Two days after Breitbart announced that Michigan’s Trey Burke was the top player in the nation, he can help his team replace Duke as the No. 1 team in the country. Burke replaced Duke’s Mason Plumlee for the top spot on www.valueaddbasketball.com, and with Duke’s first loss yesterday Michigan is the only undefeated team and can take over first place if they win at Ohio State today at 1:30 ET/10:30 PT.
It will be tough though, as the Wolverines need win in Columbus, Ohio, against arch rival Ohio State, which Glenn Robinson, Tim Hardaway and Nik Stauskas join Burke to make Michigan one of only six teams with four players in the top 200 – or top 5 percent of all players. The other teams are Duke, Florida, Syracuse, VCU and fellow Big Ten member Indiana.
Deshaun Thomas and Aaron Craft made Ohio State one of only two teams with two projected players in the top 11 prior to the start of the season, and Shannon Scott has joined them to give Ohio State three top 200 players. More indepth studies by Sports Illustrated’s stat guru Luke Winn have made it clear Craft is the best ball hawk playing guard in American today, so the possibility of the best player in the league matching up against the best defender on the perimeter would make today’s matchup could go a long way to see which of these rivals have the best shot at winning the best basketball conference in the country this year, the Big Ten.
Today will be a great preview of the future NBA battles on the perimeter between Burke, Tim Hardaway and Craft, but today bragging rights in one of the nation’s most fierce rivalries and first place in the country is at stake. Here is where Michigan and Ohio State players rank among the 4000 players who play D1 basketball at www.valueaddbasketball.com. Burke’s Value Add figure of 11.11 percent indicates he improves Michigan’s average score by 11.11 percent per game.
| Rnk | Player | Team | Ht | Yr | Value Add |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trey Burke | Michigan | 6′ 0 | So | 11.11 |
| 35 | Deshaun Thomas | Ohio St. | 6′ 7″ | Jr | 7.27 |
| 96 | Aaron Craft | Ohio St. | 6′ 2″ | Jr | 6.10 |
| 133 | Glenn Robinson | Michigan | 6′ 6″ | Fr | 5.59 |
| 148 | Shannon Scott | Ohio St. | 6′ 1″ | So | 5.46 |
| 185 | Tim Hardaway | Michigan | 6′ 6″ | Jr | 5.03 |
| 199 | Nik Stauskas | Michigan | 6′ 6″ | Fr | 4.86 |
| 302 | Lenzelle Smith | Ohio St. | 6′ 4″ | Jr | 4.01 |
| 453 | Mitch McGary | Michigan | 6′ 10″ | Fr | 3.20 |
| 647 | Jordan Morgan | Michigan | 6′ 8″ | Jr | 2.47 |
| 712 | Sam Thompson | Ohio St. | 6′ 7″ | So | 2.27 |
| 718 | Evan Ravenel | Ohio St. | 6′ 8″ | Sr | 2.26 |
| 798 | Amir Williams | Ohio St. | 6′ 11″ | So | 2.07 |
| 1271 | Spike Albrecht | Michigan | 5′ 11″ | Fr | 1.14 |
| 1440 | LaQuinton Ross | Ohio St. | 6′ 8″ | So | 0.93 |
| 1688 | Jon Horford | Michigan | 6′ 10″ | So | 0.66 |
| 1976 | Matt Vogrich | Michigan | 6′ 4″ | Sr | 0.42 |
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