The St. Paul City Conference isn’t actually recognized as a hotbed talent pool when it comes to high school basketball in the state of Minnesota. However, one school, St. Paul Johnson, had three former boys’ basketball players competing at the Division I level this past season.
Estan Tyler (University of North Dakota), Roosevelt Scott (Arizona State University), and Marcus Marshall (Missouri State), all part of the 2010 Class 3A State champions who went 32-0 that year, each represented this past winter.
Each has had his own brand of success since leaving the Governors.
Tyler, a 6’-1” guard, started four years at Johnson and was the point guard on their championship team as a junior, averaging a team-leading 14 points per game. After his senior season, in which he averaged 18 points per game and led the Governors to a No.1 seed in the state tournament (along with Marshall and Scott), he chose to attend the University of Missouri- Kansas City in spring 2011.
After leading the Kangaroos in scoring as a sophomore, he transferred to UND. After sitting out the 2013-14 season due to NCAA rules, the junior started 22 games averaging 11 points per contest.
Scott’s freethrows with four seconds remaining sealed Johnson’s victory over Grand Rapids to win the state title in 2010 during his junior year. He averaged 16.9 points as a senior.
After playing a semester at Central Florida Community College, the 6’-4” guard landed at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa, where he averaged 17.5 points per contest and led them to a 34-3 record and a second-place finish in the NJCAA Division I tournament in 2014.
From there he went to Arizona State, where he started five games averaging four points per contest.
Marshall, a 6’-3” shooting guard, signed with Missouri State University after an outstanding three-year prep career at Johnson. As a sophomore, his outside shooting contributed to Johnson’s championship run and a return to the tournament the following season.
His senior year he averaged 22 points per game as the Governors finished third place in the 2012 Class 3A tournament. During his freshman season at MSU, Marshall started 28 games and earned Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Year honors.
Though he missed a portion of the season to knee injury his sophomore year, he still compiled a 14.3 scoring average, increasing it to 19.5 this past season. Marshall recently transferred to the University of Nevada.
Not bad for a St. Paul City Conference school. Not bad at all.
Mitchell Palmer McDonald welcomes reader responses to mmcdonald@spokesman-recorder.com.