Ranking the Best Leaders in College Basketball in 2015-16

Those who long for the good "old" days of college basketball better be enjoying the 2015-16 season.

The big names are often actually seniors this winter. These guys lead by example.

These are the guys who coaches rely upon to be their brains, eyes and ears—off the floor, too. The guys who not only shoot the ball, but know how to get teammates involved.

The beauty is, these are familiar names. They are big men on campus, in locker rooms and for 40 minutes in front of everyone.

Without them, their teams go astray.

That's why we even include a player who hasn't suited up this season on the list, plus another one who is out, at least for a little bit.

This doesn't have to be a dictatorship, though. There's even one team that features two guys. It won't be such a shocking answer.

So why don't you follow along as we examine the best leaders of this hoops season.

10. Ryan Arcidiacono, Villanova

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Seriously, how many conference players of the year these days get to that level by averaging 10.1 points per game?

That's where Villanova's Ryan Arcidiacono found himself last season, sharing the Big East postseason honor with Providence's Kris Dunn despite fairly tame numbers. The 6'3'' Wildcats guard also had 129 assists (3.6 a game) and took care of the ball at a rate of 2.7 dimes for every turnover.

But the bigger thing Big East coaches saw was an on-court leader whose value came in sometimes hard-to-put-a-number-on-it form.

After Arcidiacono beat his team, now-former St. John's coach Steve Lavin pointed out last March how the Nova guard reminded him of former Duke great Bobby Hurley.

Competitiveness and basketball IQ are on full display when either is on the floor. In Arcidiacono's case, he had two intriguing games against the Red Storm.

In March, he didn't score for 28 minutes and finished with seven points on 2-of-6 shooting, but he had four assists and two steals. In the teams' first meeting in January, he had 10 assists and—like the second meeting—zero turnovers while only taking three shots.

Last year, he made 37 percent of his three-point shots. The only thing he really starred in was playing time, leading the Wildcats in minutes.

But in KenPom numbers, he has still been a statistical role player last season and this one.

It's still plenty of work to garner attention for a subtle—but priceless—kind of leadership.

9. Malcolm Brogdon, Virginia

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You watch Malcolm Brogdon, and he exudes the definition of leader.

He controls possessions for Virginia and takes the most shots, but he also takes care of the ball at an extremely fastidious rate.

His KenPom rates are up from last year, which is to be expected. After all, the Cavaliers lost Justin Anderson to the NBA draft.

The 6'5'' senior needs to get his shooting efficiency up some. He's had a cold start, as head coach Tony Bennett's team is perhaps even more of a work in progress than pundits figured, but there's no questioning his value in the intangibles.

"He's worked to tighten up his shot and be as good of a defender as he can," Bennett said. "He's very complete. Where I've seen his biggest step is leadership," Bennett said toward the end of last year. "He's very vocal and has a strong ability in practice to demand effort from his teammates."

Brogdon was an under-recruited player who has developed into one of the nation's top players, so he obviously knows how to work and talk with all types at UVA. He's an honor-roll student who's also lauded for his charity endeavors.

Of note, he recently enrolled in the school's renowned Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, "a rigorous two-year program for upperclassmen," ESPN.com reporter Anna Katherine Clemmons pointed out last winter.

8. Ron Baker, Wichita State

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Consider the storybook case of Ron Baker, who's been there every step of the way in turning the Wichita State Shockers into a national brand name and a regular consideration to get to the Final Four.

Baker's the "ultimate Kansas kid," a small-town hoops hero who has seemingly been motivated daily by bigger programs not noticing him.

Baker is a classic winner who does it the right way. One former NCAA tournament opponent even told him in a postgame handshake line that Baker was a "bad, bad dude."

In the early stages of the 2015-16 season, Baker's up to his usual stuff—we have to be careful to not take it for granted. Possessions regularly run through him, but he also defends opponent's best perimeter scoring options. He takes care of the ball.

Baker's not a perfect player. There's a reason he's become a college senior: He needed to get better before going pro.

It's crazy to think how far he's come, though. His best scholarship offers out of a tiny high school in Scott City, Kansas, were from Fort Hays State, South Dakota State, Arkansas-Little Rock and Coffeyville (Kansas) Community College.

He's an example for all players, everywhere.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/vahe-gregorian/article15751943.html#storylink=cpy

7. Georges Niang, Iowa State

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Where leadership gets tricky sometimes—in the gray area of defining it—is with someone like Georges Niang.

The Iowa State senior transformed his body two summers ago to become one of the Big 12's best players, but he may not even be the Cyclones' most important piece.

That could certainly be Monte Morris, a junior guard, and the team is loaded with great experience.

But when ISU picked up a new coach—after Fred Hoiberg opted to move on to the Chicago Bulls—guess who new leader Steve Prohm met with first.

Yes, Niang. Prohm—formerly of Murray State—turned to his biggest star.

"He's won a lot of games. He's a senior. He's a leader. He's a captain," Prohm told reporters in November. "He's earned that opportunity."

Luke Meredith of the Associated Press also came up with this tidbit of those meetings:

"Prohm has taken the unorthodox step of inviting Niang into his office for bi-weekly, private chats about the seventh-ranked Cyclones—some lasting as long as 90 minutes—in an effort to fully connect with the team..."

If that's not leadership, nothing is.

6. Marcus Paige, North Carolina

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Absence can really make the heart grow fonder. Especially if it's a case of Marcus Paige not being available for North Carolina.

The unfortunately injured Tar Heel couldn't suit up for his homecoming game at Northern Iowa—Roy Williams has historically played "hometown" games for his players, dating back to his Kansas coaching days.

And boy, did UNC need some home cooking.

UNC built a 16-point lead early in the second half but couldn't make shots or get any stops down the stretch. At both ends of the floor, it starts with Paige. Remember, this is—well, was—a No. 1-ranked team that returned nine members from a squad that gave Wisconsin a heck of a run in the NCAA tournament.

It's not like experience was lacking.

But the steadying influence was in a sharp-looking suit at Northern Iowa, and that didn't suit Roy Williams very well. It was a shame, really, for a lot of reasons. Paige, from Marion, Iowa, was the reason UNC was bothering to play the game, anyway. And it was a big meltdown that Paige most likely would've averted.

''He's our best player offensively and defensively and as fine a young man as I've ever been around in my life, so I'd like to have him on the court,'' Williams said after the game. ''But North Carolina still plays.''

He is a classic on-court leader. But it's also of historical proportions in Chapel Hill.

Paige was the winner of North Carolina's Dean Smith Most Valuable Player Award for the second consecutive season, as the school noted, after last year. He joined Lennie Rosenbluth, Billy Cunningham, Michael Jordan, Antawn Jamison and Tyler Hansbrough as the only Tar Heel players to win that award in their sophomore and junior seasons.

Pretty good company. And some darn good leadership in that group, too.

5. Fred VanVleet, Wichita State

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It's cool that we get to watch Wichita State's point guard, Fred VanVleet, operate for one more year. It seems like he's been a Shocker forever, and it also seems like his time there has gone so fast.

And talk about a leader. Yes, he is WSU's all-time assists king.

But he is, of course, so much more. As Bob Lutz of the Wichita Eagle pointed out last winter, VanVleet won't bowl anyone over with high-strung emotion or even pure stats.

But the headline's first two words in that story about VanVleet are "Leadership defines..."

You have to figure his senior year, plus that of Ron Baker, were big reasons why head coach Gregg Marshall opted not to seek a "bigger" school—we put that in quotes because we know WSU has become a big-time program in success and Marshall's salary.

Marshall considers point guards to be like starting pitchers—revered mostly for how their team fares.

Then consider VanVleet an ace, of course. His value was reaffirmed as WSU lost to Tulsa when he wasn't even close to 100 percent.

Marshall's discussion of that injury recently is worth noting. VanVleet isn't expected to play in Orlando this week because of his tender hamstring.

VanVleet's been dealing with a few ailments this season. You could argue he's shown poor leadership by not knowing when to take himself out and not thinking about the long term. The pitcher, so to speak, should know when to pull himself from the mound. But the opposite viewpoint—the one we like—is that VanVleet has his coach's full trust.

"I should have gotten him out, but he's so tough and wanted to play," Marshall said. "My love affair and belief in Fred, and his toughness, were to blame."

If loving and believing in VanVleet is wrong, most teams wouldn't dare want to be right.

4. Buddy Hield, Oklahoma

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You probably read about Buddy Hield thanks to B/R's Jason King. Well, you should have.

Here you go. Do it. Now. We'll wait.

Now that you're back...Hield is truly one of the sport's great personalities of at least the last decade, a foreign player who found a small school in Kansas and has gone on to great things with Oklahoma. He's an original sort, but the type teammates really want to follow.

“Buddy’s game since March really has, across the board, improved,” Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger said about Hield’s work over the offseason. "Buddy’s just a hard worker. A really, really good leader, works as hard as anyone in the country,” Kruger told the OU student newspaper.

Hield is a constant talker. An energy guy. It's hard to imagine him ever being down.

Now, the Sooners will need him to have a big year. He'll need to be more efficient, too. But there's little doubt he's capable.

Hield is taking more shots, but he's also shooting almost twice as well from the three-point line.

His impact goes way beyond the arc, though.

Hield was named The Associated Press' Big 12 Player of the Year last March, the only unanimous pick on the AP All-Big 12 first team.

"His enthusiasm, his energy every day, his love for playing, love for working out, love for being in the gym, that affects not only Buddy's play, but affects those younger players, those other players," Kruger said. "Buddy has an impact in a lot of different ways."

3. Angel Rodriguez, Miami

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Leadership not only is getting other guys to play well, it's other guys wanting to play well for you.

Here is the strong case for Angel Rodriguez as a great leader, especially after a very successful trip to Puerto Rico—romping through Mississippi State, Utah and Butler.

Did we mention Rodriguez is from Puerto Rico? Fellow Miami Hurricanes knew it mattered to Rodriguez, so it mattered just as much to them.

Surely Rodriguez isn't the only reason Miami's jumped so quickly from unranked to potentially a Top 25 mainstay.

Jim Larranaga's top four scorers are back. Tonye Jekiri, a senior center, is playing at an incredibly high level–he outplayed Utah's Jakob Poeltl—and it's a team in a groove. Rodriguez whipped in one pass to Jekiri off a pick-and-roll against the Utes and while Miami didn't get a basket—Jekiri missed the layup but earned free throws—it showed just how in-tune Miami is early in the season.

What's best for Miami, though, is Rodriguez has found a steadier version of himself, as Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com noted after Miami's hot start:

"

A transfer from Kansas State, Rodriguez has forever shown glimpses of greatness–like when he scored 24 and led Miami to a win over Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium last season. Problem is, he's also forever been wildly inconsistent and inefficient—proof being how he followed that 24-point effort in a win at Duke with a 1-of-10 shooting performance four days later in a loss at Notre Dame. Rodriguez has never shot better than 36.1 percent from the field, or 34.4 percent from 3-point range, in a season of college basketball.

"

But all those numbers are better this season. Remember, this was a Miami program that was in the top 15 and an ACC contender before Rodriguez was hurt.

Larranaga felt fortunate to get Rodriguez to transfer closer to home in 2014.

"Angel will be our floor general," Larranaga told reporters before the 2014-15 season. "He has great leadership skills. He's a very natural leader and commands a lot of respect from his teammates."

That bond's only deepened since then.

2. Nic Moore, SMU

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No leader's going to be tested this winter quite like SMU's Nic Moore.

That's because a really talented, experienced team won't be eligible for the postseason. The Mustangs are left to play for pride—and perhaps wreck a few other NCAA tournament dreams along the way—after the team was sentenced with strict penalties after various NCAA infractions were unveiled.

Fair or not, Moore is left to play in relative ambiguity, but give it up for him so far. SMU is 3-0, including a two-point win against a pretty darn good Yale team.

Moore takes this leadership stuff pretty seriously. It's even his major—Sport Performance Leadership.

The reigning AAC player of the year even made an impact with a stacked Kansas team last summer at the World University Games as a late pick-up, as the Jayhawks were dealing with some roster issues. It was still a deep team loaded with veterans, and Moore made an influential impact.

"I learned he's a leader," Kansas coach Bill Self told the Lawrence Journal-World's Gary Bedore last June. "He got there halfway through practice, walked in and acted like he owned the place. That’s exactly what best players in leagues do.” 

1. Denzel Valentine

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It's a great picture to make a caption of above, but more than anything—you've got to wonder what these two are talking about.

Head coach Tom Izzo relies on Denzel Valentine in so many ways for Michigan State.

And it's a heck of a combination.

"Valentine's the biggest reason why this has become one of Izzo's closer teams," Detroit Free Press columnist Drew Sharp wrote. "He has become the conduit between the coach and the locker room, responsible for gauging the pulse of the team. Valentine's not bashful about approaching Izzo with suggestions, frequently calling him."

Here's something to note, too: Sharp wrote this leading up to Michigan State's Elite Eight win last season.

The bond with the coach—and Valentine's value—have only blossomed even more as the Spartans started this season.

Valentine did just about everything but sell popcorn in MSU's win against Kansas, recording the first triple-double against the Jayhawks in nearly 40 years.

Valentine passes whatever test you want to use to examine college basketball's best leaders. He even sums himself up the best.

“I’m going to do whatever it takes to win,” a weary Valentine said after the Kansas game. “I don’t care what it is. If they want me to bring it up, I’ll bring it up. If you want me off the ball, I’m off the ball. I’ll check the best player on the team. I’ll do this. I’ll do that.”