Bracketology: Analyzing West Bracket (Part I)

The following are the Value Add Rankings for each player in the top half of the West Region, their team’s seed, height, year in school, and which players are NBA prospects (all caps). The teams are Arizona (1-seed), Gonzaga (8), North Dakota St. (12), New Mexico St. (13), Oklahoma (5), Oklahoma St. (9), San Diego State (4), and Weber St. (16). Most likely upsets:

A hot North Dakota State (improved from 85th to 55th in one month) could upset Oklahoma in the opening round. San Diego has the chance to win the entire Region with a couple of upsets.

Home Advantage: Arizona’s top seed is only helped by staying out west, but San Diego State could have the edge in Anaheim to pull the upset against them in the third game for each team.

The items listed for the top few players on each team should be the biggest considerations along with, injured players, the home advantage, and which team is going into the tournament the hottest (which we define as improving the most at www.kenpom.com over the past month of the season). An explanation of the Value Add system, which measures how many points a player adds to his team’s score (https://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Sports/2014/03/16/value-add-top-68-players-selection-sunday), and his overall impact on points once defense is factored (“Total” on the table).

An explanation of Value Add:

The system is a precise measurement of how many points a player adds to his team’s score per game over the player who takes his place. Every score (three-pointer, two-pointer or foul shot), assist, offensive rebound, foul drawn, etc. helps a team score while every turnover and missed shot costs the team points. On defense, every steal, blocked shot, defensive rebound, turnover forced and opponent’s missed shot takes points off the board while every basket or offensive rebound allowed adds to the opponent’s score. When all calculated together with the help of the stats at www.kenpom.com results in the player’s offensive and defensive combination.