Nova, Duke and Kansas Players Early MVP Leaders

Basketball stat guide KenPom.com ranks Villanova player Josh Hart’s 37 pts (7-10 2’s, 3-4 3’s, 14-14 FT’s) along with 11 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals the best outing of Saturday, and Hart now nudges out Kansas’ Frank Mason and Duke’s Luke Kennard as the best major college player in America according to Value Add Basketball.

Here are the top five:

Rnk	Player	Value	Team	Conf	Ht	Yr	Off	Def	pgper
5	Luke Kennard, No.5	15.57	Duke	ACC	6’6″	So	12.23	-1.93	sg*1.1
4	Frank Mason, No.0	15.90	Kansas	B12	5’11”	Sr	11.71	-1.54	pg*1.2
3	Josh Hart, No.3	16.33	Villanova	BE	6’5″	Sr	12.17	-2.67	sg*1.1
2	Shawn Johnson, No.41	16.76	Incarnate Word	Slnd	6’5″	Jr	12.55	-2.68	c*1.1
1	Dallas Moore, No.14	19.89	North Florida	ASun	6’1″	Sr	16.98	0.40	pg*1.2

While both Ken Pom and Value Add agree to place those three players in the Top 5, Value Add spots the most valuable players in the country which right now includes two players from two teams, Incarnate Word and North Florida.

This raises the age old question of whether an MVP must come from a contender.

When a player from a poor team appears near the top of the Value Add Rankings early in the season, we look closer to see how they have performed against A-level teams (as ranked by KenPom.com) just in case they have simply beefed up their stats against poor teams. However, in this case both have played very well against top competition.

Shawn Johnson has been worth between 8.38 and 16.76 points per game (half to full Value Add Ranking) to Incarnate Word. In their two games again against A-level competition he has made 4 of 7 two-pointers, 5 of 12 three-pointers, 7 of 8 free throws, grabbed 15 defensive rebounds and dished out five assists.

However, Dallas Moore truly stands out as the best player in the country if we disregard his team’s lack of overall success. In games against North Florida’s last three opponents, Arkansas, Syracuse and Florida, Moore has scored 31, 30 and 23 points. Even more impressively he reached those numbers with an incredible 16 of 34 three-pointers, 18 of 26 two-pointers, and 11 of 12 free throws.

Johnson and Moore will not really compete for Player of the Year honors with the other three, but in terms of true value no one is more important to their team, or to gamblers, in determining final point margins.