Time for me to eat crow for saying the Player of the Year race was over and not seeing a 6-foot-11 Australian sneaking into taking the title.
After challenging for best player of the Century for most of the season, Trae Young is no longer the Player of the Year due to the unbelievable domination of Australian Jock Landale of Saint Mary’s according to the newly released Value Add Basketball rankings.
Yes, the Big 12 is the best conference top to bottom, so it is Young, and Oklahoma faces strong defenses, as indicated by Monday’s loss to West Virginia. However, the West Coast is good, and Value Add Basketball adjusts to the level of competition. The fact is Saint Mary’s has won 23 in a row because Landell hit 26 of 34 shots with 27 rebounds in a two-game sweep of a tough Brigham Young team and then went into Gonzaga and hit 12 of 17 with 12 rebounds to stun the 9th best team on the road according to www.kenpom.com.
Kenpom.com also ranks Landell in the top 20 of 4,085 players in both shooting (66.1 percent effective field goal shooting) and rebounding (grabs 27.8% of every shot missed by an opponent), and is nationally ranked in drawing fouls, offensive rebounds, blocked shots and just misses in assists despite being 6-foot-11.
And as for measuring up against the top competition, in last year’s NCAA tournament he took only eight shots to score 18 points and grab 13 rebounds against VCU, then came back with 19 points on just 14 shots with another 11 rebounds against powerhouse Arizona in the second round.
Trae Young slipped to second before the heartbreaking loss to West Virginia Monday night, as the ratings do not include Monday’s games.
The following are the top 100 most valuable players regarding how many points a game their team would likely drop if a replacement player took their place. If Saint Mary’s won a game by six points with Landale on the court, it indicates they would lose the same game by six points without him since you subtract his 12.29 Value Add from the margin of victory or defeat:
1, Jock Landale #34, Saint Mary’s, 12.29
2, Trae Young #11, Oklahoma, 11.91
3, Jalen Brunson #1, Villanova, 10.88
4, Deandre Ayton #13, Arizona, 10.73
5, Gary Clark #11, Cincinnati, 10.7
6, Keita Bates-Diop #33, Ohio St., 10.63
7, Jevon Carter #2, West Virginia, 10.52
8, Yante Maten #1, Georgia, 10.06
9, Marvin Bagley #35, Duke, 10
10, Mikal Bridges #25, Villanova, 9.97
11, Mohamed Bamba #4, Texas, 9.91
12, Luke Maye #32, North Carolina, 9.87
13, Keenan Evans #12, Texas Tech, 9.76
14, Devon Hall #0, Virginia, 9.59
15, Dean Wade #32, Kansas St., 9.49
16, Devonte’ Graham #4, Kansas, 9.35
17, Zach Lofton #23, New Mexico St., 9.06
18, Juwan Morgan #13, Indiana, 8.87
19, Allonzo Trier #35, Arizona, 8.76
20, Jeff Roberson #11, Vanderbilt, 8.64
21, Wendell Carter #34, Duke, 8.58
22, Chris Cokley #3, UAB, 8.41
23, Vincent Edwards #12, Purdue, 8.4
24, Tookie Brown #4, Georgia Southern, 8.32
25, Marcquise Reed #2, Clemson, 8.29
26, Caleb Martin #10, Nevada, 8.29
27, Dylan Windler #3, Belmont, 8.15
28, Jeremiah Martin #3, Memphis, 8.13
29, Elijah Bryant #3, BYU, 8.12
30, Nick King #5, Middle Tennessee, 8.07
31, Anthony Cowan #1, Maryland, 8
32, Jacob Evans #1, Cincinnati, 7.99
33, James Thompson #2, Eastern Michigan, 7.98
34, Jonathan Stark #2, Murray St., 7.97
35, Mike Watkins #24, Penn St., 7.95
36, Kenrich Williams #34, TCU, 7.94
37, Jared Terrell #32, Rhode Island, 7.94
38, Shake Milton #1, SMU, 7.91
39, CJ Massinburg #5, Buffalo, 7.9
40, Dakota Mathias #31, Purdue, 7.84
41, Chris Silva #30, South Carolina, 7.82
42, Matt Rafferty #32, Furman, 7.79
43, Ethan Happ #20, Wisconsin, 7.76
44, Josh Cunningham #0, Dayton, 7.73
45, Michael Oguine #0, Montana, 7.71
46, Justin Tillman #4, VCU, 7.65
47, Chris Chiozza #11, Florida, 7.64
48, Mike Daum #24, South Dakota St., 7.58
49, Miles Bridges #22, Michigan St., 7.57
50, Donte Grantham #32, Clemson, 7.55
51, Reid Travis #22, Stanford, 7.54
52, John Konchar #55, Fort Wayne, 7.48
53, Kevin Huerter #4, Maryland, 7.47
54, Donta Hall #0, Alabama, 7.42
55, Kelan Martin #30, Butler, 7.4
56, Isaiah Wilkins #21, Virginia, 7.38
57, Sam Merrill #3, Utah St., 7.38
58, Trevon Bluiett #5, Xavier, 7.38
59, Rob Gray #32, Houston, 7.37
60, Cassius Winston #5, Michigan St., 7.31
61, Sam Hauser #10, Marquette, 7.3
62, Dewan Huell #20, Miami FL, 7.27
63, Kyle Alexander #11, Tennessee, 7.21
64, Jordan Barnett #21, Missouri, 7.18
65, Donte DiVincenzo #10, Villanova, 7.15
66, Tra Holder #0, Arizona St., 7.12
67, Terance Mann #14, Florida St., 7.11
68, Justinian Jessup #3, Boise St., 7.09
69, Terry Taylor #21, Austin Peay, 7.06
70, Zach Thomas #23, Bucknell, 7.04
71, Desi Rodriguez #20, Seton Hall, 7.02
72, Isaac Haas #44, Purdue, 7
73, Carsen Edwards #3, Purdue, 6.98
74, Ajdin Penava #11, Marshall, 6.97
75, Jordan McLaughlin #11, USC, 6.97
76, Jordan Murphy #3, Minnesota, 6.96
77, Devin Cannady #3, Princeton, 6.96
78, Jordan Barnes #2, Indiana St., 6.96
79, Daryl Macon #4, Arkansas, 6.93
80, Anthony Lawrence #3, Miami FL, 6.93
81, Landry Shamet #11, Wichita St., 6.92
82, Quinndary Weatherspoon #11, Mississippi St., 6.91
83, Justin Bibbins #1, Utah, 6.91
84, Udoka Azubuike #35, Kansas, 6.9
85, Tyler Davis #34, Texas A&M, 6.89
86, Zhaire Smith #2, Texas Tech, 6.85
87, Ed Polite #24, Radford, 6.85
88, Ray Spalding #13, Louisville, 6.84
89, Darius Thompson #15, Western Kentucky, 6.84
90, Desonta Bradford #1, East Tennessee St., 6.82
91, Max Heidegger #21, UC Santa Barbara, 6.81
92, Cody Martin #11, Nevada, 6.79
93, Admiral Schofield #5, Tennessee, 6.78
94, Joe Cremo #24, Albany, 6.77
95, Jon Axel Gudmundsson #3, Davidson, 6.75
96, Jaren Jackson #2, Michigan St., 6.75
97, Tres Tinkle #3, Oregon St., 6.74
98, Thomas Welsh #40, UCLA, 6.74
99, Shannon Evans #11, Arizona St., 6.72
100, Kaleb Wesson #34, Ohio St., 6.72