Mr. Basketball

To those basketball fans who have had discussions on who should be Mr. Basketball, the conversations should stop at Cody Schilling. In fact, he should be the only player to be talked about.

Now don't get me wrong, there are some worthy candidates that could be considered for Mr. Basketball, but that could only be in different years. There have been discussions about Jordan Taylor being Mr. Basketball. Yes, he is good and is going to a big school next year, but that should not lock him for Mr. Basketball.

Now everybody knows that Cody Schilling just broke the all-time scoring record for the state of Minnesota, but let’s add more to his resume. He has played in the state championship for the last three years, winning the last two. The championship game his sophomore year they got beat by 3 points but beat the two-time defending state champions (RTR) in the section final to make it to state. During each of the states tournaments, he was the leading scorer for all teams participating in all classes. Furthermore, during the last two seasons, he nearly averaged a triple double per game.

But Mark, people say, they don't play any competition. Not only do they have the toughest section in class A, they play up against many other classes. Mayo High School, Marshall, Worthington, Mankato West, Litchfield, Pipestone are all team of a higher class that they played this year. But Mark, his stats are padded when he plays conference ball games. Not true. After losing the older Stoep from last year, Cody understood that he needed to make the team better not by scoring more points but by helping his teammates score more points, which he did.

During this record breaking run, he kept saying that the record will come as long as the team kept winning, and it did. All this was done very unselfishly. All the credit he receives he passes it on to his teammates, and as for why he doesn't want to play at a big school (like Jordan Taylor), family and faith are important to him and he just doesn't think he can maintain those values if he goes to a school that far from home.

No disrespect to Jordan Taylor and the other candidates, but they should not be on the same ballot as Cody Schilling. Not this year. The disappointing thing is that he is not from the Metro and he doesn't get the press. But that doesn't really matter. Cody is the type of kid that will take what is given to him and be gracious. He doesn't need to receive the Mr. Basketball award because in my opinion, he already knows that he is Mr. Basketball of Minnesota.