I get more questions about the Value Add basketball rankings from the Ivy League than from any where else in the country–and now they have reason to review because Value Add calculates that an Ivy League School would have claimed the CIT tournament Thursday except for a key last minute injury.
Murray State won the CIT tournament Thursday night 65-57 over a Yale team that did not have a top 700 player on the court. However, Value Add calculates Yale would have likely won the title if star Justin Sears had played. Sears (pictured) adds 6.14 to Yale’s score on an average night, and takes 2.22 points away from their opponents, meaning Yale should have done no worse than a 63-63 tie in regulation. Sears ranks as the 15th best Low Major player this season–the top 25 Low Major players are listed on the table below.
Sears did not take the court Thursday after hurting his hand late in the semifinal win over VMI. That left Murray State’s Jarvis Williams (7.40 Low Major Value Add) and freshman Cameron Payne (6.25) as the top two players on the court. The lived up to their ratings, with Payne scoring 24 points with seven rebounds and six assists. Williams was even better, making all eight of his shots and blocking five of Yale’s shots to give Murray State the title.
Based on the standard Value Add Ratings, Sears ranks 120th of all players based on his Value Add of 3.80, meaning Sears is good enough to improve A POWER CONFERENCE team by almost four points a game if he were to replace one of their players (see explanation of how it is calculated by clicking on Sports Illustrated article here).
However, in addition to the www.valueaddbasketball.com database that measures how many points a player would be worth in a High Major Conference, the Low Major Value Add database indicates how many points a Low Major player is worth based on how much he improves his team over a Low Major bench player.
When updated, that database will show the following Top 25 including Sears coming in as the 15th Most Valuable Low Major player with a Low Major rating of 8.36 (adds 6.14 points a game of offense and takes away 2.22 points on defense in Low Major play).
Just enough to claim the title with even an average outing from Sears.
| Low-Major Rank | Player | Team | Ht | Yr | Offense | Low VA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Billy Baron | Canisius | 6′ 2″ | Sr | 11.12 | 13.17 |
| 2 | RJ Hunter | Georgia St. | 6′ 5″ | So | 7.13 | 10.02 |
| 3 | Jalan West | Northwestern St. | 5′ 10″ | So | 7.48 | 9.92 |
| 4 | Alan Williams | UC Santa Barbara | 6′ 7″ | Jr | 6.15 | 9.87 |
| 5 | Taylor Braun | North Dakota St. | 6′ 7″ | Sr | 8.12 | 9.38 |
| 6 | John Brown | High Point | 6′ 8″ | So | 7.28 | 9.01 |
| 7 | Denzel Livingston | Incarnate Word | 6′ 4″ | Jr | 6.55 | 9.00 |
| 8 | JJ Mann | Belmont | 6′ 6″ | Sr | 6.65 | 8.74 |
| 9 | Jacob Parker | Stephen F. Austin | 6′ 6″ | Jr | 6.41 | 8.69 |
| 10 | Brandon Edwards | UT Arlington | 6′ 6″ | Sr | 7.32 | 8.67 |
| 11 | Elfrid Payton | Louisiana Lafayette | 6′ 3″ | Jr | 5.82 | 8.67 |
| 12 | Karvel Anderson | Robert Morris | 6′ 2″ | Sr | 8.21 | 8.66 |
| 13 | Daniel Mullings | New Mexico St. | 6′ 2″ | Jr | 5.39 | 8.63 |
| 14 | Rodney Glasgow | VMI | 5′ 10″ | Sr | 7.72 | 8.42 |
| 15 | Justin Sears | Yale | 6′ 8″ | So | 6.14 | 8.36 |
| 16 | Tyler Harvey | Eastern Washington | 6′ 4″ | So | 7.88 | 8.28 |
| 17 | Jeremy Ingram | North Carolina Central | 6′ 3″ | Sr | 6.20 | 8.26 |
| 18 | Patrick Miller | Tennessee St. | 6′ 1″ | Jr | 7.14 | 8.14 |
| 19 | Glenn Cosey | Eastern Kentucky | 6′ 0 | Sr | 7.08 | 8.08 |
| 20 | Shawn Long | Louisiana Lafayette | 6′ 9″ | So | 5.14 | 7.89 |
| 21 | Zaid Hearst | Quinnipiac | 6′ 4″ | Jr | 6.87 | 7.87 |
| 22 | Kareem Jamar | Montana | 6′ 5″ | Sr | 6.23 | 7.86 |
| 23 | Sidney Sanders | Fairleigh Dickinson | 5′ 11″ | Sr | 6.09 | 7.86 |
| 24 | Davion Berry | Weber St. | 6′ 4″ | Sr | 7.05 | 7.75 |
| 25 | Maurice Watson | Boston University | 5′ 10″ | So | 5.00 | 7.75 |
| Murray St. | Jarvis Williams | Murray St. | 6′ 8″ | Jr | 5.46 | 7.40 |
| Murray St. | Cameron Payne | Murray St. | 6′ 2″ | Fr | 4.08 | 6.25 |
| Murray St. | Jeffrey Moss | Murray St. | 6′ 4″ | So | 4.68 | 4.68 |
| Murray St. | Dexter Fields | Murray St. | 6′ 2″ | Sr | 2.94 | 3.34 |
| Murray St. | TJ Sapp | Murray St. | 6′ 3″ | Jr | 2.50 | 3.25 |
| Murray St. | Jonathan Fairell | Murray St. | 6′ 7″ | Jr | 1.47 | 2.55 |
| Murray St. | Tyler Rambo | Murray St. | 6′ 5″ | So | 0.68 | 1.08 |
| Murray St. | CJ Ford | Murray St. | 6′ 1″ | So | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Yale | Javier Duren | Yale | 6′ 4″ | Jr | 3.22 | 4.91 |
| Yale | Armani Cotton | Yale | 6′ 7″ | Jr | 2.10 | 3.10 |
| Yale | Brandon Sherrod | Yale | 6′ 6″ | Jr | 1.81 | 2.04 |
| Yale | Nick Victor | Yale | 6′ 5″ | So | 0.00 | 1.59 |
| Yale | Matt Townsend | Yale | 6′ 7″ | Jr | 1.31 | 1.31 |
| Yale | Greg Kelley | Yale | 6′ 8″ | Jr | 0.70 | 0.70 |
| Yale | Jesse Pritchard | Yale | 6′ 5″ | Sr | 0.63 | 0.63 |
| Yale | Jack Montague | Yale | 6′ 0 | So | 0.00 | 0.40 |
| Yale | Anthony Dallier | Yale | 6′ 6″ | Fr | 0.24 | 0.24 |
| Yale | Isaiah Salafia | Yale | 6′ 3″ | Sr | 0.00 | 0.00 |
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.