http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/hollinger/statistics/_/group/14

If you're an ESPN Insider, you can see John Hollinger's PER (player efficiency rating) index for college players.

Jevon McCrea rates as the top player in the MAC by a fair margin over Kent State's Chris Evans. It might seem odd for a bench player to rate second, but if you look at his per-minute stats, they are really impressive. Akron's Demetrius Treadwell ranks fifth and is another guy that maybe should get more minutes than he does. He rebounds at a super high per-minute rate. I also think it's interesting that Akron has three guys in the top 11 and two are bench players. Nick Harney is 11th. No. 3 and 4 are Buffalo's Mitchell Watt and Ball State's Jarrod Jones.

D.J. Cooper is Ohio's top-rated player at No. 13 with a 19.86 rating. The Bobcats almost all rank in the top half (there's 100 qualified players in the MAC): Keely, 18th, 18.20; Offutt, 20th, 17.79; Taylor, 32nd, 15.62; Baltic, 35th, 15.01; Kellogg, 46th, 13.85; Smith, 50th, 13.59; Johnson, 52nd, 13.53; Goard, 58th, 12.88; and Hall, 91st, 7.20.

Generally, the PER is a very good player rating formula that weighs all kinds of things a player does, but it's not perfect. I think the numbers fit pretty well what I see from the Bobcats. Hall has started seeing fewer minutes and Goard more and this shows why. This shows that Ohio is a deep team, which I think has been obvious. It also shows the Bobcats don't really have one excellent player far better than the others (with the way D.J. has struggled a bit this year).

I watched the Akron/ORU game last Saturday on the Duece.  Marshall was "schooled" by ORU.  His final stats were 4 points and 1 rebound and these were against much smaller forwards/center.  In the end, he did not block a shot and ORU dramatically out-rebounded Akron on both ends of the floor.

It skews way too far towards the bigs IMO and defense isn't even considered.  Why wouldn't they consider steals in the equation?

The formula does use blocks and steals, but you're right, that defense is a small part of the equation because it is hard to measure statiscially. There are a lot of players who get a lot of steals who aren't really very good defenders. Allen Iverson alwasy was among the NBA leaders in steals but wasn't really a good defender. An opposite NBA example is Bruce Bowen, who always rated very poorly in the formula because he didn't get a lot of blocks or steals but was considered a great defender. I think an example on Ohio would be Ricardo Johnson. his defense probably is undervalued. But again, how can you measure statistically what he does?

As for big guys, I think there's a bit of truth to that. Certainly the highest ranked MAC players mostly were forwards. If you look at it nationally, it's not as true. The players who rate highest are all-around players naturally who do a little bit of everything (and a lot of some things).

It does?  I read the summary at the bottom and didn't see them listed.

Seriously?  That is exactly the emotionally off-balance I want the other side to bring.

You have to be able to instantly put bad calls out of your mind.  Question:  How many bad foul calls have been reversed ever?  About none.  Wht's the point of getting upset?  Smart player keeps the bad emotion out of it and lets his or her solid training take over--going right to the things that matter, whether the ref blows a stinky whistle or a good one.