Now that we are at the middle of the ACC season (except for Carolina and Maryland who have still only played seven conference games), it’s a good time to take a look at how players are doing. Just like I did last year (here, here and here), I calculated the Prouty Ratings of all ACC players who play at least 15 minutes per game. Since each team has played only eight (or seven) conference games, I’m using the full season stats here. Normally, I like to look at conference-only stats when comparing conference players, but you need more games played to make that fair.


I explained the Prouties a bit in my first post last year with this explanation:

The whole Prouty calculation is this: [{Points / (Field Goals Attempted*2 + FTA)} + {(Points + Assists*2 – Turnovers) / Minutes} + {(Rebounds + Steals + (Blocks/2) – Personal Fouls) / Minutes} + {(Minutes / (TEAM TOTAL Minutes / 5)) * Team Winning Pct} ] / 4
If you look closely, you’ll see that there are four main sections. I’ll call them Offensive Efficiency (how many points you score per shot), Points Per Minute (how many points you score or help others score per minute), Possessions Per Minute (how many possessions you gain or lose your team per minute) and Win Effect (how responsible you are to your team’s win percentage, based on minutes per game).

Before I calculated this year’s numbers, I worked out in my head who I thought the current choices for All-ACC should be. If I were voting, I’d select the following five for first team:
J.J. Redick – duh
Shelden Williams – duh again
Tyler Hansbrough – he’s really been sensational, particularly in conference games
Craig Smith – quietly putting up monster numbers
Sean Singletary – the best PG in the conference and almost single-handedly lifted Virginia to 4-4.
It gets a bit murkier for second team, but I think you’d have to consider Jared Dudley, Justin Gray (maybe) and Cedric Simmons. For Miami, who do you pick? Same with NC State. Nik Caner-Medley might be a reasonable choice as well. With 12 teams and not too many stand-out stars, it gets tough.
So that’s where the stats come in. Without further ado, the top 50 ACC players according to Prouty:

Rank Player Team Prouty
1 JJ Redick DU .605
2 Shelden Williams DU .577
3 Craig Smith BC .510
4 Jared Dudley BC .508
5 Tyler Hansbrough UNC .505
6 Cedric Simmons NCS .491
7 Nik Caner-Medley MD .480
8 Chris McCray MD .475
9 Al Thornton FSU .473
10 Engin Atsur NCS .470
11 Sean Dockery DU .465
12 Robert Hite UM .464
13 Eric Williams WF .450
14 Sean Singletary UVA .450
15 Justin Gray WF .449
16 Ilian Evtimov NCS .448
17 Greg Paulus DU .444
18 Reyshawn Terry UNC .443
19 Guillermo Diaz UM .438
20 David Noel UNC .435
21 Cameron Bennerman NCS .434
22 Tony Bethel NCS .431
23 Sean Marshall BC .430
24 Vernon Hamilton CU .428
25 DJ Strawberry MD .428
26 Louis Hinnant BC .426
27 Trent Strickland WF .425
28 Ekene Ibekwe MD .423
29 Josh McRoberts DU .422
30 Danny Green UNC .418
31 Jamon Gordon VT .417
32 Tyrese Rice BC .415
33 Zabian Dowdell VT .414
34 Isaiah Swann FSU .413
35 Gavin Grant NCS .409
36 Alexander Johnson FSU .406
37 Akin Akingbala CU .405
38 Coleman Collins VT .402
39 Andrew Brackman NCS .401
40 Jeremis Smith GT .399
41 Anthony Morrow GT .399
42 JR Reynolds UVA .399
43 Shawan Robinson CU .399
44 Todd Galloway FSU .393
45 James Gist MD .392
46 Lee Melchionni DU .391
47 Ra’Sean Dickey GT .390
48 Jason Rich FSU .389
49 Anthony King UM .387
50 Travis Garrison MD .386

A few observations:

  • Chris McCray is ranked #8 in the conference. I think his loss will hurt more than I realized.
  • I may have underrated Jared Dudley. If so, it’s because he acts like such an ass on the court.
  • J.J. Redick’s rating is much higher than anyone had the past two years. If he keeps it up, I suspect it would rate with the best ever. (See Kentucky’s best ever for a comparison.)
  • The highest rated Hokie is Jamon Gordon at 31.
  • The highest rated Yellow Jacket is Jeremis Smith at 40.
  • Even with their balanced offense, all five of NC State’s starters rank in the top 22.
  • Reyshawn Terry rates higher than David Noel (and this doesn’t even include the Maryland game).
  • Robert Hite rates higher than Guillermo Diaz.
  • After Al Thornton, the next best Seminole is Isaiah Swann at 34.
  • After Sean Singletary, the next best Cav is J.R. Reynolds at 42.

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