Top 2016 Teams/Players: Southland (Ranked 25)

We hope Marquette can pick up one of the top available players from our rankings here. Tonight we run through the competition - ranking all the conferences competing with the Big East for bids, and ranking both their teams and top 40 players. 

We were one of the few that did NOT pick Stephen F. Austin to beat Utah in March Madness. Apparently many TV commentators do not realize that defense (Utah) is every important as the high scoring offenses in the most exciting conference in the country. It is unheard of for a low-major conference to have four of the top 67 players in the country, but starting with potential All-American Jalan West and SFA's Thomas Walkup, this is the conference to watch.

Last year Incarnate Word stunned Nebraska - this year they might not be the big underdog.

Natl Rnk	Conference	Team	Record	Raw	Value Add
25	Southland	Slnd			10.03
44		Stephen F. Austin	29--5	27.23	26.70
139		Sam Houston St.	26--9	10.23	16.15
171		Northwestern St.	19--13	18.82	15.06
199		Texas A&M Corpus Christi	20--14	12.72	12.83
225		Incarnate Word	18--11	10.60	11.15
279		Lamar	15--15	6.98	8.49
294		New Orleans	11--18	8.43	7.51
301		Houston Baptist	12--16	8.25	7.22
304		Southeastern Louisiana	9--23	7.45	6.87
321		McNeese St.	15--16	3.50	5.73
322		Nicholls St.	10--19	6.81	5.69
341		Abilene Christian	10--21	3.52	3.56
343		Central Arkansas	2--27	5.16	3.46
Natl Rnk	Top 40 Players	Team	Ht	Yr	Value Add
17	West, Jalan 12	Northwestern St.	5'10	4 Sr	8.63
21	Walkup, Thomas 0	Stephen F. Austin	6'4	4 Sr	8.41
45	Woodley, Zikiteran 23	Northwestern St.	6'2	3 Jr	7.49
67	Charles, Ty 4	Stephen F. Austin	6'5	2 So	6.71
338	Amin, Ehab 4	Texas A&M Corpus Christi	6'3	2 So	4.26
360	Ibarra, Josh 44	Houston Baptist	6'10	2 So	4.14
709	Hittle, Kyle 4	Incarnate Word	6'5	4 Sr	2.91
746	Floyd, Demetrious 1	Stephen F. Austin	5'11	2 So	2.81
771	Johnson, Jared 3	Stephen F. Austin	6'0	4 Sr	2.74
778	Johnson, Shawn 10	Incarnate Word	6'4	2 So	2.71
819	Williams, Jamal 20	Sam Houston St.	6'4	2 So	2.63
972	Thomas, Quinton 23	Nicholls St.	6'2	2 So	2.32
1006	Majauskas, Aurimas 34	Sam Houston St.	6'7	3 Jr	2.24
1030	Kennedy, Christian	Lamar	6'10	3 Jr	2.2
1048	Joubert, Derrell 23	McNeese St.	6'1	2 So	2.18
1191	Thomas, Rashawn 25	Texas A&M Corpus Christi	6'7	3 Jr	1.99
1230	Badillo, Mitchell 2	Incarnate Word	5'10	4 Sr	1.92
1240	Lopez, Jesse 5	Sam Houston St.	6'7	2 So	1.9
1298	Currie, Jelani 11	Texas A&M Corpus Christi	6'4	4 Sr	1.82
1332	Pinkney, Trey 10	Stephen F. Austin	5'9	4 Sr	1.78
1333	Geffrard, Clide 11	Stephen F. Austin	6'5	4 Sr	1.78
1336	Wentz, Parker 3	Abilene Christian	5'9	4 Sr	1.77
1348	Cooke, Austin 12	Abilene Christian	6'7	4 Sr	1.75
1387	Sears, Dontavious 23	Lamar	6'4	4 Sr	1.71
1440	Baxter, Paul 21	Sam Houston St.	6'1	4 Sr	1.63
1480	Walker, Jontrell 0	Incarnate Word	6'1	2 So	1.58
1527	McBeath, Sam 15	Nicholls St.	6'7	4 Sr	1.53
1543	Gill, Christavious 5	New Orleans	5'8	3 Jr	1.52
1564	Howard, Jordan 1	Central Arkansas	5'11	2 So	1.49
1566	Thomas, Liam 24	Nicholls St.	6'10	3 Jr	1.49
1612	Rumph, Zach 13	Southeastern Louisiana	5'11	2 So	1.43
1628	Thompson, Sabri 21	Northwestern St.	6'3	3 Jr	1.41
1651	Douvier, Bryce 23	Texas A&M Corpus Christi	6'7	4 Sr	1.38
1657	Thibodeaux, Travin 25	New Orleans	6'8	2 So	1.37
1661	Jackson, Zay 10	Southeastern Louisiana	6'0	4 Sr	1.37
1718	Pye, Brandon 0	Texas A&M Corpus Christi	6'0	4 Sr	1.29
1733	Odunsi, Anthony 35	Houston Baptist	6'4	4 Sr	1.27
1738	Frye, Nate 3	New Orleans	6'1	3 Jr	1.27
1750	Martin, Michael 30	Central Arkansas	6'0	4 Sr	1.25
1793	Milligan, Michael 0	Central Arkansas	6'6	2 So	1.19

These are the top 40 players in the conference based on the rankings at www.valueaddbasketball.com. The team rankings are 50% based on the sum of each team’s Value Add ratings and 50% based on last year (since better teams typically replenish after losing stars). With over 4000 players projected in the database, we WELCOME all corrections in the comments field.

Value Add was first introduced on www.crackedsidewalks.com, and calculates how many points better each player is worth to his team over how good they would be if he was replaced. The projections measure the standard improvement in a player between his freshman, sophomore, junior and senior seasons, and the evaluation of incoming freshman and JUCO players.