VCU would nudge new conference ahead of ACC; Current All-Conference players for Catholic 7 + Butler/Xavier/VCU

After a day of rumors the 7 Catholic, Basketball only schools left the Big East for a new conference which we hope will be called, well, the Big East.  With Xavier and Butler also joining, the addition of VCU would put Marquette right back in the 2nd best conference in the land behind the Big Ten. Below are the averages of each team on www.kenpom.com, and the actual averages of the conferences (I tallied each team on his page since he apparently using some rounding in the conference averages his lists).

The Big Ten would still be the top conference, but VCU would nudge the new conference past the ACC for the 2nd best conference.  If Creighton, St. Louis or Dayton join instead of or in addition to VCU, then the conference would slip a few points from the totals below, but still be in the mix for 2nd best conference.  Below the team listings, I list the 1st through 4th All-Conference teams based on VCU, and then the rest of Marquette's players and then the 10 All-Americans based on www.valueaddbasketball.com, which is updated through Wednesday's games.

Rank	Team	Pyth
17	Virginia Commonwealth	0.903
29	Georgetown	0.854
40	Marquette	0.827
55	Butler	0.789
73	Providence	0.746
80	Seton Hall	0.720
81	Xavier	0.714
85	DePaul	0.698
91	St. John's	0.678
93	Villanova	0.676
1	Big Ten	0.811
2	New Confererence Total	0.760
3	ACC	0.753
4	Big 12	0.736
5	Mountain West	0.724
6	Pac12	0.714
7	SEC	0.700

As for the actual players, VCU would have two of the All-Conference players in the 10-team conference, while Davante Gardner would be the best player on the 3rd team and Jamil Wilson the best on the 4th team.  I know some are frustrated that Vander Blue is only up to 766th (top 20% of all players) despite his excellent play, but through the first few games his shooting percentage was low and turnover rate was high against poor competition.  He was not in the top 1500 then, and his actual Value Add was 0.00.  He has been shooting up - playing great against better competition - so he is on the trajectory to continue shooting up if he keeps playing his best ball against great competition (the opposite of what happened in the past).

Value Add continues to love Shabazz Napier of UConn as the one 1st Team All-American from the current Big East (bottom of list), but I do expect Otto Porter of Georgetown to end up as the top player this year as his 7.17 would be much higher if he had not missed the first several games with a concussion.  In fact, he may well have been the top player in the country by now if he had played those games.  All players are listed on www.valueaddbasketball.com and can be sorted by team, conference, name, etc.

Rnk	All-Conference	Team	Ht	Yr	Offense	Defense	PG/Per	Total	NBA?
42	Juvonte Reddic	Virginia Commonwealth	6' 9"	Jr	5.14	-2.73	0.00	7.87
43	Bryce Cotton	Providence	6' 1"	Jr	6.29	-0.06	1.50	7.84
48	Fuquan Edwin	Seton Hall	6' 6"	Jr	4.70	-2.91	0.00	7.61
52	Briante Weber	Virginia Commonwealth	6' 2"	So	3.34	-4.12	0.00	7.46
64	Otto Porter	Georgetown	6' 8"	So	3.30	-3.87	0.00	7.17	SF
Rnk	2nd team	Team	Ht	Yr	Offense	Defense	PG/Per	Total	NBA?
108	Treveon Graham	Virginia Commonwealth	6' 5"	So	5.76	-0.37	0.00	6.13
111	Kadeem Batts	Providence	6' 9"	Jr	4.31	-1.75	0.00	6.06
149	Justin Martin	Xavier	6' 6"	So	5.08	-0.55	0.00	5.63
164	Brandon Young	DePaul	6' 4"	Jr	4.25	0.28	1.50	5.47
213	D'Angelo Harrison	St. John's	6' 3"	So	2.51	-1.29	1.00	4.80	SG
Rnk	3rd team	Team	Ht	Yr	Offense	Defense	PG/Per	Total	NBA?
244	Davante Gardner	Marquette	6' 8"	Jr	3.13	-1.34	0.00	4.47
252	Andrew Smith (But)	Butler	6' 11"	Sr	4.33	-0.09	0.00	4.42
270	Rotnei Clarke	Butler	6' 0	Sr	5.28	1.47	0.50	4.31
288	Kellen Dunham	Butler	6' 6"	Fr	5.59	1.35	0.00	4.25
309	LaDontae Henton	Providence	6' 6"	So	1.44	-2.67	0.00	4.10
Rnk	4th team	Team	Ht	Yr	Offense	Defense	PG/Per	Total	NBA?
355	Jamil Wilson	Marquette	6' 7"	Jr	2.71	-1.12	0.00	3.83
369	Khyle Marshall	Butler	6' 6"	Jr	3.81	0.08	0.00	3.73
370	Nate Lubick	Georgetown	6' 8"	Jr	2.14	-1.59	0.00	3.73
426	Cleveland Melvin	DePaul	6' 8"	Jr	2.05	-1.43	0.00	3.48
448	Kyle Smyth	Seton Hall	6' 4"	Sr	3.21	0.31	0.50	3.39
Rnk	Rest of Marquette	Team	Ht	Yr	Offense	Defense	PG/Per	Total	NBA?
720	Junior Cadougan	Marquette	6' 1"	Sr	1.28	-0.14	1.00	2.42
766	Vander Blue	Marquette	6' 4"	Jr	1.25	-0.07	1.00	2.32
821	Chris Otule	Marquette	6' 11"	Sr	1.50	-0.65	0.00	2.15
933	Juan Anderson	Marquette	6' 6"	So	0.54	-1.35	0.00	1.89
951	Jake Thomas	Marquette	6' 3"	Jr	1.50	-0.35	0.00	1.85
1055	Derrick Wilson	Marquette	6' 1"	So	0.41	-0.70	0.50	1.61
1421	Trent Lockett	Marquette	6' 5"	Sr	0.14	-0.88	0.00	1.02
1441	Steve Taylor	Marquette	6' 7"	Fr	0.56	-0.44	0.00	1.00
1701	Jamal Ferguson	Marquette	6' 4"	Fr	0.13	-0.51	0.00	0.64
Rnk	All-American	Team	Ht	Yr	Offense	Defense	PG/Per	Total	NBA?
1	Erick Green	Virginia Tech	6' 3"	Sr	9.52	-0.74	1.50	11.76	PG
2	Mason Plumlee	Duke	6' 10"	Sr	8.31	-3.40	0.00	11.71	PF
3	Mike Muscala	Bucknell	6' 11"	Sr	8.52	-3.01	0.00	11.53
4	Ed Daniel	Murray St.	6' 7"	Sr	6.98	-3.74	0.00	10.72
5	Shabazz Napier	Connecticut	6' 1"	Jr	6.67	-2.35	1.50	10.52	PG
6	C.J. McCollum	Lehigh	6' 3"	Sr	6.81	-1.69	1.50	10.00	PG/SG
7	Ian Clark	Belmont	6' 3"	Sr	7.68	-1.61	0.50	9.79
8	Nate Wolters	South Dakota St.	6' 4"	Sr	6.69	-0.79	2.00	9.49	PG
9	Isaiah Canaan	Murray St.	6' 1"	Sr	7.92	0.65	2.00	9.28	PG
10	Matthew Dellavedova	St. Mary's	6' 4"	Sr	9.13	1.58	1.50	9.05	PG