Harrison, Henton, Smith-Rivera Lead Big East to New Heights

D’Angelo Harrison, LaDontae Henton and D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera are having three of the greatest careers in the history of the Big East (see top 25 Value Add careers below), as the conference is 4-0 against the teams that left two years ago and projected by USA Today to land 70% of its teams in the NCAA tournament for the first time ever. Harrison was nearly perfect Saturday.

Fans often overrate players who have lots of missed shots and turnovers en route to big numbers, but on Saturday Harrison missed only 3 field goals, no free throws, and did not turn the ball over once while scoring 21 points, dishing out six assists, and grabbing 10 rebounds in a 84-66 win over Creighton.

Ken Pomeroy calculates that Harrison was worth 1.88 points per possession Saturday, a nearly perfect mark. A player who made a 3-point shot every time he touched the ball without the help of an assist would be a 3.00, and a player who scored a two-point shot every time he touched the ball would barely be higher than Harrison at 2.00.

Harrison’s career Value Add through last week’s ratings give him the 13th best career total – tops of any current player. The other two to break the top 25 are Smith-Rivera (ranked 18th at 17.59) and LaDontae Henton (ranked 17th at 18.22).

Smith-Rivera has a 7.97 this year for a 17.59 career mark in this his junior year. With an equally impressive senior season next year he would become the top Big East player since the 2005-06 season with a rating close to 26.0.

NBA players Kemba Walker (UConn), Jae Crowder and Jimmy Butler (Marquette), Otto Porter (Georgetown), and Doug McDermott (Creighton) had greater individual seasons but did not play four years in the Big East. McDermott is the greatest offensive player in the history of Value Add, and his overall rating of 27.59, counting the three seasons he played for Creighton before they joined the Big East, would make him No. 1 on the list.

Rnk	Big East Careers 2006-2015	Team	Career Value Add
1	Jones, Kevin	West Virginia	23.47
2	Hibbert, Roy	Georgetown	22.35
3	Harangody, Luke	Notre Dame	22.19
4	Freeman, Austin	Georgetown	21.44
5	Reynolds, Scottie	Villanova	20.9
6	Walker, Kemba	Connecticut	20.75
7	Butler, Da’Sean	West Virginia	20.43
8	Williams, Terrence	Louisville	19.55
9	Cotton, Bryce	Providence	19.26
10	Fields, Levance	Pittsburgh	19.24
11	Napier, Shabazz	Connecticut	19.12
12	James, Dominic	Marquette	19.02
13	Harrison, D’Angelo	St. John’s	18.93
14	Ruoff, Alex	West Virginia	18.48
15	Jones, Dominique	South Florida	18.44
16	Hayward, Lazar	Marquette	18.3
17	Henton, LaDontae	Providence	18.22
18	Smith-Rivera, D’Vauntes	Georgetown	17.59
19	McNeal, Jerel	Marquette	17.04
20	Butler, Jimmy	Marquette	16.97
21	Crowder, Jae	Marquette	16.95
22	Hazell, Jeremy	Seton Hall	16.74
23	Clark, Jason	Georgetown	16.62
24	Fisher, Corey	Villanova	16.52
25	Wright, Cashmere	Cincinnati	16.52

Harrison averaged 20 points and 4 steals in games against Gonzaga, St. Mary’s, Minnesota, and Syracuse prior to Big East play. However, St. John’s is now on the bubble for a tournament bid due to a 4-6 mark against a conference that is proving even tougher than the glory years of 2006 – 2013 with Louisville, Syracuse, Pitt and UConn.

The all-time Big East high was in 2011 when it placed 69% (11 of 16) of the its teams in the tournament.

St. John’s and other teams have found there is no easy night in the Big East as every team is in the top 125 at www.kenpom.com, whereas during the golden era from the 2005-06 to 2012-13 there were always at least two Big East teams outside the top 125 and a few even finished outside the Top 200.

This year, Harrison has a chance to pass Dominic James (Marquette), Shabazz Napier (UConn), and Levance Fields (Pitt) to break into the Top 10. Harrison has been remarkably consistent during his four years with Value Add ratings of 4.43, 4.25, 4.66, and 5.59 for a career total of 18.93. This means he has been worth more than four points per game each season until this year – where he is pushing a value of six points per game. That means St. John’s could have likely lost the games to Marquette and St. Mary’s if he were not playing.

Both of their teams, Georgetown and Providence, are expected to be in the tournament. Even the three teams not expected to make the tournament have had impressive non-conference wins with DePaul beating Stanford, Creighton beating Oklahoma, and Marquette beating Arizona State (which beat Arizona today).

Henton plays in his final year – and hung 38 points on Notre Dame to give the Big East a 4-0 mark this season against teams that left (Syracuse lost to Villanova and St. John’s, while Seton Hall destroyed Rutgers 81-54).