I finally got the final Prouty ratings done for the 2005 season. I did some fancy cut’n and past’n to get stats from conference games only, which I think is the fairest way to compare performance. It was a bit of a pain, but I did it for you. You know why? Because I love you; that’s why.
You may have noticed that the team I picked for first team All-ACC was exactly the same as the official team. I said at the time that those five guys were pretty much no-brainers for the honor. Well, lo-and-behold, those five are the top finishers in the Prouty ratings as well. That’s a pretty good sign that the ratings are accurate. They should more-or-less match your subjective views.

Where they get a bit more interesting is in comparing the guys a bit lower. It’s easy to pick out the best players in the conference, but it gets trickier when you are comparing guys who don’t stand out quite as much. Who is more effective, Jamaal Levy or Jackie Manuel? What about Zabian Dowdell versus Sharrod Ford? That’s where numbers like this come in. They can’t be the final word of course, but they are a handy metric.
One thing you might notice right off is that the top ten players all come from the big three of Duke, North Carolina and Wake Forest. That sounds a bit biased, but then those teams are loaded with talent and did finish three or more games ahead of every other team in the league. It makes sense that they had the best players.
Another stat that jumped out at me was Sean May at the top of the list. I’ve seen several sites pick him as their player of the year, but I argued that while he finished great, I didn’t feel he was the best over the whole season. After looking at these numbers, I think I’ve changed my mind. His numbers are good-to-great across the board and that shows in his league-leading Prouty rating. He scores, he’s efficient, he creates possessions and his team wins.
Another guy I found interesting was Marvin Williams. I’ve heard many people argue that he should have been strongly considered for an all-conference team, but I disagreed. I mean, he doesn’t even start and he plays a role where he gets the benefit of being surrounded by talent without being expected to lead! A close look here reveals that once again, I was wrong. He comes in at number seven overall, in large part because of his incredible offensive efficiency. He’s the most efficient scorer in the league. He shot 56% from the floor, 84% from the line and even 54% from three. Amazing. I think I take back my argument for Sean Singletary for league Freshman of the Year. Marvin is the man.
BTW, did you look closely at the voting for the All-ACC team? Notice that Sharrod Ford got a vote for the first team? Gee, think someone was trying to curry some favor with Oliver Purnell? How else to explain picking him above any of the top three big men in the league – Eric Williams, Shelden Williams and May? In these ratings, Ford comes in at number 24, behind role players Levy and Manuel. (Even worse, the guys at ACC Basketblog picked Coleman Collins (#26 in Prouty) for their first team!)
Maryland, who finished at 7-9 (and flamed out today in the first round of the ACC Tournament against Clemson) had three players in the top 20 of the league, while the two Techs (Georgia and Virginia) managed 8-8 with only one top-20 player each.
The worst player in the league who started the majority of his team’s games? Andrew Wilson of Florida State, narrowly beating out J.R. Reynolds of Virginia.
One more final note about Prouty ratings in general. After reading some other sites talk about player stats, I’m now of the opinion that these ratings would be better if they took into account per possession numbers instead of per minute. When you use per minute, or even per game, you completely discount a team’s tempo. Carolina leads the nation in scoring, while Clemson is very deliberate. Is a 20 point effort from a Tar Heel really any better than an 18 point effort from a Tiger? I think I’m gonna talk to Ken Pomeroy about modifying these a bit to use possession information. I’ll try to come up with a new formula sometime after the season is over.
OK, enough of my insights. Take a look yourself and see what you think. The Top 50:

The full list with all the data is here.