Kevin Thomas of the Portland Press Herald reported on the great effort put up by Maine’s Shaun Lawton and Till Gloger to almost pull the upset, but Dre Wills showed why he is the best player in three states by hitting six of eight shots and adding three steals, six rebounds and five assists to rally Vermont 68-54 this past season.
Sure, the residents of the three northeastern most states may be more focused on skiing than team sports, but Wills has a shot to rank as one of the top 100 players in America this year. As one of the top players in steals and shooting percentage in the country, he projects, according to Value Add Sports, as adding 6.27 points per game to the Catamounts—more than two points more than any other player and the 106th best total of the 4000+ players in the country.
The Best Returning Players will be updated here.
Tad Neely anchors the offensive line for New Hampshire to come in second in the three-state region, and William Pelletier put in 16 goals and 25 assists, including two goals with one assist in the tough luck 4-3 loss in the NCAA D3 quarterfinals at Amherst.
Maine’s top player is linebacker Christophe Mulumba Tshimanga, a former hockey player who appears to be quite a character in this video from the school.
Vermont also boasts high school basketball stars coming up in Saxtons River High School’s Tyrique Jones (going to Xavier in 2016) and Bruce Brown (sought after by every conference).
Here are the top 40 players, with the Value Add rankings for basketball and football players.
Rnk | Student-Athlete | School | Pos-State | Value Add | Sport | Sport Nat’l |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Wills, Dre | Vermont Catamounts | PG-VT | 6.27 | Basketball | 106 |
2 | McNeely, Tad | New Hampshire Wildcats | Oline-NH | 3.03 | Football | 403 |
3 | Pelletier, William | Norwich University Cadets | F-VT | NA | Hockey | NA |
4 | O’Day, Ethan | Vermont Catamounts | C-VT | 4.11 | Basketball | 416 |
5 | Wright, Miles | Dartmouth Big Green | SF-NH | 3.96 | Basketball | 465 |
6 | Watson, Carly | Middlebury Panthers | D-VT | NA | Wom Hockey | NA |
7 | Shippee, Jacob | Dartmouth Big Green | Javelin-NH | NA | Track/Field | NA |
8 | Ward, Cam | Vermont Catamounts | PG-VT | 3.82 | Basketball | 495 |
9 | Whitehorn, Kaitlin | Dartmouth Big Green | Hjump-NH | NA | Track/Field | NA |
10 | Cross, Taylor | Norwich University Cadets | D-VT | NA | Wom Hockey | NA |
11 | McRoberts, Zach | Vermont Catamounts | SF-VT | 3.8 | Basketball | 501 |
12 | Anderson, Akil | New Hampshire Wildcats | LB-NH | 2.79 | Football | 584 |
13 | DeAndrade, Casey | New Hampshire Wildcats | Dback-NH | 2.69 | Football | 687 |
14 | Gill, Malik | Dartmouth Big Green | PG-NH | 2.96 | Basketball | 759 |
15 | Murphy, Brooke | New Hampshire Wildcats | F-NH | NA | Soccer | NA |
16 | Bell-Haynes, Trae | Vermont Catamounts | PG-VT | 2.79 | Basketball | 836 |
17 | Tshimanga, Ch. Mulumba | Maine Black Bears | LB-ME | 2.45 | Football | 977 |
18 | Leissner, Tanner | New Hampshire Wildcats | C-NH | 2.48 | Basketball | 982 |
19 | Steidel, Kurt | Vermont Catamounts | SF-VT | 2.44 | Basketball | 999 |
20 | Brown, Bruce | Saxtons River High School | SG-VT | NA | HS-Basket | NA |
21 | Smith, Jaleen | New Hampshire Wildcats | SG-NH | 2.37 | Basketball | 1035 |
22 | Johnson, Bruce | Maine Black Bears | Oline-ME | 2.37 | Football | 1099 |
23 | Jones, Tyrique | Saxtons River High School | PF-VT | NA | HS-Basket | NA |
24 | Hatton, Brandon | Vermont Catamounts | SG-VT | 1.92 | Basketball | 1385 |
25 | Bates, Trevor | Maine Black Bears | Dline-ME | 2.12 | Football | 1524 |
26 | Reed, Jordan | New Hampshire Wildcats-2017 | PG-NH | 1.7 | Basketball | 1562 |
27 | Carpenter, Tommy | Dartmouth Big Green | SF-NH | 1.29 | Basketball | 1927 |
28 | Lawton, Shaun | Maine Black Bears | SF-ME | 1.16 | Basketball | 2055 |
29 | Speidel, Josh | Vermont Catamounts | PF-VT | 1 | Basketball | 2445 |
30 | Boudreaux, Evan | Dartmouth Big Green | PF-NH | 1 | Basketball | 2490 |
31 | Crescenzi, Kevin | Dartmouth Big Green | SG-NH | 0.96 | Basketball | 2578 |
32 | Ngwudo, Ikemefuna | Dartmouth Big Green | SF-NH | 0.52 | Basketball | 2999 |
33 | Boehm, Connor | Dartmouth Big Green | PF-NH | 0.51 | Basketball | 3016 |
34 | McDonnell, Brandon | Dartmouth Big Green | PF-NH | 0.3 | Basketball | 3186 |
35 | Harrison, Cole | Dartmouth Big Green | PF-NH | 0.25 | Basketball | 3232 |
36 | Camara, Iba | New Hampshire Wildcats | C-NH | 0.24 | Basketball | 3251 |
37 | Armstrong, Jacoby | New Hampshire Wildcats | PF-NH | 0.22 | Basketball | 3267 |
38 | Mackey, Ethan | Maine Black Bears | PF-ME | 0.12 | Basketball | 3424 |
39 | DeAndrade, Casey | New Hampshire Wildcats | Dback-NH | 1.2 | Football | 3924 |
40 | Milano, Matt | Middlebury Panthers | QB-VT | 0.98 | Football | 4621 |
40 | Minno, Matthew | Middlebury Panthers | Rec-VT | 0.3 | Football | 5466 |