Ranking the Best 'Glue Guys' in College Basketball in 2015-16 Season

Glue is sticky and binding. The definition of a glue guy is anything but.

At least when it comes to the definition of a glue guy, there are more than a few ambiguities—and even outright contradictions. 

It's a player who can "fill a stat sheet," but who isn't typically a lock for big production. It's a player who doesn't mind getting physical, but isn't known for his physical attributes. It's someone who can produce, but isn't marquee enough to benefit from special playbook attention. It's someone who can do multiple things, but doesn't always have a "home" position on the floor.

Certainly, it's a player willing and able to do all that unglamorous work—the loose-ball diving, the charge-drawing—that, interestingly, is often highly glamorized in the college setting and beyond.

In a nutshell, think of the glue guy as an MVRP: a Most Valuable Role Player.

With that in mind, here is a ranking of college basketball's current top glue guys. They are ranked based on statistical performance and perceived value to their respective teams, especially in terms of more yeomanlike statistics.

7. Tres Tinkle, Forward, Oregon State

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All eyes at Oregon State are rightly trained on Gary Payton II. But let's not forget about Tres Tinkle—son of head coach Wayne Tinkle and one heck of a gluey guy.

Tinkle The Younger sits second on the team in points with 12.1 per contest, but even more importantly for this analysis, he's second on the team in rebounding and steals (4.9 and 1.4 per game, respectively) and chips in 1.3 assists and 0.5 blocks while he's at it.

Did we mention he's the coach's son? That helps Payton to provide a stabilizing force on the court in Corvallis.

6. Amile Jefferson, Forward, Duke

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Amile Jefferson was considered a key glue guy on last season's championship team. This season, he picked up right where he left off for the Blue Devils.

At least, he did until he broke his foot in mid-December. Up to that point, he was a critical buttress to Duke's front court and overall rotation.

Sports-Reference.com/CBB had Jefferson with a total rebound percentage of 18.5. That means Jefferson got 18.5 percent of all the available rebounds while he was on the floor. That's a career high and would be seventh in the ACC right now if the missed time hadn't rendered him ineligible for the list. His 11.4 points per game on only 6.7 field-goal attempts each contest also speaks to how much he can do with relatively few touches.

Jefferson's return to the Duke lineup will be a welcome one. A player like Jefferson should be able to re-integrate himself into the rotation without skipping a beat. It's what glue guys do.

5. Alex Poythress, Forward, Kentucky

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Alex Poythress leads the SEC in two-point FG percentage with an impressive 67.9 percent of all those shots converted, per Sports-Reference.com/CBB.

Unfortunately, he also leads the conference with 53 personal fouls committed. That's going to undermine any glue-guy resume. You can't help your team if you can't stay on the court.

Still, the senior has proven he's the Wildcat who excels in the stopper role. Four days after getting embarrassed on Jan. 5 at LSU, Poythress had 25 points and seven rebounds in a bounce-back win over Alabama.

"You just gotta get that bad taste out of everybody's mouth," Poythress said after the game, according to Kyle Tucker of the Courier-Journal.

Note it wasn't just his own mouth with which he was concerned. Those are the little things a glue guy does. 

4. Rasheed Sulaimon, Guard, Maryland

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You may remember Rasheed Sulaimon from his days at Duke. Now that he's transferred to Maryland after being dismissed from the Devils last season, Sulaimon is a strong veteran and jack-of-all-trades for a talented but relatively inexperienced group of Terrapins.

True to glue-guy form, Sulaimon is a bit of a Swiss army knife in College Park. He's the starting shooting guard but is a much-needed backup ball-handler behind Melo Trimble. He's also the first player to rally others during a team timeout or huddle and never lets the team's energy dip too low.

He's also the team's best on-ball defender, excelling on the tougher end of the court while noticeably deferring to Trimble and other incumbents and young guns on offense. Not that he can't still get his points; he's averaging 10.4 points on 48.8 percent shooting from the floor. That's fueled particularly by a nifty 49.2 percent average from beyond the arc—good for a college career high. 

3. Phil Booth, Guard, Villanova

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Phil Booth has filled the glue role since his high school days.

"The quintessential glue guy, Booth filled up the stat sheet on both ends," wrote Marcus Helton of DMVElite after the 2013 Nike Global Challenge—an amateur showcase game. "He also proved to be a capable distributor, committing just one turnover in four games."

Things haven't changed a great deal since then. The level is a little higher, but Booth is just as gluey.

Villanova's backup point guard makes the most of his 23.8 minutes per game, averaging 7.2 points, 2.6 assists and 2.5 assists to 1.4 turnovers a contest.

His offensive game is more a work-in-progress than a work of art, but in a sign that his defense is much improved, his defensive box plus-minus is up to 3.2 this season from 0.8 in 2014-15, per Sports-Reference.com/CBB.

2. LeRon Barnes, Guard, Houston

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"You can't put together a list of the best glue guys in college basketball without mentioning Houston's LeRon Barnes."

So says none other than Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports. I may be one to argue with his capitalization protocols, but not when it comes to March-assessing or glue-guy picking. 

"The 6'5" senior is doing all the little things for the Cougars and has a combined 27 rebounds in his team's first two conference games," Rothstein wrote on January 7. "Kelvin Sampson's team is 13-2 overall and next travels to Cincinnati on Wednesday."

When you're a college hoops old-timer, things always look a little better when Houston's in the mix. It just feels right. Barnes is chipping in on that front. He only scores 5.7 points per game, but the high-octane Cougars don't need much help on that front. Barnes' sky-high-for-a-guard 7.2-rebound average is much more useful, as is his tidy 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

1. Kyle Dranginis, Guard, Gonzaga

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Kyle Dranginis (left)

Kyle Dranginis' stats are so consistent and uniform, it's almost difficult to tell the difference between them.

Here, let's try it: 5.2, 4.7, 3.4, 1.1, 0.4. That's points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. But to me, it all just adds up to some elite-level glueyness.

He's about as unheralded as a top player can be on a team with a regional and national reputation as high as Gonzaga's. And make no mistake: Dranginis is a top player for the Bulldogs. Only Pac-12 stars and likely future pros Kyle Wiltjer and Domantas Sabonis long more than Dranginis' 30.2 minutes per game.

The senior has that classic "stat-less" game that so many people love in a good glue guy. He can play shooting guard, small forward and even run the point if he has to. The 6'5", long-limbed Dranginis is a dogged defender and often squares off with the other team's best scorer. 

He may be unsung, but to Gonzaga, and glue-guy fans everywhere, he's unquestionably a hero.