New Value Add Rankings Point to Bracket Winners

Before filling in the March Madness bracket stuck in front of you next Monday, check www.valueaddbasketball.com, which dominated President Obama’s last March Madness bracket, and last year picked the Gonzaga-UNC final and that Sindarius Thornwell was the nation’s best player before he shocked the basketball world by leading South Carolina to the Final Four.

Click here for the 6th Annual Value Add Basketball All-American team, which debuted on Breitbart Sports on February 20, 2013 (see explanation and national stories on Value Add here).

Before we get to the new top 50, let’s go through the nine teams with three stars.

Key: The team is followed by their total team Value Add ranking, so Villanova (45.46) and Virginia (45.45) are virtually tied and way ahead of Marquette’s 28.75). Then the rank of each player in the top 4 percent of all players are listed with their rank from the database here).

Only three teams have four bona fide stars, and they are all contenders for the title.

Villanova 45.46 Team Value Add. Top 160 players and rank: 7, Mikal Bridges; 18, Jalen Brunson; 111, Donte DiVincenzo; 144, Omari Spellman.

Duke 42.80 Team Value Add. Top 160 players and rank: 19, Marvin Bagley; 24, Wendell Carter; 53, Grayson Allen; 140, Gary Trent.

Purdue 42.49 Team Value Add. Top 160 players and rank: 22, Dakota Mathias; 26, Carsen Edwards; 56, Vincent Edwards; 102, Isaac Haas.

Three other teams have 3 Stars and add lots of balance to be contenders.

Virginia 45.45 Team Value Add. Top 160 players and rank: 17, Devon Hall; 63, Isaiah Wilkins; 64, Ty Jerome.

Michigan St. 40.46 Team Value Add. Top 160 players and rank: 39, Cassius Winston; 65, Miles Bridges; 113, Jaren Jackson.

Texas Tech 36.54 Team Value Add. Top 160 players and rank: 25, Keenan Evans; 38, Zhaire Smith; 151, Jarrett Culver.

The final three teams with three stars are not balanced and hoping their trios can just carry them to a tournament bid.

Penn St. 31.90 Team Value Add. Top 160 players and rank: 79, Tony Carr; 82, Mike Watkins; 148, Josh Reaves.

Davidson 31.51 Team Value Add. Top 160 players and rank: 35, Peyton Aldridge; 143, Kellan Grady; 158, Jon Axel Gudmundsson.

Marquette 28.75 Team Value Add. Top 160 players and rank: 40, Sam Hauser; 81, Andrew Rowsey; 152, Markus Howard.

Here are the top 50 players Sunday morning – one week before Selection Sunday results in bids. Their Value add in the Point Value they have to a team over a replacement player.