the top 20 players in each conference.
Fox Sports covered our preliminary Value Add Rankings back on August 25, and today we give the updated rankings, including separate posts on the eight top conferences and the best of the rest.
The Value Add rankings for players are a measurement that calculates with great precision the number of points each player is worth to his team. Sports Illustrated stat guru Luke Winn did the best job of explaining the rankings in this piece, and the ratings appear on Breitbart Sports first and then will be added to the database at www.valueaddbasketball.com.
While many of the 150 games Friday should be lopsided, the SEC has taken on a couple of tough challenges starting at 6:30 p.m. when Tennessee matches up against a potential Sweet 16 team in VCU of the Atlantic 10, and then Georgia opens with Georgia Tech 30 minutes later.
VCU and Tennessee face off at 6:30 pm ET on a neutral court in a big clash of the Atlantic 10-favorite and an SEC team.
Below are the Top 100 teams based on the sum of their players’ projected Value Add ratings for the upcoming season. Player rankings can be found in each conference review.
1, Kentucky, 64.89
2, Kansas, 63.35
3, Duke, 56.92
4, North Carolina, 55.88
5, Arizona, 52.08
6, Louisville, 47.88
7, Florida, 47.43
8, Virginia, 37.45
9, Texas, 36.87
10, Wisconsin, 36.84
11, Iowa St., 34.78
12, Baylor, 33.55
13, Virginia Commonwealth, 33.26
14, Connecticut, 33.17
15, UCLA, 33.02
16, Syracuse, 32.92
17, Southern Methodist, 32.81
18, Gonzaga (WCC), 32.11
19, Villanova, 31.64
20, Michigan, 29.98
21, Ohio St., 29.48
22, Arkansas, 29.38
23, Kansas St., 28.57
24, Wichita St. (MVC), 28.42
25, Florida St., 28.21
26, Memphis, 27.62
27, Indiana, 27.03
28, Maryland, 26.60
29, Illinois, 26.24
30, Stanford, 26.18
31, Georgetown, 25.97
32, North Carolina St., 25.69
33, Oklahoma, 25.35
34, Brigham Young (WCC), 24.78
35, Nevada Las Vegas (MWC), 24.58
36, San Diego St. (MWC), 24.41
37, Oregon, 24.37
38, Iowa, 24.20
39, Utah, 24.15
40, West Virginia, 23.80
41, Missouri, 23.00
42, Michigan St., 22.98
43, Nebraska, 22.93
44, Mississippi, 22.91
45, Providence, 22.68
46, Xavier, 22.11
47, Arizona St., 21.82
48, Georgia St. (SB), 21.81
49, Louisiana St., 21.78
50, Tulsa, 20.77
51, Miami FL, 20.74
52, St. John’s, 20.34
53, Harvard (Ivy), 20.16
54, George Washington, 20.14
55, Pittsburgh, 20.04
56, Auburn, 19.82
57, Tennessee, 19.28
58, Wisconsin Green Bay (Horz), 19.02
59, Butler, 18.92
60, Notre Dame, 18.86
61, Purdue, 18.62
62, Houston, 18.42
63, Richmond, 18.42
64, Colorado, 18.16
65, Rhode Island, 17.90
66, Texas A&M, 17.85
67, Clemson, 17.71
68, Cincinnati, 17.70
69, Louisiana Tech (CUSA), 17.54
70, Oklahoma St., 17.19
71, Vanderbilt, 17.17
72, Minnesota, 17.14
73, Alabama, 16.82
74, Stephen F. Austin (Slnd), 16.27
75, South Carolina, 16.05
76, Seton Hall, 15.44
77, Northern Iowa (MVC), 15.20
78, California, 15.10
79, Santa Clara (WCC), 14.90
80, Iona (MAAC), 14.86
81, Massachusetts, 14.85
82, Southern California, 14.83
83, Texas Christian, 14.77
84, Siena (MAAC), 14.60
85, Marquette, 14.46
86, Northwestern St. (Slnd), 14.26
87, Georgia, 14.01
88, Wyoming (MWC), 13.79
89, Cleveland St. (Horz), 13.78
90, Colorado St. (MWC), 13.78
91, Murray St. (OVC), 13.77
92, UC Irvine (BW), 13.61
93, Northwestern, 13.40
94, Toledo, 13.37
95, Louisiana Lafayette, 13.07
96, Temple, 12.90
97, Penn St., 12.88
98, Dayton, 12.81
99, Washington, 12.76
100, Texas El Paso, 12.42