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.

 

[Gael]

The BPM list seems to incorporate something like SOS or RPI, since it includes players only from the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and UConn.

I've researched this further. Calculating a player's BPM is extremely statistically complicated, but it does include adjustment factors for the team's strength and the team's SOS.

More specifically, the player's "raw BPM" is calculated from box score data. The raw BPM is then adjusted by her position and several other factors.

One of those other factors is her team's "Net Rating" (or "efficiency margin"). The team's Net Rating is computed by subtracting the team's defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) from its Offensive Rating (points scored per 100 possessions). The team's Net Rating is then further adjusted for its SOS.

Finally, these team adjustments factors are applied to each player's raw BPM (in addition to other adjustment factors) to get BPM. Therefore, a player with a raw BPM on a highly ranked team will have a higher BPM than a player with the same raw BPM on a lower ranked team.

Here, for example, are the top 10 WCBB teams sorted by Net Rating (the last column) as of yesterday:

Rk	School	Conf		AP Rank	W	L	Pts	Opp	MOV		SOS		OSRS	DSRS	SRS	ORtg	DRtg	NRtg
1	Connecticut	Big East		1	17	0	89.9	51.8	38.12		14.50		30.66	21.96	52.62	130.26	61.02	69.24
2	UCLA	Big Ten		4	15	1	87.1	56.6	30.44		17.49		27.39	20.54	47.93	131.78	67.13	64.65
3	South Carolina	SEC		3	17	1	89.7	53.6	36.17		10.52		28.29	18.40	46.69	124.74	65.01	59.73
4	Texas	SEC		2	18	1	90.5	53.2	37.32		9.30		27.88	18.73	46.61	125.59	65.98	59.61
5	Louisiana State	SEC		12	16	2	100.1	55.9	44.17		2.08		34.79	11.46	46.25	124.21	69.88	54.33
6	Michigan	Big Ten		9	14	2	88.9	57.8	31.13		10.62		26.26	15.49	41.75	117.90	65.87	52.04
7	Oklahoma	SEC		5	14	3	90.8	60.6	30.18		6.90		27.55	9.52	37.08	111.44	68.24	43.20
8	Louisville	ACC		10	16	3	82.9	58.2	24.68		10.18		21.77	13.10	34.86	118.72	73.60	45.12
9	TCU	Big 12		13	16	1	84.3	52.1	32.24		2.31		18.55	16.00	34.55	114.66	70.11	44.55
10	Michigan State	Big Ten		15	16	1	88.5	58.2	30.29		3.92		23.77	10.44	34.21	121.33	77.19	44.14

 

[Bigboote]

At this point, Strong is the career leader in box +/- per Basketball Reference.

The PER state can skew based on strength of opponents. Just looking at the two Summit players (Brooklyn Meyer and Avery Koenen) — South Dakota State had a very tough out-of-conference schedule; I think Massey top 25 or 30, while North Dakota State was in the upper 100’s. I’ve only seen Koenen play once, so can’t comment on her, but I’ve seen Meyer many times over the last few years, and I think she will be drafted this spring.

 

[adamspt2]

Rk	School	Conf		AP Rank	W	L	Pts	Opp	MOV		SOS		OSRS	DSRS	SRS	ORtg	DRtg	NRtg
1	Connecticut	Big East		1	17	0	89.9	51.8	38.12		14.50		30.66	21.96	52.62	130.26	61.02	69.24
2	UCLA	Big Ten		4	15	1	87.1	56.6	30.44		17.49		27.39	20.54	47.93	131.78	67.13	64.65
3	South Carolina	SEC		3	17	1	89.7	53.6	36.17		10.52		28.29	18.40	46.69	124.74	65.01	59.73
4	Texas	SEC		2	18	1	90.5	53.2	37.32		9.30		27.88	18.73	46.61	125.59	65.98	59.61
5	Louisiana State	SEC		12	16	2	100.1	55.9	44.17		2.08		34.79	11.46	46.25	124.21	69.88	54.33
6	Michigan	Big Ten		9	14	2	88.9	57.8	31.13		10.62		26.26	15.49	41.75	117.90	65.87	52.04
7	Oklahoma	SEC		5	14	3	90.8	60.6	30.18		6.90		27.55	9.52	37.08	111.44	68.24	43.20
8	Louisville	ACC		10	16	3	82.9	58.2	24.68		10.18		21.77	13.10	34.86	118.72	73.60	45.12
9	TCU	Big 12		13	16	1	84.3	52.1	32.24		2.31		18.55	16.00	34.55	114.66	70.11	44.55
10	Michigan State	Big Ten		15	16	1	88.5	58.2	30.29		3.92		23.77	10.44	34.21	121.33	77.19	44.14

Can you explain what the difference is between the Net rating above and the NCAA net ratings table - DI Women's Basketball Rankings - NCAA Women's Basketball NET Rankings | NCAA.com

 

[NycUcWbbFan]

Can you explain what the difference is between the Net rating above and the NCAA net ratings table - DI Women's Basketball Rankings - NCAA Women's Basketball NET Rankings | NCAA.com

NetRtg = OffRtg - DefRtg = (Per 100 PPP) - (Opponent Per 100 PPP);

• where PPP = Points Per Possession
• this is the NetRtg in Gael’s post.

The NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) is similar to Torvik’s Barthag and (Men’s) KenPom — they are essentially variations of the same type of method.

• At season’s end, the NET and Torvik Barthag values are similar &1;
• The NET’s description is here, which is not really that helpful;
• Fortunately, Torvik describes his methodology here.

Torvik and the NET takes OffRtg and DefRtg, applies (proprietary) adjustments to them to come up with Barthag / NET;

• One of the common factors is a Pythagorean Expectation exponent (Torvik uses 11.5 while the NET’s is undisclosed);
• As a concept, Barthag/ NET is a team’s probability of winning against the average D1 team.

&1 Certain features of Torvik’s methodology (recency bias and garbage time adjustment) allow it to capture UConn’s metamorphosis and correct for UConn’s propensity to “call off the dogs”.

 

[Gael]

Monday, January 19, 2025

PER

1.	Sarah Strong UConn	47.4
2.	Audi Crooks Iowa State	45.8
3.	Avery Koenen North Dakota State	44.3
4.	Hannah Hidalgo Notre Dame	41.6
5.	Brooklyn Meyer South Dakota State	40.9
6.	Mikayla Blakes Vanderbilt	39.8
7.	Mia Nicastro Western Illinois	38.2
8.	Lauren Whittaker Gonzaga	38.1
9.	Gracie Merkle Penn State	38.1
10.	MiLaysia Fulwiley LSU	37.6

Box Plus/Minus

1.	Sarah Strong UConn	30.2
2.	MiLaysia Fulwiley LSU	20.8
3.	Hannah Hidalgo Notre Dame	19.7
4.	Kiki Rice UCLA	19.7
5.	Azzi Fudd UConn	19.4
6.	Gianna Kneepkens UCLA	19.4
7.	Talaysia Cooper Tennessee	19.2
8.	KK Arnold UConn	18.4
9.	Mikayla Blakes Vanderbilt	18.3
10.	Madison Booker Texas	18.2

 

[Gael]

Monday, January 26, 2026

PER

1.	Sarah Strong UConn	46.1
2.	Avery Koenen North Dakota State	44.4
3.	Audi Crooks Iowa State	43.6
4.	Brooklyn Meyer South Dakota State	42.9
5.	Hannah Hidalgo Notre Dame	40.5
6.	Lauren Whittaker Gonzaga	39.2
7.	MiLaysia Fulwiley LSU	39.0
8.	Gracie Merkle Penn State	38.0
9.	Mikayla Blakes Vanderbilt	37.0
10.	Raegan Beers Oklahoma	36.2

Box Plus/Minus

1.	Sarah Strong UConn	29.1
2.	MiLaysia Fulwiley LSU	22.4
3.	Hannah Hidalgo Notre Dame	19.5
4.	Kiki Rice UCLA	19.4
5.	Gianna Kneepkens UCLA	19.3
6.	Azzi Fudd UConn	19.0
7.	Madison Booker Texas	18.5
8.	Talaysia Cooper Tennessee	18.5
9.	Charlisse Leger-Walker UCLA	17.9
10.	KK Arnold UConn	17.6