Incarnate Word, E. Washington, Bowling Green Lead 'Low Major' All-Conference Teams

Incarnate Word, E. Washington, Bowling Green Lead 'Low Major' All-Conference Teams

Incarnate Word’s Shane Meling told me recently that he thought the second year team could get a win at UTEP or Nebraska–and I was shocked when this jumper proved him right. The team has a majority of the All-Southland team as we unveil the early www.valueaddbasketball.com All-Conference teams for all 19 “low-majors”–the conferences who do not get a lot of attention until they stun major teams in March Madness.

Despite living in the shadow of the San Antonio Spurs, who practice on-site, Meling told me Incarnate Word’s play more resembled the guard-heavy Phoenix Suns teams. Stephen F. Austin scored a big win for the conference last year when they stunned VCU in the opening round of the NCAA tournament for their 29th-straight win. But Incarnate had lost by only two points at Stephen F. Austin late in the season. Freshman Jontrell Walker has been even better than expected to form a dominant backcourt with Mitchell Badillo as two of the top-25 players in all low-major basketball.

Low-major players are evaluated based on how many points they create for their team above a good low-major player (see article in Big Apple Buckets for details)–and a player with a 3.0 Low-Major Value Add is regarded as a solid staring player. Walker and Badillo have Low-Major Value Adds of 11.89 and 11.05, respectively, while power forward Traylin Farris is even higher but is less likely to stay that high as he plays more minutes. 

However, the system calculates that Walker and Badillo would be very strong starters even if they played in a major conference, as they would be expected be worth 7.26 and 5.40 points to a major team (3.0 or better is a starter, and 9.0 is an All-American candidate).

The two highest Low-Major Value Adds ever recorded (click for database) were both recorded by Stephen Curry, who topped 15 points in back-to-back years. However some low-major powers such as Harvard and Davidson have moved up mid-major play.

Corey Walden of Eastern Kentucky leads the Ohio Valley Conference with a Low-Major Value Add of 17.09–even higher than Curry’s but unlikely to be sustained for the entire season. Walden even looked solid against Kentucky, scoring 12 points and grabbing four rebounds from the point guard position, while only turning the ball over twice against the relentless Kentucky pressure.

The following are all 19 low-major All-Conference teams through the first month of the season:

Conf Pos Early All-Conference Team LM Value LM Rnk
AE PG 2 Trae Bell-Haynes Vermont 7.06 116
AE PG 10 Carson Puriefoy Stony Brook 6.61 139
AE SG 24 Dre Willis Vermont 6.82 128
AE C 20 Jameel Warney Stony Brook 11.54 20
AE C 32 Ethan O’Day Vermont 9.23 46
ASun PG 14 Dallas Moore North Florida 8.71 60
ASun PG 0 Brett Comer Florida Gulf Coast 7.46 98
ASun SG 2 Bernard Thompson Florida Gulf Coast 7.38 101
ASun SG 32 Fred Miller USC Upstate 7.13 112
ASun SF 0 Jalen Nesbitt North Florida 6.83 127
BSky PG 12 Mike Scott Idaho 16.57 2
BSky PG 22 Drew Brandon Eastern Washington 14.13 9
BSky SG 1 Tyler Harvey Eastern Washington 11.98 17
BSky PF 13 Dominique Lee Northern Colorado 12.05 16
BSky C 55 Venky Jois Eastern Washington 10.41 30
BW PG 5 Michael Caffey Long Beach St. 12.43 13
BW PG 10 Lanerryl Johnson Cal St. Fullerton 7.58 93
BW SG 3 Corey Hawkins UC Davis 14.78 5
BW SF 0 David Nwaba Cal Poly 6.72 131
BW PF 21 Josh Fox UC Davis 6.17 168
CAA PG 1 Juan’ya Green Hofstra 10.48 28
CAA SG 4 Four McGlynn Towson 9.49 44
CAA SF 14 Damion Lee Drexel 10.16 38
CAA PF 1 Adjehi Baru College of Charleston 7.83 86
CAA C 43 Scott Eatherton Northeastern 9.10 51
CUSA PG 5 C.J. Cooper UTEP 8.79 55
CUSA SF 2 Matt Bingaya Southern Miss 10.98 25
CUSA SF 41 Seth Gearhart Rice 8.71 59
CUSA PF 32 Vince Hunter UTEP 9.72 42
CUSA C 21 Norville Carey Southern Miss 9.33 45
MAAC PG 5 A.J. English Iona 16.09 3
MAAC SF 33 Rob Poole Siena 12.95 11
MAAC PF 1 Isaiah Williams Iona 14.40 6
MAAC PF 11 Ramone Snowden Niagara 8.32 66
MAAC C 21 Marvin Dominique Saint Peter’s 10.29 36
MAC PG 12 Jovan Austin Bowling Green 2.60 646
MAC SG 23 Jehvon Clarke Bowling Green 4.74 292
MAC SF 4 Zack Denny Bowling Green 9.23 47
MAC PF 3 Spencer Parker Bowling Green 7.29 102
MAC C 22 Richaun Holmes Bowling Green 7.27 105
NEC PG 10 Elvar Frioriksson LIU Brooklyn 4.88 282
NEC SG 11 Rodney Pryor Robert Morris 10.44 29
NEC SG 1 Malik Harmon St. Francis PA 7.02 120
NEC SF 12 Dyami Starks Bryant 5.64 207
NEC C 40 Ronnie Drinnon St. Francis PA 5.98 178
OVC PG 2 Corey Walden Eastern Kentucky 17.09 1
OVC PG 1 Cameron Payne Murray St. 10.39 31
OVC SG 23 Craig Bradshaw Belmont 9.21 48
OVC SF 22 Timmy Knipp Eastern Kentucky 8.18 72
OVC C 4 Jarvis Williams Murray St. 9.73 41
Pat PG 11 Nick Lindner Lafayette 7.83 87
Pat SG 25 Damon Sherman-Newsome Colgate 10.32 34
Pat SG 22 John Schoof American 8.97 52
Pat SF 21 Cedric Hankerson Boston University 9.78 40
Pat PF 32 Tanner Plomb Army 7.17 107
SB PG 5 Jelani Hewitt Georgia Southern 14.20 8
SB PG 55 Ryan Harrow Georgia St. 8.76 57
SB SF 22 R.J. Hunter Georgia St. 12.80 12
SB PF 21 Emani Gant Texas St. 11.83 19
SB C 24 Anthony Livingston Arkansas St. 15.28 4
SC PG 3 Rhett Harrelson Western Carolina 7.18 106
SC SG 2 Karl Cochran Wofford 9.56 43
SC SG 25 James Sinclair Western Carolina 7.66 90
SC PF 2 Devin Harris East Tennessee St. 7.16 108
SC C 44 P.J. Horgan The Citadel 6.72 130
Slnd PG 2 Mitchell Badillo Incarnate Word 11.05 24
Slnd SG 0 Jontrell Walker Incarnate Word 11.89 18
Slnd SF 23 Zikiteran Woodley Northwestern St. 12.31 15
Slnd PF 5 Traylin Farris Incarnate Word 13.65 10
Slnd PF 34 Jacob Parker Stephen F. Austin 10.94 26
Sum PG 4 Jake Bittle South Dakota St. 11.41 21
Sum PG 3 Devin Patterson Nebraska Omaha 8.85 54
Sum SG 15 Obi Emegano Oral Roberts 7.79 88
Sum PF 30 Cam Griffin Denver 8.76 56
Sum C 15 DavRon Williams IUPUI 6.27 160
SWAC PG 12 Jamel Waters Alabama St. 5.50 223
SWAC PG 2 Jordan Washington Mississippi Valley St. 5.20 248
SWAC SG 3 DeMarcus Robinson Alabama St. 5.64 208
SWAC SF 0 Tyrel Hunt Alcorn St. 6.23 164
SWAC SF 2 Chris Thomas Texas Southern 6.14 169
WAC PG 12 Martez Harrison UMKC 8.50 65
WAC PG 5 Shaquille Boga Texas Pan American 7.95 80
WAC SF 21 Janari Joesaar Texas Pan American 11.14 23
WAC SF 23 Daniel Mullings New Mexico St. 8.73 58
WAC C 43 Pascal Siakam New Mexico St. 7.06 115

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