College basketball has no shortage of statistics that measure scoring.
Points per game tells us who puts the ball in the basket. Assist totals highlight playmakers. Efficiency metrics help identify which players convert their opportunities most effectively. But those numbers don’t always answer one of the most important questions in the sport: who actually creates offense?
Some players thrive finishing plays that others set up, while others are responsible for generating the opportunity in the first place. They’re the ones initiating pick-and-roll actions, breaking down defenders off the dribble, forcing rotations, and turning stagnant possessions into scoring chances. Those players often serve as the offensive engines of their teams, yet their impact is difficult to capture with a single number.
That’s what this new KEMBA Rating is designed to measure.
A player's KEMBA Rating attempts to capture their ability to create offense outside of structure in a single number, similar to the way PER is designed to measure a player's overall efficiency.
It blends several statistical indicators that tend to define shot creation — including playmaking, self-created scoring, rim pressure, efficiency, and ball security — while also adjusting for how large a role a player actually carries in his team’s offense. Players who generate opportunities both for themselves and for teammates in high-usage roles tend to rise toward the top of the metric.
The goal isn’t simply to reward high scorers or pure pass-first playmakers. Instead, KEMBA focuses on the players who sit at the intersection of both. The players who influence defenses with the ball in their hands and manufacture offense when the play breaks down. It also rewards initiators who can consistently create advantages in pick-and-roll situations and turn those advantages into points.
Usage matters a good bit, too. The more a team relies on a player to create, the better that player's KEMBA Rating will be.
Efficiency also matters. Creating opportunities only carries value if those possessions end productively, so the rating incorporates shooting efficiency to reward players who convert the chances they generate.
The metric’s name is a nod to former UConn guard Kemba Walker, whose unforgettable 2011 postseason run remains one of the clearest examples of offensive creation in college basketball. Walker’s ability to generate offense off the dribble, create late-clock scoring opportunities, and consistently break defenses down is the type of impact the rating aims to identify.
To make the results easier to interpret, KEMBA is scaled so that, if a player is involved in creating everything while on the court, the rating will land around 60. Walker's 2011 season is (fittingly) the highest rating I've recorded, checking in at 56.3.
Anybody with a rating over 40 is putting together an all-time season. Strong primary options typically fall somewhere in the 30s and high-level secondary creators generally appear in the 20–30 range. Lower numbers usually indicate players who operate more as finishers within the offense rather than initiators.
With that framework in mind, here are the 15 players who rated as the most dynamic offensive creators in college basketball according to KEMBA Rating.
35.9 — AJ Dybantsa, BYU
35.6 — Jeremy Fears Jr., Michigan State
35.0 — Cameron Boozer, Duke
34.5 — Labaron Philon Jr., Alabama
33.6 — Christian Anderson, Texas Tech
33.5 — Money Williams, Montana
33.1 — Bennett Stirtz, Iowa
32.7 — Nick Boyd, Wisconsin
32.7 — Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt
32.6 — Braden Smith, Purdue
32.5 — Boopie Miller, SMU
30.7 — Terrence Brown, Utah
30.7 — PJ Haggerty, Kansas State
30.6 — Chaze Harris, South Alabama
30.3 — Bruce Thornton, Ohio State
The full KEMBA leaderboard — including every qualifying player in Division I — can be found here.
