Luke Winn Releases New Power Rankings

The Boiling Point: Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn put Purdue No. 5 in his new power rankings. He also analyzed JJ’s efficiency off the dribble.


Luke Winn released his new college basketball power rankings today, with Purdue coming in at No. 5. Ohio State is No. 1, Kansas No. 2 and Pitt is No. 3. Duke comes in at No. 4 to wrap up the top 5.

Winn also broke down JaJuan Johnson’s points per possession and the increased efficiency he has when taking at least one dribble:

"“A very curious JaJuan Johnson nugget that’s buried in his Synergy scouting data: Spot-up situations account for 16 percent of his offense. Within those situations, he takes a no-dribble jumper 71.4 percent of the time, and his efficiency — 0.80 points per possession — is not all that impressive. But when he takes even one dribble, which he does 20.2 percent of the time, his efficiency shoots through the roof, to 1.29 PPP, which puts him in the 96th percentile nationally. Johnson is an absolutely lethal shooter off the dribble*, which you can’t normally say for a 6-foot-10 post player. So my advice to JaJuan — who’s already having a Big Ten Player of the Year-worthy season — would be, shot-fake and dribble more often after the catch."

"* It’s worth noting that the Boilers do put him in a lot of situations where these one- or two-dribble jumpers make sense. After setting high ball-screens, he generally lags behind at the top of the key, waiting for a kick-out rather than rolling to the rim. They’ll also use him as a back-screener, like in the play below, and then have him pop out into a spot-up situation.”"