Top 10 Players in PER and Box Plus/Minus

[Gael]

PER (Player Efficiency Rating) and Box Plus/Minus are two advanced statistics that have been developed to try to measure players' relative overall total effectiveness—basically, their good stats minus their bad stats, adjusted for game pace and tweeked by various mathematical algorithms. Each stat has strengths and weaknesses. More specific definitions and explanations of these stats can easily be found via searches.

Using sports-reference.com as my source, every Monday I will post the top ten D1 players in both cumulative seasonal PER and Box Plus/Minus. I might occasionally include some other advanced stats.

Monday, January 5, 2026:

PER

1.	Audi Crooks Iowa State	50.5
2.	Sarah Strong UConn	45.7
3.	Avery Koenen North Dakota State	43.8
4.	Hannah Hidalgo Notre Dame	41.4
5.	Brooklyn Meyer South Dakota State	41.1
6.	Mikayla Blakes Vanderbilt	39.4
7.	MiLaysia Fulwiley LSU	39.0
8.	Madina Okot South Carolina	38.9
9.	Raegan Beers Oklahoma	38.9
10.	Alyssa Moreland Brown	38.3

Box Plus/Minus

1.	Sarah Strong UConn	29.6
2.	MiLaysia Fulwiley LSU	21.0
3.	Azzi Fudd UConn	20.3
4.	Gianna Kneepkens UCLA	19.5
5.	Hannah Hidalgo Notre Dame	19.3
6.	Talaysia Cooper Tennessee	19.0
7.	Mikayla Blakes Vanderbilt	18.7
8.	Kiki Rice UCLA	18.3
9.	Madison Booker Texas	18.2
10.	Joyce Edwards South Carolina	17.7

 

[Suebird10fan]

PER (Player Efficiency Rating) and Box Plus/Minus are two advanced statistics that have been developed to try to measure players' relative overall total effectiveness—basically, their good stats minus their bad stats, adjusted for game pace and tweeked by various mathematical algorithms. Each stat has strengths and weaknesses. More specific definitions and explanations of these stats can easily be found via searches.

Using sports-reference.com as my source, every Monday I will post the top ten D1 players in both cumulative seasonal PER and Box Plus/Minus. I might occasionally include some other advanced stats.

Monday, January 5, 2026:

PER

1.	Audi Crooks Iowa State	50.5
2.	Sarah Strong UConn	45.7
3.	Avery Koenen North Dakota State	43.8
4.	Hannah Hidalgo Notre Dame	41.4
5.	Brooklyn Meyer South Dakota State	41.1
6.	Mikayla Blakes Vanderbilt	39.4
7.	MiLaysia Fulwiley LSU	39.0
8.	Madina Okot South Carolina	38.9
9.	Raegan Beers Oklahoma	38.9
10.	Alyssa Moreland Brown	38.3

Box Plus/Minus

1.	Sarah Strong UConn	29.6
2.	MiLaysia Fulwiley LSU	21.0
3.	Azzi Fudd UConn	20.3
4.	Gianna Kneepkens UCLA	19.5
5.	Hannah Hidalgo Notre Dame	19.3
6.	Talaysia Cooper Tennessee	19.0
7.	Mikayla Blakes Vanderbilt	18.7
8.	Kiki Rice UCLA	18.3
9.	Madison Booker Texas	18.2
10.	Joyce Edwards South Carolina	17.7

I prefer to look at these stats filtered for games against top 50 or top 100 teams. I use Torvik for that. I look at BPM and things look very different when you get rid of the cupcake factor.

 

[Gael]

I prefer to look at these stats filtered for games against top 50 or top 100 teams. I use Torvik for that. I look at BPM and things look very different when you get rid of the cupcake factor.

Feel free to post Torvik's top 10 BPMs in this thread if you like.

One long-term purpose for this thread is to see how these advanced stats compare to each other and ultimately how they compare to the human-chosen NPOYs and AAs at the end of the season.

 

[Bone Dog]

I’m not entirely surprised to see the discrepancy between PER and BPM fo Crooks. I don’t have the PER definition at my finger tips, but my sense is that it doesn’t capture defensive stats as well as offensive ones, and that may be what’s at work here.

 

[Gael]

Monday, January 12, 2026:

PER

1.	Sarah Strong UConn	47.0
2.	Audi Crooks Iowa State	46.9
3.	Avery Koenen North Dakota State	44.1
4.	Hannah Hidalgo Notre Dame	42.2
5.	Brooklyn Meyer South Dakota State	40.6
6.	Mikayla Blakes Vanderbilt	39.3
7.	Madina Okot South Carolina	38.5
8.	Gracie Merkle Penn State	38.1
9.	Antoniette Emma-Nnopu Weber State	37.8
10.	Lauren Whittaker Gonzaga	37.7

Box Plus/Minus

1.	Sarah Strong UConn	29.9
2.	MiLaysia Fulwiley LSU	20.7
3.	Hannah Hidalgo Notre Dame	20.1
4.	Azzi Fudd UConn	19.8
5.	Gianna Kneepkens UCLA	19.6
6.	Talaysia Cooper Tennessee	19.2
7.	Mikayla Blakes Vanderbilt	18.3
8.	Kiki Rice UCLA	18.3
9.	Madison Booker Texas	18.0
10.	Joyce Edwards South Carolina	17.8

 

[oldhusky]

Monday, January 12, 2026:

PER

1.	Sarah Strong UConn	47.0
2.	Audi Crooks Iowa State	46.9
3.	Avery Koenen North Dakota State	44.1
4.	Hannah Hidalgo Notre Dame	42.2
5.	Brooklyn Meyer South Dakota State	40.6
6.	Mikayla Blakes Vanderbilt	39.3
7.	Madina Okot South Carolina	38.5
8.	Gracie Merkle Penn State	38.1
9.	Antoniette Emma-Nnopu Weber State	37.8
10.	Lauren Whittaker Gonzaga	37.7

Box Plus/Minus

1.	Sarah Strong UConn	29.9
2.	MiLaysia Fulwiley LSU	20.7
3.	Hannah Hidalgo Notre Dame	20.1
4.	Azzi Fudd UConn	19.8
5.	Gianna Kneepkens UCLA	19.6
6.	Talaysia Cooper Tennessee	19.2
7.	Mikayla Blakes Vanderbilt	18.3
8.	Kiki Rice UCLA	18.3
9.	Madison Booker Texas	18.0
10.	Joyce Edwards South Carolina	17.8

I pretty much expected Sara to overtake Audi in PER, if not this week then soon because of their respective schedules. PER numbers for Sarah gets easier against Big East competition while Audi's numbers predictably decline against her much tougher conference competition.

Regardless just looking at these lists reveals the Box Plus/Minus as the far better overall measure of a player's effectiveness. I don't know how it is done but you can see all the top 10 are very highly regarded top players, while the PER list contains a few surprises and a few missing that belong there.

The box stats adjust much better for the level of competition, and are much better when comparing players from conferences that are very different in ability.

 

[Gael]

Regardless just looking at these lists reveals the Box Plus/Minus as the far better overall measure of a player's effectiveness. I don't know how it is done but you can see all the top 10 are very highly regarded top players, while the PER list contains a few surprises and a few missing that belong there.

The PER list includes players from mid-major schools who have probably been putting up big, positive stats for their teams. The BPM list seems to incorporate something like SOS or RPI, since it includes players only from the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and UConn. Maybe I'll investigate this further, or maybe someone here knows why.

 

[GamecockFam]

The PER must really like efficiency metrics because that is the only way I see Grace Merkle's inclusion making any sense.

 

[Gael]

Perhaps I should call out the huge chasm between Sarah Strong and #2 in BPM. She's nine points ahead of #2 while ##2-10 are squeezed into a three point range.