{"id":125090,"date":"2016-05-20T15:53:05","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T22:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bilcomprd.wpengine.com\/?p=125090"},"modified":"2023-03-21T14:36:13","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T21:36:13","slug":"lonzo-ball-named-mr-basketball-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ballislife.com\/lonzo-ball-named-mr-basketball-usa\/","title":{"rendered":"Lonzo Ball Named Mr. Basketball USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dynamic Chino Hills point guard named 2016 Mr. Basketball USA by Ballislife.com, California\u2019s first honoree since 1992. Ball is honored in a tight race over Kansas-bound Josh Jackson. <\/strong><\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> 2015-16 Preseason Tracker<\/a> | Tracker No. 2<\/a> | Tracker No. 3<\/a> | Tracker No. 4<\/a> |  Final Tracker<\/a><\/p>\n

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Many factors go into naming a national player of the year. As it turns out, playing for a winning program is a big one if the past two high school basketball seasons are any indication. For the second consecutive season, the best player off the nation's No. 1 ranked team has earned the title Mr. Basketball USA<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Last year is was 6-foot-9 forward Ben Simmons<\/a> of FAB 50 champ Montverde Academy (Fla.) earning the nation's most prestigious honor and this season it's 6-foot-6 point guard Lonzo Ball<\/a> of Chino Hills<\/a> (Calif.). Ball's team finished 35-0 and ranked No. 1 in the FAB 50 National Team Rankings<\/a> powered by Ballislife.com<\/em> and his impact on an unbeaten, championship team was the determining factor.<\/p>\n

Last year Simmons, who has declared for the NBA Draft after one season at LSU and is a strong candidate to be the No. 1 pick of the 2016 NBA Draft, was the first and only candidate to ever be No. 1 on all 10 ballots turned in by the Mr. Basketball USA panel. Simmons was a unanimous No. 1 on each ballot all season long. This time around, the voting was quite different.<\/p>\n

Ball, a 6-foot-6 point guard headed to UCLA, began the season in sixth place, appearing on four preseason ballots with no vote higher than third place. That all changed as Chino Hills piled up wins and he piled up triple doubles. He ended the season with a new reported California record of 25 triple-doubles in a season while averaging 23.9 ppg, 11.3 rpg, 11.7 apg, 5.1 spg, and 2.0 bpg. Ball moved up the ladder and actually became the top vote-getter in the fourth tracker<\/a> of the season, surpassing preseason favorite Josh Jackson<\/a> of  Prolific Prep (Napa, Calif.) by two points (87 to 85 points) and was No. 1 on seven ballots. Jackson closed strong with a strong performance at the McDonald's All-American Game<\/em> in Chicago. He scored the same amount of points, but gained more second and first place votes. In the final Mr. Basketball USA Tracker<\/a>, Ball finished with six No. 1 votes and Jackson with four.<\/p>\n