Top 50 Big Players: #50-41

[HoopDreams]

BGJ at #44 when he is preseason 2nd team all big east? This list is basically a joke.

[TAMU Eagle]

This list is off to an interesting start to say the least.

That's an accurate take. I asked the guy (in his comments section) what the selection criteria was? Hopefully he will put it out there for folks to take a look. Seems highly slanted on surface appearances.

Couldn't find your comment. I am the author but was one of a few who contributed to the rankings. We started by using a formula that ranked every player in the conference based on their production from their most recent season. This was just to get us a general idea of where players belonged. From there we puzzled the list together based on our opinions but trying to ground everything in stats. We gave most emphasis to higher level stats like eFG, FTR, OR%, steal %, block %, and TOR. We also used value add basketball. We also factored in team quality because a good stat line for Villanova, is better than a great stat line for St. Johns in most cases. We also tried to pay attention to players who will have greater opportunities this season because they were stuck behind better players last season (kyron Cartwright for example).

While we tried to use stats to back everything up, this list is far from scientific. It's an opinion piece meant to inspire conversation and debate. We don't claim to be an authority on quality basketball player rankings. Maybe we'll try to reach out to other programs blogs next year for more diversity.

[JohnW22]

Now that I look at the top 5 from each team and everything it makes a little more since. I made a top 50 about 2 weeks ago and I'm like ours are very off but I think it will be much different since you're doing 5 from each team.

[gtmoBlue]

Mine was the 1st comment...it sounds a bit critical in looking at it now. Was meant to get some feedback. Thanks for the feedback.

gtmoblue on October 12, 2016 at 4:38 pm
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Mr/Prof Jackson…
After such an auspicious beginning, might you enlighten us with the criteria used in compliling this “list”. Both St Jphns and DePaul will fare better than predicted this season and thus far – from an outsiders unbiased perspective – it appears you have “pegged” both teams with unfair “analysis”. Please enlighten us fans and viewers.
gtmo

[TAMU Eagle]

Mine was the 1st comment...it sounds a bit critical in looking at it now. Was meant to get some feedback. Thanks for the feedback.

gtmoblue on October 12, 2016 at 4:38 pm
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Mr/Prof Jackson…
After such an auspicious beginning, might you enlighten us with the criteria used in compliling this “list”. Both St Jphns and DePaul will fare better than predicted this season and thus far – from an outsiders unbiased perspective – it appears you have “pegged” both teams with unfair “analysis”. Please enlighten us fans and viewers.
gtmo

Gotcha, I'm not a moderator, just a contributor. I'll poke the moderators and get them to approve your comment on our site. I hope my explanation above explained some of the thought process that went into this. We do think St. John's is in for a better season, we just think it will come more from the likes of Shamorie Ponds and Bashir Ahmed than LoVett and Sima. We were surprised when we looked at the advanced stats on Depaul, they were truly awful. We expected BGJ to be a lot higher. But the reality is his stats are average at best except for eFG (bad) and FTR (good). An argument could be that not having help around him significantly impacted his ability to produce, but we couldn't find a way to really justify it in the stats. I really don't have high expectations for Depaul this season, though I have been known to eat my words on more than one occasion.

[Wizard of Westroads]

My keenly critical message-board poster eye sees the flaws in these ratings.

But I still can't wait for the next batch. Interesting approach and better researched than anything else out there right now. Thanks for doing these!

[hoyahooligan]

CBS sports in their DePaul write up in their 1-351 rankings calls BGJr a top 20 player in the BE

[TAMU Eagle]

CBS sports in their DePaul write up in their 1-351 rankings calls BGJr a top 20 player in the BE

Certainly possible. The stats don't support it though. I believe he will be one of the top 20 stat producers in the Big East easily. But that will because he will have to do so much himself that he has no competition. His raw numbers will be great, his efficiency in getting there, terrible IMHO.

[Hall2012]

That note on Myles Powell being far from an athletic specimen...he's been working on that over the summer.

[hoyahooligan]

CBS sports in their DePaul write up in their 1-351 rankings calls BGJr a top 20 player in the BE

Certainly possible. The stats don't support it though. I believe he will be one of the top 20 stat producers in the Big East easily. But that will because he will have to do so much himself that he has no competition. His raw numbers will be great, his efficiency in getting there, terrible IMHO.

I know I pretty much just brought it up to tweak you guys.