January Madness: Seeding the Top 68 College Basketball Players

LSU’s Ben Simmons would be the runaway No. 1 if March Madness seeded the top 68 players instead of teams.

He scored 36 points to stun a very good Vanderbilt team that has already faced the top Value Add team (Kansas) and the second best player in little-known Jameel Warney of Stony Point. Here is the players’ bracket based on Value Add ratings.

Frank Mason, Wayne Seldon, and Perry Ellis make Kansas one of only three teams (Oklahoma and Villanova are the other two) with three players ranked in the top 3% (top 120 of 4000 players).

If auto bids went to the Player of the Year in each conference, Warney would represent the American East. However, he has no problem against big time opponents, averaging 19 points, 11 rebounds, and four blocked shots in two games against Vanderbilt and Notre Dame. He also blocked eight shots in a win over a very good Princeton team.

(Explanation of system: Value Add measures with great precision how many points a player impacts his team’s score and the opponent’s score, and Simmons improves LSU by 16.21 points per 100 times LSU and their opponent possess the ball, and Warney is next best at 14.79. Because teams average possession the ball 70 times per game, the actual per game impact on the final score is 11.4 for Simmons and 10.4 for Warney, but the advanced process is explained here.)

Gary Payton of Oregon State and Kahlil Felder, who scored 37 points against Michigan State and 30 against Virginia in the past two weeks, would be the other 1-seeds in a tournament of players:

Rnk	Seed	Player	Team	Conf	Ht	Yr	Total Value
1	1	Simmons, Ben 25	LSU	SEC/poy	6′ 10″	Fr	16.21
2	1	Warney, Jameel 20	Stony Brook	AE/poy	6′ 8″	Sr	14.79
3	1	Felder, Kahlil 20	Oakland	Horz/poy	5′ 9″	Jr	13.71
4	1	Payton, Gary 1	Oregon St.	P12/poy	6′ 3″	Sr	13.64
5	2	Scott, Josh 40	Colorado	P12	6′ 10″	Sr	13.59
6	2	Hield, Buddy 24	Oklahoma	B12/poy	6′ 4″	Sr	13.50
7	2	Siakam, Pascal 43	New Mexico St.	WAC/poy	6′ 9″	So	13.44
8	2	Mockevicius, Egidijus 55	Evansville	MVC/poy	6′ 10″	Sr	13.15
9	3	Punter, Kevin 0	Tennessee	SEC	6′ 2″	Sr	12.55
10	3	Ware, Gavin 20	Mississippi St.	SEC	6′ 9″	Sr	12.54
11	3	Barber, Anthony 12	North Carolina St.	ACC/poy	6′ 2″	Jr	12.46
12	3	Allen, Grayson 3	Duke	ACC	6′ 5″	So	12.39
13	4	Thompson, James 2	Eastern Michigan	MAC/poy	6′ 10″	Fr	12.23
14	4	Niang, Georges 31	Iowa St.	B12	6′ 8″	Sr	12.21
15	4	Sabonis, Domantas 11	Gonzaga	WCC/poy	6′ 11″	So	12.01
16	4	Allen, Terry 15	Richmond	A10/poy	6′ 8″	Sr	11.97
17	5	Hart, Josh 3	Villanova	BE/poy	6′ 5″	Jr	11.82
18	5	Peters, Alec 25	Valparaiso	Horz	6′ 9″	Jr	11.81
19	5	Adams, Josh 14	Wyoming	MWC/poy	6′ 2″	Sr	11.80
20	5	Johnson, Brice 11	North Carolina	ACC	6′ 10″	Sr	11.59
21	6	Gill, Anthony 13	Virginia	ACC	6′ 8″	Sr	11.47
22	6	Dunn, Kris 3	Providence	BE	6′ 4″	Jr	11.43
23	6	Valentine, Denzel 45	Michigan St.	B10/poy	6′ 5″	Sr	11.42
24	6	Trimble, Melo 2	Maryland	B10	6′ 3″	So	11.42
25	7	Andrews, Andrew 12	Washington	P12	6′ 2″	Sr	11.40
26	7	Poeltl, Jakob 42	Utah	P12	7′ 0	So	11.39
27	7	Gbinije, Michael 0	Syracuse	ACC	6′ 7″	Sr	11.37
28	7	Morris, Monte 11	Iowa St.	B12	6′ 3″	Jr	11.34
29	8	Frazier, JJ 30	Georgia	SEC	5′ 10″	Jr	11.31
30	8	Walker, David 4	Northeastern	CAA/poy	6′ 6″	Sr	11.30
31	8	Uthoff, Jarrod 20	Iowa	B10	6′ 9″	Sr	11.28
33	8	Sam, Jarred 12	Southern	SWAC/poy	6′ 9″	So	11.25
32	9	Moody, Stefan 42	Mississippi	SEC	5′ 11″	Sr	11.25
34	9	LeVert, Caris 23	Michigan	B10	6′ 7″	Sr	11.23
35	9	Brown, John 0	High Point	BSth/poy	6′ 8″	Sr	11.13
36	9	Lee, Damion 0	Louisville	ACC	6′ 6″	Sr	10.96
37	10	Miles, Isaiah 15	Saint Joseph’s	A10	6′ 7″	Sr	10.94
38	10	Hawkinson, Josh 24	Washington St.	P12	6′ 10″	Jr	10.92
40	10	Breunig, Martin 12	Montana	BSky/poy	6′ 8″	Sr	10.91
39	10	Lydon, Tyler 20	Syracuse	ACC	6′ 8″	Fr	10.91
41	11	Woodard, Jordan 10	Oklahoma	B12	6′ 0	Jr	10.81
42	11	Blossomgame, Jaron 5	Clemson	ACC	6′ 7″	Jr	10.74
43	11	Kingsley, Moses 33	Arkansas	SEC	6′ 10″	Jr	10.55
44	11	Maten, Yante 1	Georgia	SEC	6′ 8″	So	10.52
45	12	Hart, Khallid 5	Marist	MAAC/poy	6′ 2″	Jr	10.49
46	12	Brogdon, Malcolm 15	Virginia	ACC	6′ 5″	Sr	10.46
47	12	Beasley, Malik 5	Florida St.	ACC	6′ 5″	Fr	10.45
48	12	Wiltjer, Kyle 33	Gonzaga	WCC	6′ 10″	Sr	10.42
49	13	Robinson, Justin 12	Monmouth	MAAC	5′ 8″	Jr	10.37
50	13	Anderson, Ryan 12	Arizona	P12	6′ 9″	Sr	10.34
51	13	Bentil, Ben 0	Providence	BE	6′ 9″	So	10.33
52	13/PI	McClellan, Sheldon 10	Miami FL	ACC	6′ 5″	Sr	10.31
53	13/PI	Mason, Frank 0	Kansas	B12	5′ 11″	Jr	10.29
54	14	Bryson, Michael 24	UC Santa Barbara	BW/poy	6′ 4″	Sr	10.08
55	14/PI	White, Andrew 3	Nebraska	B10	6′ 7″	Jr	10.02
57	14/PI	Thomas, Devin 2	Wake Forest	ACC	6′ 9″	Sr	10.01
58	14	Woodley, Zeek 23	Northwestern St.	Slnd/poy	6′ 2″	Jr	10.00
64	14	Eaves, Frank 21	Appalachian St.	SB/poy	6′ 2″	Sr	9.87
70	15	Diaz, Adrian 20	FIU	CUSA/poy	6′ 11″	Sr	9.67
79	15	Harrison, Shaquille 3	Tulsa	Amer/poy	6′ 4″	Sr	9.41
80	15	Caruso, Henry 21	Princeton	Ivy/poy	6′ 4″	Jr	9.40
83	15	Langston, Wayne 0	Murray St.	OVC/poy	6′ 7″	Sr	9.34
100	16	Rafferty, Matt 32	Furman	SC/poy	6′ 8″	Fr	9.11
122	16	Daniel, James 11	Howard	MEAC/poy	5′ 11″	Jr	8.74
139	16	Emegano, Obi 15	Oral Roberts	Sum/poy	6′ 3″	Jr	8.52
160	16	Potts, Earl 5	Fairleigh Dickinson	NEC/poy	6′ 6″	So	8.24
244	16	Papale, John 2	Boston University	Pat/poy	6′ 3″	Sr	7.17
274	16	Moore, Dallas 14	North Florida	ASun/poy	6′ 1″	Jr	6.93