{"id":169285,"date":"2019-11-12T16:38:21","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T00:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bilcomprd.wpengine.com\/?p=169285"},"modified":"2023-03-21T14:23:20","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T21:23:20","slug":"mr-basketball-usa-handicap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ballislife.com\/mr-basketball-usa-handicap\/","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Basketball USA Handicap!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mr. Basketball USA is the title bestowed upon the National High School Player of the Year honor presented by Ballislife.com. The Mr. Basketball USA Tracker tracks the progress of the top player of the year candidates throughout the season. We examine the resumes of seven early favorites and list other potential candidates. Now in its 13th year, the Mr. Basketball USA Tracker begins with its preseason voting results Nov. 18-19.
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RELATED: <\/strong>Preseason East Region Top 20<\/a> | Preseason Southeast Region Top 20<\/a>  | Preseason Midwest Region Top 20<\/a> | Preseason Southwest Region Top 20<\/a> | Preseason West Region Top 20<\/a> | Preseason 2018-19 FAB 50 (1-15)<\/a> | Preseason 2018-19 FAB 50 (16-30)<\/a> | Preseason 2018-19 FAB 50 (31-50)<\/a><\/p>\n

During the regular season, Ballislife.com<\/em> will publish the Mr. Basketball USA Tracker<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, an inside look at the nation\u2019s top on-court high school performers, according to a panel made up of 10 high school basketball and recruiting experts, including six McDonald\u2019s All-American selection committee members.<\/p>\n

Every season, the race for national player of the year is affected by factors such as team talent level (or lack thereof), injury or ineligibility. While those factors can fluctuate, there are three concrete factors that play a role in each season in the national player of the year race. With the season jumping off, we decided to break down the criteria and give some insight on the selection process. What separates the winner from other strong candidates?<\/p>\n

Talent level<\/b><\/p>\n

This is the most important factor. The winner must possess the skills to make an immediate impact on the college level. Nearly all past winners projected as NBA players, but not all of them start the ascension to player of the year candidate from the same point.<\/p>\n

For instance, take the case of 1997 winner Tracy McGrady<\/strong> compared to runner-up Lamar Odom<\/strong>. As an underclassman, McGrady was a non-descript forward at Auburndale (Fla.). He wasn't on anyone's national radar prior to the summer  of 1996 when he attended the ABCD Camp before transferring to Mount Zion (Durham, N.C.), whereas Odom was one of the nation's best players since his sophomore year at Christ the King (Middle Village, N.Y.).<\/p>\n

Of the 57 eventual Mr. Basketball USA choices, only two did not go on to log NBA minutes: forward Bill Raftery<\/strong> of St. Cecelia's (Kearney, N.J.) in 1959 and Damon Bailey<\/strong> of North Lawrence (Bedford, Ind.) in 1990.<\/p>\n

Team Success<\/b><\/p>\n

Of course, talented players can't always control the talent level surrounding them, but they can control their effort and help their team win. Leading a FAB 50-ranked team and helping it win a state title is a significant factor. Those teams generally play tough competition, which nowadays means the candidate's team challenged itself against competition from outside its region.<\/p>\n

In 2010, Jared Sullinger<\/strong> of Northland (Columbus, Ohio) led the nation's No. 1 ranked team before the Vikings were stunned 71-45 in the Ohio regional playoffs by an unranked team. The other top candidate that season, fellow Ballislife All-Decade selection<\/a> Harrison Barnes<\/strong> of Ames (Iowa), led his team to a 27-0 record and No. 10 final FAB 50 rating. If Barnes' team would have lost even one game, or if Sullinger's team would have won the state title and finished No. 1 in the country, the Mr. Basketball USA panel might have voted in favor of Sullinger over Barnes.<\/p>\n

Many of the 10 experts on the tracker panel weigh this factor nearly as much as individual talent, while others don't penalize individual talent and production should that player's team fall a bit short of its goals.<\/p>\n

Head-to-head comparisons<\/b><\/p>\n

This doesn't happen often, but it's a factor that can't be overlooked. In 2011, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist<\/strong> of St. Patrick (Elizabeth, N.J.) and Austin Rivers<\/strong> of Winter Park (Fla.), played against each other on national television. St. Patrick won 75-66.<\/p>\n

Gilchrist scored 21 points and grabbed nine rebounds and had the stronger supporting cast. In the balloting the week following that game, the panel didn't penalize Rivers much, if at all. He did score 38 points to keep his team within striking range.<\/p>\n

Gilchrist was the eventual Mr. Basketball USA choice, but what if Rivers had scored 38 points in a Winter Park victory?<\/p>\n

State and National Records<\/b><\/p>\n

Raftery and Bailey never played in the NBA, but they have something else in common: both enjoyed record-breaking prep careers for winning programs.<\/p>\n

Raftery scored 827 points in 1959, then a New Jersey single-season state scoring record. Bailey lived up to the tremendous hype that Hoosier Hysteria created around him. Bailey averaged 31.3 points per game as a senior for a state title-winning team in the Indiana single-class tournament. His team finished ranked No. 15 in the National Prep Poll (FAB 50 precursor) and he finished with 3,134 career points, a state record.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard for respected scouts to pick out the nation\u2019s best players, but it\u2019s never easy to predict how the season will play out or forecast the one national player of the year award that is truly based on season on-court performance.<\/p>\n

For now, we present some of the eligible candidates who figure to factor in the 2019-20 Mr. Basketball USA race.<\/p>\n

The Early Mr. Basketball USA Favorites
\n<\/span><\/strong>(listed <\/em><\/span>alphabetically)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Emoni Bates, Lincoln (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 6-8 Soph.
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\nWhy He Could Win:<\/strong> The 6-foot-8 forward with a sweet shooting touch was so impressive in leading Lincoln to the MHSAA D1 state title he was named D1 state player of the year by the Associated Press and Gatorade State Player of the Year as a freshman. Bates led Lincoln to the D1 state crown by scoring 23 points in a 64-62 victory over University of Detroit Jesuit. It\u2019s pretty safe to say Lincoln wouldn\u2019t have been in position to win a state crown without Bates, as he had 31 points and 14 rebounds in a 72-56 state semifinal win over Howell and hit two game-winning post-season shots. For the season, Bates averaged 28.7 points and 10.2 rebounds. Simply put, he's one of the most talented players in the country regardless of class.<\/p>\n

Why He Wouldn\u2019t: <\/strong>It could be argued junior Sharife Cooper was the most productive player in the country last season, but he didn't get the recognition from the panel that he likely deserved based on individual numbers and team success. The panel traditionally tends to favor seniors for Mr. Basketball USA honors, unless the player is a generational prospect (LeBron James, Lew Alcindor, etc.). Simply being a sophomore could hurt Bates' candidacy, as no tenth-grader has ever been named national player of the year going back to 1955. James was the last one to even be in the running back in 2001.<\/p>\n