Reinhardt and Wilson surge to give MU one of deepest teams; 8-seed in tournament

In a season  highlighted by the play of two of the top freshmen in the country, veterans Katin Reinhardt and Duane Wilson surged to carry Marquette to an projected 8-seed Monday according to both ESPN and CBS Sports. 

Due to slow starts to the season in which they were worth close to 0.00 points per game, Wilson and Reinhardt still rank as the 8th and 7th most valuable players over the season as a whole, worth an improvement of 1.99 and 2.43 in Marquette's victory/defeat margin for game due to great recent performances.

Marquette's ability to have eight different players who can be the difference in a big game makes them one of the most balanced teams in the country. Only 10 teams have eight players ranked higher than Wilson's 1.99 Value Add, and only 14 teams have seven players with a higher rating than Reinhardt's surging 2.43. Here are the teams, followed by where all of Marquette's players rank.

It is very hard to be a projected 8-seed with no players in the Top 200, but Marquette is doing it with incredible balance. Marquette's victim Villanova is the only team in the nation with three top 50 players in Josh Hart (ranked No. 1), Jalen Brunson (No. 14) and Mikal Bridges (No. 47).

Rnk	Best 8th Players 1/29/2017	Teams w/ Deepest Bench	Value
1	Mamadi Diakite #25	Virginia	3.34
2	Killian Tillie #33	Gonzaga	3.12
3	Zach Brown #1	Wichita St.	3.05
4	VJ King #0	Louisville	2.49
5	John Egbunu #15	Florida	2.47
6	Kethan Savage #11	Butler	2.44
7	Dominique Hawkins #25	Kentucky	2.33
8	CJ Walker #2	Florida St.	2.15
9	Theo Pinson #1	North Carolina	2.07
10	Parker Van Dyke #5	Utah	2.04
11	Keanu Pinder #25	Arizona	1.99
12	Duane Wilson #1	Marquette	1.99
13	Dustin Thomas #13	Arkansas	1.90
14	Justin Jenifer #3	Cincinnati	1.89
15	King McClure #22	Baylor	1.88
16	Ebuka Izundu #15	Miami FL	1.86
17	Sagaba Konate #50	West Virginia	1.83
18	Admiral Schofield #5	Tennessee	1.78
19	Kaiser Gates #22	Xavier	1.76
20	Isaac Banks #10	East Tennessee St.	1.62

Rnk	Best 7th Players 1/29/2017	Teams w/ Deepest Bench	Value
1	Josh Perkins #13	Gonzaga	4.30
2	Anas Mahmoud #14	Louisville	4.10
3	Justin Leon #23	Florida	3.51
4	Jack Salt #33	Virginia	3.48
5	Shaquille Morris #24	Wichita St.	3.44
6	Nate Fowler #51	Butler	3.44
7	Casey Benson #2	Oregon	3.03
8	Terry Maston #31	Baylor	2.87
9	Nate Britt #0	North Carolina	2.71
10	Lamont West #15	West Virginia	2.71
11	Carlton Bragg #15	Kansas	2.60
12	Khalil Iverson #21	Wisconsin	2.60
13	Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman #12	Michigan	2.49
14	Mychal Mulder #11	Kentucky	2.45
15	Katin Reinhardt #22	Marquette	2.43
16	Ryan Cline #14	Purdue	2.33
17	Temple Gibbs #2	Notre Dame	2.29
18	Devontavius Payne #1	East Tennessee St.	2.27
19	Eric Paschall #4	Villanova	2.27
20	Jarquez Smith #23	Florida St.	2.26

Marquette player ranks.

Rnk	Player	Pts/Gm
207	Luke Fischer #40	5.84
346	Markus Howard #0	4.82
360	Andrew Rowsey #30	4.75
395	Sam Hauser #10	4.46
423	JaJuan Johnson #23	4.32
582	Haanif Cheatham #25	3.69
962	Katin Reinhardt #22	2.43
1151	Duane Wilson #1	1.99
2012	Traci Carter #21	0.61
2102	Matt Heldt #12	0.52
9999	Sandy Cohen #5	0.00