Willie Cauley-Stein (Kentucky), Delon Wright (Utah), Gary Payton (Oregon State), and Luke Fischer (Marquette) had phenomenal weeks only to have Wesley Saunders move atop the www.valueaddbasketball.com ratings while studying at Harvard instead of playing basketball the past ten days.

In 2006 the Ivy League produced their only top 50 Value Add player (click here for all players back to 2003), when Penn’s Ibrahim Jaaber finished 18th.

Saunders will return to the court to an extremely tough test at the University of Virginia Sunday. Virginia has the fourth-ranked defense in the country at www.kenpom.com.

Willie Cauley-Stein led Kentucky to another double digit win – this time over UNC – to move into second place in the standings, which measure how many points each player is worth to their team. The 7-foot center hit 6 of 9 shots and had 4 steals vs. UNC just 8 days after having 5 against Texas.

Payton finished as the 10th best player in the country after joining his dad of the same name as the only two players at Oregon State to even finish with a triple-double when he put up 10 assists, 12 rebounds and 10 points despite only taking 5 shots – and added an incredible 6 steals. At www.kenpom.com he is in the top 1% of all players in overall offense as well as steals, and he is also among the national leaders in shooting, offensive and defensive rebounding, blocked shots, assists and low turnover rate.

Delon Wright surged to fourth, following up his game-winner to end Wichita State’s 35-game winning streak by beating rival BYU and then nearly stunning Kansas with 9 of 11 shooting on two-pointers, dishing out 4 assists and coming up with 4 steals. Last year Wright finished a close second to Shabazz Napier.

Mid-Season Transfers to the Rescue

Technically Marquette’s Luke Fischer has improved Marquette by 2.23 points per game over their 6-4 start - the same as a good back-up. The trick is Fischer has been the best of the "mid-season" transfers - players who played the first semester last year at another school (in Luke's case Indiana) and then transferred so had to wait until the school semester ended to start playing. 

Fischer sat out the first eight games, so he has compiled a 2.23 Value Add by 11.15 in the two games since he became eligible while hitting 17 of 19 shots against Arizona State and Alabama A&M. So while he has been eligible, Fischer has actually been slightly better than even Saunders' 10.97 mark for the season. Several schools are counting on mid-season transfers like Fischer to improve them the rest of the season.

Below are the top 100 players through Wednesday's games. 

Player Rank Team Ht Value Add
23 Wesley Saunders 1 Harvard 6′ 5″ 10.97
15 Willie Cauley-Stein 2 Kentucky 7′ 0 10.58
23 Zikiteran Woodley 3 Northwestern St. 6′ 2″ 10.53
55 Delon Wright 4 Utah 6′ 5″ 10.46
3 Corey Hawkins 5 UC Davis 6′ 3″ 10.02
20 Levi Randolph 6 Alabama 6′ 5″ 9.52
40 Josh Scott 7 Colorado 6′ 10″ 9.50
22 Jerian Grant 8 Notre Dame 6′ 5″ 9.30
24 Rayvonte Rice 9 Illinois 6′ 4″ 9.17
1 Gary Payton 10 Oregon St. 6′ 3″ 9.14
32 Desharick Guidry 11 McNeese St. 6′ 5″ 8.94
31 Ron Baker 12 Wichita St. 6′ 4″ 8.80
15 Jahlil Okafor 13 Duke 6′ 11″ 8.73
55 Egidijus Mockevicius 14 Evansville 6′ 10″ 8.65
52 Myles Turner 15 Texas 6′ 11″ 8.56
3 Kennedy Meeks 16 North Carolina 6′ 9″ 8.47
13 Anthony Gill 17 Virginia 6′ 8″ 8.39
44 Frank Kaminsky 18 Wisconsin 7′ 0 8.38
13 Dominique Lee 19 Northern Colorado 6′ 5″ 8.25
11 Marcus Marshall 20 Missouri St. 6′ 3″ 8.11
1 Justin Anderson 21 Virginia 6′ 6″ 8.10
15 Alan Williams 22 UC Santa Barbara 6′ 8″ 8.08
1 Isaiah Williams 23 Iona 6′ 7″ 8.00
10 Mikh McKinney 24 Sacramento St. 6′ 1″ 7.93
10 Sheldon McClellan 25 Miami FL 6′ 5″ 7.92
15 Sir’Dominic Pointer 26 St. John’s 6′ 6″ 7.91
30 Aaron White 27 Iowa 6′ 9″ 7.85
12 Karl-Anthony Towns 28 Kentucky 6′ 11″ 7.80
33 Kyle Wiltjer 29 Gonzaga 6′ 10″ 7.78
0 Brad Waldow 30 Saint Mary’s 6′ 9″ 7.75
35 Amida Brimah 31 Connecticut 7′ 0 7.73
2 Quinn Cook 32 Duke 6′ 2″ 7.63
5 A.J. English 33 Iona 6′ 4″ 7.59
5 Jelani Hewitt 34 Georgia Southern 6′ 2″ 7.50
1 Johnny Dee 35 San Diego 6′ 0 7.39
3 Tyler Haws 36 BYU 6′ 5″ 7.35
4 Sterling Gibbs 37 Seton Hall 6′ 2″ 7.31
34 Perry Ellis 38 Kansas 6′ 8″ 7.28
4 Kevin Pangos 39 Gonzaga 6′ 2″ 7.22
22 R.J. Hunter 40 Georgia St. 6′ 6″ 7.21
14 Damion Lee 41 Drexel 6′ 6″ 7.19
4 Jarvis Williams 42 Murray St. 6′ 8″ 7.15
11 Ryan Boatright 43 Connecticut 6′ 0 7.13
13 Phil Forte 44 Oklahoma St. 5′ 11″ 7.13
2 Melo Trimble 45 Maryland 6′ 3″ 7.13
25 Rakeem Christmas 46 Syracuse 6′ 9″ 7.10
24 Montrezl Harrell 47 Louisville 6′ 8″ 7.08
3 Josh Hart 48 Villanova 6′ 5″ 7.07
1 Cameron Payne 49 Murray St. 6′ 2″ 7.05
40 Matt Stainbrook 50 Xavier 6′ 10″ 7.05
5 Michael Caffey 51 Long Beach St. 6′ 0 7.03
23 Fred Van Vleet 52 Wichita St. 6′ 0 6.99
25 Alec Peters 53 Valparaiso 6′ 9″ 6.93
13 Bryce Dejean-Jones 54 Iowa St. 6′ 6″ 6.90
0 D’Angelo Russell 55 Ohio St. 6′ 5″ 6.88
10 Nigel Hayes 56 Wisconsin 6′ 8″ 6.84
5 Joey Ptasinski 57 Lafayette 6′ 3″ 6.84
12 Maodo Lo 58 Columbia 6′ 3″ 6.80
22 Larry Nance 59 Wyoming 6′ 8″ 6.79
1 Jonathan Holton 60 West Virginia 6′ 7″ 6.71
5 Tyus Jones 61 Duke 6′ 1″ 6.64
4 Wade Baldwin 62 Vanderbilt 6′ 3″ 6.62
44 Dakari Johnson 63 Kentucky 7′ 0 6.62
1 Juan’ya Green 64 Hofstra 6′ 2″ 6.59
14 Jalen Moore 65 Utah St. 6′ 8″ 6.59
23 Jared Brownridge 66 Santa Clara 6′ 2″ 6.58
11 D’Angelo Harrison 67 St. John’s 6′ 4″ 6.56
20 Michael Frazier 68 Florida 6′ 4″ 6.55
1 Trevor Lacey 69 North Carolina St. 6′ 3″ 6.53
13 Patricio Garino 70 George Washington 6′ 6″ 6.48
1 Tyler Harvey 71 Eastern Washington 6′ 4″ 6.42
1 Josh Richardson 72 Tennessee 6′ 6″ 6.42
2 Corey Walden 73 Eastern Kentucky 6′ 2″ 6.38
55 Venky Jois 74 Eastern Washington 6′ 8″ 6.34
25 Wayne Blackshear 75 Louisville 6′ 5″ 6.33
0 Ryan Spangler 76 Oklahoma 6′ 8″ 6.29
21 Jon Horford 77 Florida 6′ 10″ 6.27
4 Tyler Kalinoski 78 Davidson 6′ 4″ 6.26
3 Shannon Scott 79 Ohio St. 6′ 1″ 6.24
2 Derrick Marks 80 Boise St. 6′ 3″ 6.23
11 Wes Washpun 81 Northern Iowa 6′ 1″ 6.14
11 Rodney Pryor 82 Robert Morris 6′ 5″ 6.06
10 Jonathan Holmes 83 Texas 6′ 8″ 6.02
2 D.J. Newbill 84 Penn St. 6′ 4″ 6.01
3 Trey Lewis 85 Cleveland St. 6′ 2″ 5.98
23 Derek Jackson 86 Kent St. 6′ 1″ 5.96
21 Cedric Hankerson 87 Boston University 6′ 5″ 5.96
12 Jack Gibbs 88 Davidson 5′ 11″ 5.93
2 Brandon Mobley 89 Seton Hall 6′ 9″ 5.90
24 Keifer Sykes 90 Green Bay 6′ 0 5.90
4 D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera 91 Georgetown 6′ 3″ 5.89
0 Terry Rozier 92 Louisville 6′ 1″ 5.88
1 James Blackmon 93 Indiana 6′ 4″ 5.85
34 Jacob Parker 94 Stephen F. Austin 6′ 6″ 5.84
21 Janari Joesaar 95 Texas Pan American 6′ 6″ 5.83
23 Caris LeVert 96 Michigan 6′ 7″ 5.78
2 Marc Loving 97 Ohio St. 6′ 7″ 5.75
21 Amile Jefferson 98 Duke 6′ 9″ 5.72
11 Gary Clark 99 Cincinnati 6′ 7″ 5.72
21 Emani Gant 100 Texas St. 6′ 8″ 5.72