Denver Miller Tournament Players to watch

Prep Hoops had posted a list of 2019, 2020 and 2021 players to watch at the Denver Miller Kirkwood Boys Basketball tournament this week and so I thought I would take a look at how those players did after the first round games.  I didn't just look at points and rebounds.  Instead, I evaluated their overall performance using a metric called VPS or Value Point System, which measures all of the positive (points, rebounds, steals, assists, blocks) and negative factors (missed shots, turnovers, fouls) in a players performance. I am not listing shooting percentages which have a big impact on the denominator of the formula.  So many of the top scorers take a lot of shots to get their points, which might dilute their VPS slightly.  A VPS over 1.0 is good.  Anything above 2 is great.  Some of the guys with great VPS scores are great team players who support top scorers by passing, rebounding and playing tough D.

The formula for VPS is as follows:
VPS=(TP+rbs+2*(stls+blks+assts))/((3pta-3ptm)+2*(tfga+tfgm)+fls+tovs)
It's early in the tournament and I will track the rest of the results and post again but I thought I would share the analysis for the players Earl Austin Jr. had listed and a few that performed well, that weren't on his watch list....

Denver Miller Tournament
Players to Watch	VPS	Pts	RBS	ASTs	STLs	BLKS
2019
A’Tavian Butler 6’2″ McCluer North	1.7	18	8	2	1	0
Avery Taggert 6’5″ Eureka	2.4	23	4	3	3	0
Damien Loyd 5’11” Kirkwood	1.2	21	5	3	3	0
Patrick Evans 6’3″ McCluer North	3.8	12	1	1	0	0
Elijah Hicks 6’3″ Jennings	1.3	19	4	1	0	0
Buck Bowling 6’5″ Jennings	10.5	7	4	2	3	0
Bryce Bussard 6’2″ Ladue	1.3	12	7	2	2	0
Javon Fultz 6’2″ Hazelwood East	3.4	25	6	3	5	0
Mekai Ray 5’8″ McCluer North	3.3	11	1	3	1	0
Moses Okpala 6’7″ Ladue	DNP					0
Jonah McDowell 6’4″ Kirkwood	2.8	21	2	3	1	0
2020
Evan Schneider 6’6″ Ladue	2.5	17	12	2	0	0
Jaylen Boyd 6’1″ Ladue	1.6	20	4	3	3	0
Jordan Gilmore 6’3″ Hazelwood East	0.5	6	1	1	0	0
Tohrez Simms 6’2″ Hazelwood East	1.7	10	6	1	1	0
Jay Maclin 6’0″ Kirkwood	2.3	3	4	5	3	0
Jhalon Asher-Sanders 5’8″ Eureka	1.8	17	3	4	3	0
2021
Trevon Love 6’0″ Jennings	1.8	2	0	6	2	0
Damarion Shanklin 6’2″ Jennings	4.5	12	1	5	2	0
Jonathan Brown 5’11” Hazelwood East	3.0	3	0	3	0	0
Will Lee 6’1″ Kirkwood	1.1	2	7	3	2	0
Justin Holland 5″11″ University City	0.9	2	1	1	1	0
Jalen Hampton 6’5″ University City	4.3	15	7	0	3	1
Nate Parker 6' 3"  Eureka	5.7	7	4	2	1	0
Drew Tebbe 5'8" O'Fallon	1.0	12	0	0	0	0
Shaun Riley II 6'5" O'Fallon	0.9	10	0	0	0	0
2022
Larry Abbey 5’9″ University City	1.5	10	0	2	2	0
Caleb Burton 6'0" O'Fallon	0.8	14	0	0	0	0