Incarnate Word, E. Washington, Bowling Green Lead 'Low Major' All-Conference Teams

Incarnate Word’s Shane Meling told me recently that he thought the second year team could get a win at UTEP or Nebraska–and I was shocked when this jumper proved him right. The team has a majority of the All-Southland team as we unveil the early www.valueaddbasketball.com All-Conference teams for all 19 “low-majors”–the conferences who do not get a lot of attention until they stun major teams in March Madness.

Despite living in the shadow of the San Antonio Spurs, who practice on-site, Meling told me Incarnate Word’s play more resembled the guard-heavy Phoenix Suns teams. Stephen F. Austin scored a big win for the conference last year when they stunned VCU in the opening round of the NCAA tournament for their 29th-straight win. But Incarnate had lost by only two points at Stephen F. Austin late in the season. Freshman Jontrell Walker has been even better than expected to form a dominant backcourt with Mitchell Badillo as two of the top-25 players in all low-major basketball.

Low-major players are evaluated based on how many points they create for their team above a good low-major player (see article in Big Apple Buckets for details)–and a player with a 3.0 Low-Major Value Add is regarded as a solid staring player. Walker and Badillo have Low-Major Value Adds of 11.89 and 11.05, respectively, while power forward Traylin Farris is even higher but is less likely to stay that high as he plays more minutes. 

However, the system calculates that Walker and Badillo would be very strong starters even if they played in a major conference, as they would be expected be worth 7.26 and 5.40 points to a major team (3.0 or better is a starter, and 9.0 is an All-American candidate).

The two highest Low-Major Value Adds ever recorded (click for database) were both recorded by Stephen Curry, who topped 15 points in back-to-back years. However some low-major powers such as Harvard and Davidson have moved up mid-major play.

Corey Walden of Eastern Kentucky leads the Ohio Valley Conference with a Low-Major Value Add of 17.09–even higher than Curry’s but unlikely to be sustained for the entire season. Walden even looked solid against Kentucky, scoring 12 points and grabbing four rebounds from the point guard position, while only turning the ball over twice against the relentless Kentucky pressure.

The following are all 19 low-major All-Conference teams through the first month of the season:

Conf	Pos	Early All-Conference	Team	LM Value	LM Rnk
AE	PG	2 Trae Bell-Haynes	Vermont	7.06	116
AE	PG	10 Carson Puriefoy	Stony Brook	6.61	139
AE	SG	24 Dre Willis	Vermont	6.82	128
AE	C	20 Jameel Warney	Stony Brook	11.54	20
AE	C	32 Ethan O’Day	Vermont	9.23	46
ASun	PG	14 Dallas Moore	North Florida	8.71	60
ASun	PG	0 Brett Comer	Florida Gulf Coast	7.46	98
ASun	SG	2 Bernard Thompson	Florida Gulf Coast	7.38	101
ASun	SG	32 Fred Miller	USC Upstate	7.13	112
ASun	SF	0 Jalen Nesbitt	North Florida	6.83	127
BSky	PG	12 Mike Scott	Idaho	16.57	2
BSky	PG	22 Drew Brandon	Eastern Washington	14.13	9
BSky	SG	1 Tyler Harvey	Eastern Washington	11.98	17
BSky	PF	13 Dominique Lee	Northern Colorado	12.05	16
BSky	C	55 Venky Jois	Eastern Washington	10.41	30
BW	PG	5 Michael Caffey	Long Beach St.	12.43	13
BW	PG	10 Lanerryl Johnson	Cal St. Fullerton	7.58	93
BW	SG	3 Corey Hawkins	UC Davis	14.78	5
BW	SF	0 David Nwaba	Cal Poly	6.72	131
BW	PF	21 Josh Fox	UC Davis	6.17	168
CAA	PG	1 Juan’ya Green	Hofstra	10.48	28
CAA	SG	4 Four McGlynn	Towson	9.49	44
CAA	SF	14 Damion Lee	Drexel	10.16	38
CAA	PF	1 Adjehi Baru	College of Charleston	7.83	86
CAA	C	43 Scott Eatherton	Northeastern	9.10	51
CUSA	PG	5 C.J. Cooper	UTEP	8.79	55
CUSA	SF	2 Matt Bingaya	Southern Miss	10.98	25
CUSA	SF	41 Seth Gearhart	Rice	8.71	59
CUSA	PF	32 Vince Hunter	UTEP	9.72	42
CUSA	C	21 Norville Carey	Southern Miss	9.33	45
MAAC	PG	5 A.J. English	Iona	16.09	3
MAAC	SF	33 Rob Poole	Siena	12.95	11
MAAC	PF	1 Isaiah Williams	Iona	14.40	6
MAAC	PF	11 Ramone Snowden	Niagara	8.32	66
MAAC	C	21 Marvin Dominique	Saint Peter’s	10.29	36
MAC	PG	12 Jovan Austin	Bowling Green	2.60	646
MAC	SG	23 Jehvon Clarke	Bowling Green	4.74	292
MAC	SF	4 Zack Denny	Bowling Green	9.23	47
MAC	PF	3 Spencer Parker	Bowling Green	7.29	102
MAC	C	22 Richaun Holmes	Bowling Green	7.27	105
NEC	PG	10 Elvar Frioriksson	LIU Brooklyn	4.88	282
NEC	SG	11 Rodney Pryor	Robert Morris	10.44	29
NEC	SG	1 Malik Harmon	St. Francis PA	7.02	120
NEC	SF	12 Dyami Starks	Bryant	5.64	207
NEC	C	40 Ronnie Drinnon	St. Francis PA	5.98	178
OVC	PG	2 Corey Walden	Eastern Kentucky	17.09	1
OVC	PG	1 Cameron Payne	Murray St.	10.39	31
OVC	SG	23 Craig Bradshaw	Belmont	9.21	48
OVC	SF	22 Timmy Knipp	Eastern Kentucky	8.18	72
OVC	C	4 Jarvis Williams	Murray St.	9.73	41
Pat	PG	11 Nick Lindner	Lafayette	7.83	87
Pat	SG	25 Damon Sherman-Newsome	Colgate	10.32	34
Pat	SG	22 John Schoof	American	8.97	52
Pat	SF	21 Cedric Hankerson	Boston University	9.78	40
Pat	PF	32 Tanner Plomb	Army	7.17	107
SB	PG	5 Jelani Hewitt	Georgia Southern	14.20	8
SB	PG	55 Ryan Harrow	Georgia St.	8.76	57
SB	SF	22 R.J. Hunter	Georgia St.	12.80	12
SB	PF	21 Emani Gant	Texas St.	11.83	19
SB	C	24 Anthony Livingston	Arkansas St.	15.28	4
SC	PG	3 Rhett Harrelson	Western Carolina	7.18	106
SC	SG	2 Karl Cochran	Wofford	9.56	43
SC	SG	25 James Sinclair	Western Carolina	7.66	90
SC	PF	2 Devin Harris	East Tennessee St.	7.16	108
SC	C	44 P.J. Horgan	The Citadel	6.72	130
Slnd	PG	2 Mitchell Badillo	Incarnate Word	11.05	24
Slnd	SG	0 Jontrell Walker	Incarnate Word	11.89	18
Slnd	SF	23 Zikiteran Woodley	Northwestern St.	12.31	15
Slnd	PF	5 Traylin Farris	Incarnate Word	13.65	10
Slnd	PF	34 Jacob Parker	Stephen F. Austin	10.94	26
Sum	PG	4 Jake Bittle	South Dakota St.	11.41	21
Sum	PG	3 Devin Patterson	Nebraska Omaha	8.85	54
Sum	SG	15 Obi Emegano	Oral Roberts	7.79	88
Sum	PF	30 Cam Griffin	Denver	8.76	56
Sum	C	15 DavRon Williams	IUPUI	6.27	160
SWAC	PG	12 Jamel Waters	Alabama St.	5.50	223
SWAC	PG	2 Jordan Washington	Mississippi Valley St.	5.20	248
SWAC	SG	3 DeMarcus Robinson	Alabama St.	5.64	208
SWAC	SF	0 Tyrel Hunt	Alcorn St.	6.23	164
SWAC	SF	2 Chris Thomas	Texas Southern	6.14	169
WAC	PG	12 Martez Harrison	UMKC	8.50	65
WAC	PG	5 Shaquille Boga	Texas Pan American	7.95	80
WAC	SF	21 Janari Joesaar	Texas Pan American	11.14	23
WAC	SF	23 Daniel Mullings	New Mexico St.	8.73	58
WAC	C	43 Pascal Siakam	New Mexico St.	7.06	115