Carlino Top 100; Derrick vs. Paige/Harrison/Staten

In a piece on Coach K on Breitbart this morning, I noted that Duke players had dominated the Value Add rankings (see 2003-2015 players here) with 35 top 100 players and eight top 10 players - but the table also noted that Marquette had the 10th most top 100 players (18) and the third most top 10 players (Butler, Crowder, Diener, Wade).

The weekly run of the www.valueaddbasketball.com numbers tonight (database not updated yet) showed Marquette now has their 19th top 100 player in Matt Carlino, and Derrick Wilson is one of the most improved players in jumping from a 0,00 Value Add last season to 3.42 - the 27th best total in the tough Big East.

Carlino's recent impersonation of Steve Novak (19 of 33 treys for 58% and 18-19 free throws for 95% in last four games) has shot him all the way to 94th. I know "top 100" does not sound great - but it is phenomenal when you consider the 4000+ players in the country. In fact, I get lots of complaints from around the country in disbelief that a local star is not in the top 100.

The fact that Carlino did this against defenses that were were very good: one average (Creighton100.6 points per 100 trips just better than average), one good (Xavier 98.3) and two excellent (St. John's 92.9 and Georgetown 94.3) shoots him way up the list. Carlino is worth 6.30 extra points a game to MU according to Value Add - the 8th best total in the Big East.

But Derrick's surge is the more surprising and really makes the case for a potential quiet most improved player of the year. Wilson never hit even 1.00 in his first three seasons, and last year collapsed to a 0.00 only because we do not give negative numbers.

The thing that Value Add measures that most do not see are players who do not make mistakes - and Derrick has turned into one of the best at not COSTING MU points:

The thing that makes Derrick so much more valuable this year is not that he suddenly doesn't mind going to the hoop to slam twice in a short span (once while being mauled), or that his three-pointer has become just enough of a threat that you cannot leave him alone.

Ken Pomeroy measures Derrick as one of the best at avoiding fouls. He takes so few bad shots, that Derrick IS AN ABOVE AVERAGE SHOOTER THIS SEASON (jumped from 40.9 eFG% last year to 49.0% this season). Yes, the free throw percentage overall is dreadful, but his 58% since Thanksgiving is not that bad - so all the offseason shooting has paid off.

The fun starts when you compare Derrick to three point guards that some considered the best three in the country coming into this year; UNC's Marcus Paige, Kentucky's Andrew Harrison and West Virginia's Juwan Staten.

Obviously those three are light years ahead of Derrick on offense, and may make take over games on the way to title runs. But ignore the differences in shooting for a minute. Derrick's on-ball defense is excellent, so lets go through the other numbers:

Derrick has come up with 23 steals, the exact average of Paige/Harrison/Staten

Derrick has done this while committing only 31 fouls - an incredible ratio and just one more foul than the average of the Big Three - and with Derrick having to commit a few late fouls to stop the clock really no difference there.

Here is where it gets fun - Derrick has come up with those steals on one end of the court while only turning the ball over 25 times at the other end -meaning he has turned the ball over A DOZEN TIMES FEWER than the average of the Big 3 (37 turnovers). Remember, there are over twice as many turnovers as steals due to balls thrown out of bounds, travels, etc.

The big three have only a slight edge over Derrick in assists - 78 to 70 - despite MU playing at a slow tempo. But that is more than made up for by Derrick ripping down 15 more rebounds that the average of the other three (62 to 47 edge).

Of course once you add in the offensive explosiveness of those three they are all still in the top 5% of all players and average a 5.71 Value Add, while Derrick comes in at 437th with a 3.42 Value Add, but he has worked very hard to do the things he can do very well and be a strong contributor.

With advanced apologies to MUScoop readers who of course can never read the Top 100 when the code is jumped when these Cracked Sidewalks posts are pulled over to the scoop - here are the top 100 players in the Big East.

Player	Natl	BE	Team	Value add
15 Sir'Dominic Pointer	14	1	St. John's	8.42
4 D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera	17	2	Georgetown	8.31
23 LaDontae Henton	48	3	Providence	7.19
40 Matt Stainbrook	62	4	Xavier	6.89
3 Kris Dunn	66	5	Providence	6.82
4 Sterling Gibbs	80	6	Seton Hall	6.50
11 D'Angelo Harrison	83	7	St. John's	6.43
13 Matt Carlino	94	8	Marquette	6.30
4 Darrun Hilliard	99	9	Villanova	6.21
23 Daniel Ochefu	136	10	Villanova	5.70
31 Kameron Woods	145	11	Butler	5.58
3 Josh Hart	155	12	Villanova	5.44
24 Joshua Smith	168	13	Georgetown	5.31
3 Alex Barlow	176	14	Butler	5.24
2 Brandon Mobley	187	15	Seton Hall	5.05
31 Angel Delgado	194	16	Seton Hall	4.94
15 Ryan Arcidiacono	208	17	Villanova	4.80
24 Kellen Dunham	218	18	Butler	4.74
12 Chris Obekpa	256	19	St. John's	4.45
5 Trevon Bluiett	269	20	Xavier	4.37
31 Dylan Ennis	289	21	Villanova	4.20
21 Roosevelt Jones	332	22	Butler	3.97
55 Jabril Trawick	355	23	Georgetown	3.84
1 Jalen Reynolds	378	24	Xavier	3.71
11 Dee Davis	381	25	Xavier	3.68
5 Billy Garrett	388	26	DePaul	3.66
12 Derrick Wilson	437	27	Marquette	3.42
15 Myles Davis	445	28	Xavier	3.38
22 JayVaughn Pinkston	459	29	Villanova	3.31
1 Duane Wilson	467	30	Marquette	3.28
0 Khadeen Carrington	469	31	Seton Hall	3.27
4 Myke Henry	476	32	DePaul	3.24
33 Carson Desrosiers	479	33	Providence	3.24
25 Durrell McDonald	485	34	DePaul	3.23
2 Kris Jenkins	487	35	Villanova	3.21
21 Isaiah Zierden	500	36	Creighton	3.16
23 Rysheed Jordan	507	37	St. John's	3.14
20 Desi Rodriguez	552	38	Seton Hall	3.00
25 Tyler Harris	563	39	Providence	2.98
10 Remy Abell	590	40	Xavier	2.87
10 Juan Anderson	593	41	Marquette	2.86
21 Jamee Crockett	657	42	DePaul	2.67
15 Isaiah Whitehead	685	43	Seton Hall	2.57
1 Austin Chatman	689	44	Creighton	2.56
45 Andrew Chrabascz	702	45	Butler	2.53
13 Paul White	769	46	Georgetown	2.37
23 Aaron Bowen	834	47	Georgetown	2.22
3 Mikael Hopkins	846	48	Georgetown	2.18
0 Jamal Branch	861	49	St. John's	2.16
40 Luke Fischer	883	50	Marquette	2.11
5 Sandy Cohen	888	51	Marquette	2.10
23 JaJuan Johnson	892	52	Marquette	2.09
11 Forrest Robinson	972	53	DePaul	1.96
55 J.P. Macura	998	54	Xavier	1.92
32 Toby Hegner	1013	55	Creighton	1.89
11 Isaac Copeland	1035	56	Georgetown	1.86
5 Phil Booth	1095	57	Villanova	1.75
1 Phil Greene	1100	58	St. John's	1.74
2 Tommy Hamilton	1111	59	DePaul	1.72
31 Will Artino	1197	60	Creighton	1.60
23 James Milliken	1276	61	Creighton	1.51
3 Brandon Randolph	1292	62	Xavier	1.50
1 Tre Campbell	1309	63	Georgetown	1.48
25 Steve Taylor	1312	64	Marquette	1.47
24 Kyron Cartwright	1330	65	Providence	1.46
0 L.J. Peak	1337	66	Georgetown	1.45
5 Devin Brooks	1391	67	Creighton	1.39
2 James Farr	1483	68	Xavier	1.28
0 Austin Etherington	1577	69	Butler	1.17
15 Ricky Kreklow	1631	70	Creighton	1.12
30 Jaren Sina	1782	71	Seton Hall	1.00
4 Tyler Wideman	1793	72	Butler	0.99
15 Aaron Simpson	1799	73	DePaul	0.98
13 Paschal Chukwu	1806	74	Providence	0.97
21 Jalen Lindsey	1926	75	Providence	0.83
30 Deonte Burton	2138	76	Marquette	0.64
30 Kelan Martin	2204	77	Butler	0.58
22 Ted Bancroft	2261	78	Providence	0.53
45 Stephane Manga	2320	79	Seton Hall	0.49
41 Geoffrey Groselle	2350	80	Creighton	0.47
33 Joe Hanel	2451	81	DePaul	0.39
24 Felix Balamou	2484	82	St. John's	0.38
13 Jackson Davis	2521	83	Butler	0.36
14 Amar Alibegovic	2525	84	St. John's	0.36
32 Junior Lomomba	2578	85	Providence	0.33
11 Jackson Aldridge	2606	86	Butler	0.32
4 Edmond Sumner	2636	87	Xavier	0.30
0 Larry Austin	2637	88	Xavier	0.30
1 Darrick Wood	2638	89	DePaul	0.30
22 Avery Dingman	2726	90	Creighton	0.24
0 R.J. Curington	2738	91	DePaul	0.23
13 Haralds Karlis	2739	92	Seton Hall	0.23
25 Rashed Anthony	2744	93	Seton Hall	0.23
42 Chier Ajou	2756	94	Seton Hall	0.23
14 Darryl Reynolds	2802	95	Villanova	0.20
0 Leon Gilmore	2858	96	Creighton	0.16
20 Patrick Farrell	2875	97	Villanova	0.15
2 Myles Stewart	2884	98	St. John's	0.15
4 Christian Jones	2899	99	St. John's	0.13
14 Ismael Sanogo	2900	100	Seton Hall	0.13