List of best 100 Offensive Players in Big East; 1, Walker; 2, Hansbrough; 5, Butler; 10, Crowder

Ken Pomeroy’s Offensive Efficiency Rating (ORtg, http://www.kenpom.com/playerstats.php?s=ORtg) is sometimes misunderstood as calculating the best offensive player in basketball.

As Pomeroy makes clear, this figure measures how good each player is WHEN THEY HAVE THE BALL, but the players who have the ball more often are much better than players who have a high ORtg but rarely touch the ball.

This post calculates the “Offensive Impact” of each player to reveal the Top 100 offensive players in the Big East this year.

To illustrate how it is a player’s “Offensive Impact,” (which I calculate using Pomeroy’s ORtg as well as his average possessions used and minutes played) and not the ORtg alone determine his worth to his team’s offense, let’s use three hypothetic Marquette games in 2003.

Let’s say Marquette played three games; 1) with both Wade and Diener sidelined, 2) with Diener able to fight through the injury to come in and hit a trey, and finally 3) with Wade coming back and exploding.

Key Player Stats	Game w/o either star	Game w/ Diener for 2 min.	Game with Wade back
Min	0	2	40
FG	0	1	10
FGA	0	1	16
3FG	0	1	2
3FGA	0	1	4
FT	0	0	11
FTA	0	0	13
Off Reb	0	0	5
TO	0	0	5
Player's Possessions	0	1	22
Player's Points	0	3	33
Other pts. At 1.0 per trip	66	65	44
Team Score	66	68	77
Off Efficiency	1.00	3.00	1.49
Off Impact	0.00	1.03	1.17

In the first game with both stars out, Marquette scores 66 points in 66 trips down the court, a 1.00 ORtg for the team.

In the second game, Diener tries to come back and hits a trey, but before he can do anything else, he has to sit back down with the injury. With everyone else still playing average (one point per trip) for the other 65 trips, Diener’s one trip down the court to hit the three gives MU 68 points instead of 66. Diener’s ORtg for the game is a perfect 3.0, because Marquette literally “scored 3 points every time he touched the ball,” but because that was just one time, his actual Offensive Impact is 1.03 – he increased the teams scoring by 3% from 66 to 68.

Now in a third game, Diener is still down but Wade comes back and plays all 40 minutes, exploding for 33 points with the stats shown. Wade’s ORtg is awesome at 1.49, but still less than half of Diener’s. However, his Offensive Impact is much better at 1.17 because with everyone else still playing average basketball; he increases the team’s score by 17% from 66 to 77 points. I know it seems like Wade’s 33 point performance would add more than 11 points, but in fact that is the figure because he did do some things to hurt the team (five missed shots and turnovers, two missed free throws) and some of the times he scored someone else would have if he wasn’t on the court.

To calculate exactly the percentage of points a player would have added to his team’s score if the rest of the team plays an average offensive game (1.0 points per trip without him), go to the player at www.kenpom.com and plug in the following numbers:

OFFENSIVE IMPACT

1. A = (100% - %Min) + (ORtg * %Poss)
2. (((A from above – 100) * (%Min * 0.01))+100)

Kyle Kuric is has the best ORtg in the Big East at 129.9. Kuric’s incredible shooting (45% of treys and 61% of 2-point shots hit to make him the 5th best shooter in the country) combine with the fact that he rarely turns the ball over. However, once you calculate that he is on the bench more than a third of the time and 85% of the time he is on the court someone else makes the play, his OFFENSIVE IMPACT rating is 102.8 – still great but 8th in the Big East.

On the other hand, Kemba Walker’s ORtg of 116.7 is the 17th best figure in the Big East and not even in the Top 100 of the country. His shooting percentages are much worse than Kuric’s (47% on twos and 33% on treys) as he faced double teams and played tired on the court 92% of the time. However, when you calculate Kemba’s ability to not only score, but be one of the best at drawing fouls and setting up teammates with assists, and the fact that Kemba is the man on an incredible 32% of all UConn trips down the court (best in the Big East, 20th in the country to 49th for the next best BE guy in Marshon Brooks), and Kemba adds more points for UConn than any other player in the Big East.

Ben Hansbrough was just behind him and a worthy MVP, and Jimmy Butler is one of five conference players within a point of each other for the top offensive player in the country.

Jae Crowder also broke the Top 10 this year. While fans realize he was one of the top shooters and rebounders in the league, Crowder also turned the ball over only 8.6% of the time, making him the third best player in the country at protecting the ball of over 4,000 players.

Darius Johnson-Odom’s early season shooting woes 34th the calculations are based on all games, not just conference play), but obviously he rated much higher in conference play en route to being picked 2nd team All-Big East.

You have to be really good to have an impact in less than 8 minutes a game, but the two best with that few minutes were Davante Gardner (45th best) and Joe Fulce (60th).

Dwight Buycks (89th), Chris Otule (96th) and Erik Williams (98th) all made the Top 100. Remember this is only the Offensive Rating so the fact that Otule was the second best shot blocker in the Big East (8.9% of opponent’s shots, just behind Terrence Jennings) are not part of the calculation. There were more than 200 players in the Big East this year, but here are the Top 100 offensively:

Rank	Team	Name	%minutes	Off Rate	Possessions	Off IMPACT
1	Uconn	Kemba Walker	92.4	116.7	31.4	104.8
2	Notre Dame	Ben Hansbrough	87.1	120.5	25	104.5
3	Pitt	Ashton Gibbs	74.4	127.9	21	104.4
4	Providence	Marshon Brooks	90.9	114.8	29.7	104.0
5	Marquette	Jimmy Butler	86.3	121.2	21.4	103.9
6	Georgetown	Austin Freeman	84.1	116.7	24.5	103.4
7	Notre Dame	Tim Abromaitis	84.2	117	21.1	103.0
8	Louisville	Kyle Kuric	64.8	129.9	14.7	102.8
9	Villanova	Corey Stokes	72.2	120.6	18.9	102.8
10	Marquette	Jae Crowder	68.8	120.1	19.8	102.7
11	John's, St.	Dwight Hardy	85.2	111.6	25.6	102.5
12	Pitt	Brad Wanamaker	75.7	113.5	23.8	102.4
13	Pitt	Gilbert Brown	69.7	116.1	21	102.4
14	Villanova	Corey Fisher	83.1	111	25.7	102.3
15	Syracuse	Rick Jackson	88.3	112.6	19.8	102.2
16	Notre Dame	Tyrone Nash	70.9	115.1	20.3	102.2
17	Georgetown	Hollis Thompson	57.9	123.1	16.1	102.2
18	Uconn	Jeremy Lamb	68.3	115.5	19.3	102.0
19	Notre Dame	Carleton Scott	67.9	116.5	18.1	102.0
20	Cincinnati	Dion Dixon	66.8	112.7	22.4	101.9
21	West Virginia	Kevin Jones	87.3	110.8	19.6	101.8
22	Uconn	Alex Oriakhi	71.4	113.1	18.1	101.7
23	West Virginia	John Flowers	74.5	112.8	16.9	101.6
24	West Virginia	Casey Mitchell	53.5	111	26.9	101.6
25	Rutgers	Jonathan Mitchell	74.8	108.8	23.9	101.6
26	Cincinnati	Sean Kilpatrick	51.2	112.4	24.2	101.5
27	Syracuse	Kris Joseph	78.1	108.5	22.6	101.5
28	Pitt	Dante Taylor	36.4	124.9	16.4	101.5
29	Louisville	Terrence Jennings	55.7	112.6	20.3	101.4
30	Cincinnati	Yancy Gates	67.2	108.8	22.9	101.4
31	Pitt	Gary McGhee	57.2	114.9	15.8	101.3
32	Rutgers	Gilvydas Biruta	54.5	110.5	23.4	101.3
33	Cincinnati	Rashad Bishop	66.3	111.7	17	101.3
34	Marquette	Darius Johnson-Odom	74.7	106.8	25.6	101.3
35	Notre Dame	Jack Cooley	25.4	129.4	17.3	101.3
36	Georgetown	Jason Clark	76.1	107.4	20.5	101.2
37	Syracuse	Brandon Triche	71.6	107.5	21.4	101.1
38	Rutgers	James Beatty	79.4	109.2	15.6	101.1
39	John's, St.	D.J. Kennedy	69.4	109.6	16.4	101.1
40	West Virginia	Joe Mazzulla	72	107.8	17.6	101.0
41	Georgetown	Chris Wright	73.9	105.2	25	101.0
42	Louisville	Preston Knowles	71.8	105	25.2	100.9
43	Notre Dame	Eric Atkins	62.5	109.2	15.3	100.9
44	Seton Hall	Jeremy Hazell	50.8	106.5	26.2	100.9
45	Marquette	Davante Gardner	19.9	117.9	23.9	100.9
46	Villanova	Mouphtaou Yarou	60.1	107	19.7	100.8
47	Florida, South	Jarrid Famous	48.1	107.2	23.4	100.8
48	Villanova	Maalik Wayns	75	103.8	27.7	100.8
49	Cincinnati	Ibrahima Thomas	47.3	109.2	17.8	100.8
50	Syracuse	James Southerland	28.1	118.2	15	100.8
51	Syracuse	Scoop Jardine	79.6	103.9	24.7	100.8
52	Providence	Kadeem Batts	53.9	107.9	18	100.8
53	Cincinnati	Cashmere Wright	63.3	105.3	22.3	100.7
54	Louisville	Gorgui Dieng	31.6	112.7	18.5	100.7
55	Syracuse	C.J. Fair	42.3	109.5	17.6	100.7
56	Florida, South	Shaun Noriega	40.7	109.4	18.4	100.7
57	Providence	Bilal Dixon	53.9	107.2	18	100.7
58	John's, St.	Justin Brownlee	75.2	103.8	22.4	100.6
59	Syracuse	Dion Waiters	39.3	107.6	21.3	100.6
60	Marquette	Joe Fulce	17.1	122.1	16.1	100.6
61	Villanova	Antonio Pena	81.7	104.2	17.1	100.6
62	DePaul	Cleveland Melvin	56.4	103.9	26.4	100.6
63	Georgetown	Nate Lubick	48.9	108.9	13.3	100.6
64	Providence	Bryce Cotton	36.8	112.8	12.2	100.6
65	West Virginia	Cam Thoroughman	49.9	109.5	12	100.6
66	John's, St.	Paris Horne	69.8	104.9	16.4	100.6
67	Uconn	Roscoe Smith	62.3	106.2	14.4	100.6
68	West Virginia	Jonnie West	14.1	127.4	14.3	100.6
69	Pitt	Travon Woodall	53.8	105.1	19.9	100.5
70	DePaul	Jimmy Drew	59.4	105	15.3	100.5
71	Louisville	Stephan Van Treese	30.9	111.9	12.3	100.5
72	Georgetown	Vee Sanford	13.9	119.1	16.7	100.4
73	Pitt	Nasir Robinson	54.8	103.5	21.9	100.4
74	Florida, South	Ron Anderson	55.5	103.4	19.9	100.4
75	Uconn	Jamal Coombs-McDaniel	40.7	105	17.7	100.4
76	Seton Hall	Jeff Robinson	78.6	102.3	19.5	100.4
77	Georgetown	Julian Vaughn	57	102.6	21.8	100.3
78	Villanova	James Bell	17.1	114.3	13	100.3
79	Louisville	Peyton Siva	68.4	101.8	23.4	100.3
80	Pitt	Talib Zanna	23.4	106.7	18.2	100.3
81	Providence	Ray Hall	11.8	119.3	12.4	100.3
82	Cincinnati	Anthony McClain	11.8	115.6	15.2	100.3
83	Pitt	JJ Moore	13.4	107.8	24.6	100.3
84	Uconn	Shabazz Napier	58.4	102.1	20.9	100.3
85	John's, St.	Sean Evans	28.3	104.5	17.2	100.2
86	West Virginia	Darryl Bryant	64.4	101.2	25.6	100.2
87	West Virginia	Dalton Pepper	30	103.4	17.2	100.2
88	Syracuse	Baye Moussa Keita	36.2	104.5	10.1	100.2
89	Marquette	Dwight Buycks	68.2	101.2	18.7	100.2
90	Cincinnati	Larry Davis	40.2	102.3	16.2	100.1
91	DePaul	Jeremiah Kelly	78.3	101.3	14	100.1
92	Notre Dame	Scott Martin	73	101	18.5	100.1
93	Providence	Duke Mondy	59	101.3	14.9	100.1
94	Seton Hall	Patrik Auda	29.4	103	12.3	100.1
95	Providence	Dre Evans	15.6	106.4	10.6	100.1
96	Marquette	Chris Otule	43.8	101.3	16	100.1
97	Pitt	Lamar Patterson	29.4	101.6	16.8	100.1
98	Marquette	Erik Williams	11.3	102.7	17.7	100.1
99	Cincinnati	Darnell Wilks	37.4	100.8	16.7	100.0
100	Villanova	Dominic Cheek	46.9	100.6	17.1	100.0