In the basketball board game I picked the 42 teams (7 teams for 6 conferences) who made the Final 4 or finished in the top 5 of www.kenpom.com. However, when I decided to round out each conference with an 8th team based on the greatest team on a school not represented, I missed one thing that should have jumped out at me years ago in www.valueaddbasketball. Here are the playing cards for the six new teams.
Doug McDermott is by far the best offensive college basketball player of the century.
While there are many great one and dones, I realized only two players were ever one of the best five offensive players in the country more than once (see list of the top 5 offensive players every year - including Travis Diener, Steve Novak and Jimmy Butler).
In 2005, Duke's JJ Redick was the third best offensive player in basketball, and in 2006 he improved to be the best offensive basketball. Truly amazing, and yet ...
In 2012 and 2013 in the Missouri Valley Conference McDermott was the third best offensive player in the country (keep in mind Value Add adjusts for competition, so this means it is estimated he would have ranked as the third best offensive player whether he played in the ACC, old Big East, Big Ten etc.
Only four players ranked in the top 5 overall players (Offense, defense and position adjustment); Boston College's Troy Bell in 2002 and 2003, Duke's Shelden Williams in 2004 and 2005, Davidson's Stephen Curry in 2007 and 2008 and Utah's Delon Wright in 2013 and 2014. You may assume Steph would have made the offensive list but not the overall - but actually he played in a stretch of years where the guards were so roughed up that their actual numbers were much lower than front line players - and it is actually the position adjustment that made it clear he was a top five player both years.
Adding the Teams of these Great Players to the Game
As for the game, I am adding McDermott's Creighton team to the Big East, Curry's Davidson team to the "SEC," and Wright's Utah team to the Pac-12. I did toy with adding Kawhi Leonard's San Diego State team instead of Utah since Kawhi is the greater NBA player in the headlines and both teams wee equal as No. 8 at www.kenpom.com and both losing to the eventual national champ in the Sweet 16 (UConn and Duke). However, at the college level Kawhi's best year was 11th ranked, and Wright was the only player to finish in the top two twice - so I went with him and did not he had triple doubles a few times after taking over the starting position for the Grizzlies this year.
To fill out the other conferences with a great player, I went with Reggie Evan's Iowa team from the beginning of the Century as the 8th team in the Big East, Chris Paul's Wake Forest team for the ACC and Michael Beasley's K-State team for the Big 12.
McDermott's Legacy
For the debut of the realigned Big East in 2014, McDermott was even better as the best offensive player in the country. More importantly for the Big East, he was selected as the National Player of the Year by all six major selection groups.
Marquette and the rest of the Big East owe the McDermott's a lot for that 2014 debut season - when people still weren't sure about the Big East after alignment. Obviously everyone owes Villanova for the two national titles, but having the greatest offensive player of the Century for a debut season went a long way.
Top 5 Offensive Players Each Season 2002 to 2019
| Off rank | Player | Team | Overall Rank | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Henry Domercant | Eastern Illinois | 9 | 2002 |
| 2 | Reece Gaines | Louisville | 2 | 2002 |
| 3 | Steve Logan | Cincinnati | 1 | 2002 |
| 4 | Rasual Butler | La Salle | 5 | 2002 |
| 5 | Chris Davis | North Texas | 47 | 2002 |
| 1 | Adam Hess | William & Mary | 9 | 2003 |
| 2 | Chris Williams | Ball St. | 11 | 2003 |
| 3 | Troy Bell | Boston College | 3 | 2003 |
| 4 | Mike Sweetney | Georgetown | 1 | 2003 |
| 5 | Brett Blizzard | North Carolina Wilmington | 8 | 2003 |
| 1 | Devin Harris | Wisconsin | 1 | 2004 |
| 2 | Travis Diener | Marquette | 7 | 2004 |
| 3 | Luke Jackson | Oregon | 2 | 2004 |
| 4 | Chris Paul | Wake Forest | 3 | 2004 |
| 5 | Ryan Gomes | Providence | 4 | 2004 |
| 1 | Taylor Coppenrath | Vermont | 8 | 2005 |
| 2 | Andrew Bogut | Utah | 1 | 2005 |
| 3 | JJ Redick | Duke | 6 | 2005 |
| 4 | John Lucas | Oklahoma St. | 32 | 2005 |
| 5 | Spencer Nelson | Utah St. | 2 | 2005 |
| 1 | JJ Redick | Duke | 2 | 2006 |
| 2 | Adam Morrison | Gonzaga | 6 | 2006 |
| 3 | Brandon Roy | Washington | 4 | 2006 |
| 4 | Quincy Douby | Rutgers | 5 | 2006 |
| 5 | Steve Novak | Marquette | 17 | 2006 |
| 1 | Kevin Durant | Texas | 1 | 2007 |
| 2 | Jared Dudley | Boston College | 3 | 2007 |
| 3 | Drew Neitzel | Michigan St. | 6 | 2007 |
| 4 | Jaycee Carroll | Utah St. | 28 | 2007 |
| 5 | Adam Haluska | Iowa | 8 | 2007 |
| 1 | Tyler Hansbrough | North Carolina | 3 | 2008 |
| 2 | Michael Beasley | Kansas St. | 1 | 2008 |
| 3 | Maarty Leunen | Oregon | 6 | 2008 |
| 4 | Kevin Love | UCLA | 2 | 2008 |
| 5 | Ryan Anderson | California | 8 | 2008 |
| 1 | Ty Lawson | North Carolina | 1 | 2009 |
| 2 | Aaron Jackson | Duquesne | 37 | 2009 |
| 3 | Jerome Randle | California | 16 | 2009 |
| 4 | Blake Griffin | Oklahoma | 2 | 2009 |
| 5 | DeJuan Blair | Pittsburgh | 3 | 2009 |
| 1 | Jon Scheyer | Duke | 1 | 2010 |
| 2 | James Anderson | Oklahoma St. | 10 | 2010 |
| 3 | Jimmy Butler | Marquette | 5 | 2010 |
| 4 | Kyle Singler | Duke | 2 | 2010 |
| 5 | Quincy Pondexter | Washington | 6 | 2010 |
| 1 | Jordan Taylor | Wisconsin | 1 | 2011 |
| 2 | Kemba Walker | Connecticut | 2 | 2011 |
| 3 | Charles Jenkins | Hofstra | 11 | 2011 |
| 4 | Reggie Jackson | Boston College | 16 | 2011 |
| 5 | Noah Dahlman | Wofford | 19 | 2011 |
| 1 | Kevin Jones | West Virginia | 4 | 2012 |
| 2 | Anthony Davis | Kentucky | 1 | 2012 |
| 3 | Doug McDermott | Creighton | 17 | 2012 |
| 4 | John Jenkins | Vanderbilt | 13 | 2012 |
| 5 | Damian Lillard | Weber St. | 19 | 2012 |
| 1 | Trey Burke | Michigan | 1 | 2013 |
| 2 | Erick Green | Virginia Tech | 4 | 2013 |
| 3 | Doug McDermott | Creighton | 14 | 2013 |
| 4 | Kyle Barone | Idaho | 73 | 2013 |
| 5 | Nate Wolters | South Dakota St. | 10 | 2013 |
| 1 | Doug McDermott | Creighton | 7 | 2014 |
| 2 | Billy Baron | Canisius | 6 | 2014 |
| 3 | Bryce Cotton | Providence | 49 | 2014 |
| 4 | Nik Stauskas | Michigan | 44 | 2014 |
| 5 | Joseph Young | Oregon | 24 | 2014 |
| 1 | Frank Kaminsky | Wisconsin | 3 | 2015 |
| 2 | Jerian Grant | Notre Dame | 5 | 2015 |
| 3 | Delon Wright | Utah | 1 | 2015 |
| 4 | Aaron White | Iowa | 6 | 2015 |
| 5 | Kevin Yogi | Indiana | 70 | 2015 |
| 1 | Quinton Hooker | North Dakota | 5 | 2016 |
| 3 | Buddy Hield | Oklahoma | 2 | 2016 |
| 4 | Anthony Barber | North Carolina St. | 20 | 2016 |
| 5 | Kay Felder | Oakland | 15 | 2016 |
| 1 | Mike Daum | South Dakota St. | 29 | 2017 |
| 2 | Dallas Moore | North Florida | 71 | 2017 |
| 3 | Frank Mason | Kansas | 2 | 2017 |
| 4 | Luke Kennard | Duke | 7 | 2017 |
| 5 | Monte Morris | Iowa St. | 4 | 2017 |
| 1 | Nick Masterson | Kennesaw St. | 191 | 2018 |
| 2 | Trae Young | Oklahoma | 6 | 2018 |
| 3 | Jeff Roberson | Vanderbilt | 16 | 2018 |
| 4 | Yante Maten | Georgia | 3 | 2018 |
| 5 | Jordan Howard | Central Arkansas | 109 | 2018 |
| 1 | Zion Williamson | Duke | 1 | 2019 |
| 2 | Cassius Winston | Michigan St. | 4 | 2019 |
| 3 | CJ Massinburg | Buffalo | 6 | 2019 |
| 4 | Ja Morant | Murray St. | 8 | 2019 |
| 5 | Sam Merrill | Utah St. | 18 | 2019 |
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