Despite his claims, Lavar Ball was not better than Michael Jordan, three “white guys” did not cost his son the NCAA title, his son will not be better than Steph Curry, and in fact the final Value Add Basketball calculations prove his son was not even close to the best player in basketball.
The nice thing about an analytics system like www.valueaddbasketball.com is that it is a proven way to objectively crunch numbers rather than rely on biases displayed by Ball’s statement to the Southern California News Group that “realistically you can’t win no championship with three white guys because the foot speed is too slow.”
Ironically, after UCLA’s loss to Kentucky, a white guy named Luke Maye from UNC beat Kentucky with a game-winning shot, and was named MVP of the entire South Region.
Hopefully, Lonzo Ball will not be hurt professionally by his father continuing to shoot off his mouth. Let’s look at a few end-of-season stats from the Value Add calculations of how many points each player was worth.
The most damaging injuries of the season occurred when Shavar Newkirk tore his ACL in St. Joe’s opening A-10 game, and Tres Tinkle broke his hand going up to block a dunk in the midst of a 31-point, 10-rebound, 6-steal performance for Oregon State against Fresno State. The breakdown of the 50 biggest injuries of the year are explained here.
As the 14th best college player this season, Ball was the top freshman. Here are the top 40 freshman this year, and how many points each of the players who do not go to the NBA will be worth to their teams.
Finally, a check on Value Add can project how good players will be next season, based on how much players typically progress between their freshman and sophomore years, and to a lesser degree as they continue to play.
You can search by team, conference, class or past season by going to www.valueaddbasketball.com now that the final stats are calculated.