Interesting Mr., Miss Basketball facts

- by Dr. Mitchell Palmer McDonald

Since the first Mr. Basketball award was given in 1975, 19 of the 45 winners (42 percent) have been African American.

The Miss Basketball award, given since 1978 — including a period from 1985-1989 when two players were honored every year, one from Class A and Class AA respectively — nine of 51 winners (18 percent) selected have been African American.

Greg Downing (Duluth Central, 1979, co-winner), Redd Overton (Minneapolis North, 1981); Brett McNeal (Minneapolis North, 1985); Derek Reuben (Minneapolis North, 1988); Robert Mestas (Minneapolis Roosevelt, 1995); Khalid El-Amin (Minneapolis North (1997); Darius Lane (Totino Grace, 1998); Adam Boone (Minnetonka, 2000); Kris Humphries (Hopkins, 2003); Jordan Taylor (Benilde St. Margaret’s, 2008); Royce White (Hopkins, 2009); Joe Coleman (Hopkins, 2011); Syani Chambers (Hopkins, 2012); Quinton Hooker (Park Center, 2013); Tyus Jones (Apple Valley, 2014); JT Gibson (Champlain Park, 2015); Amir Coffey (Hopkins, 2016); McKinley Wright (Champlain Park, 2017); Tre Jones (Apple Valley, 2018).

Hopkins has had five players (Humphries, White, Coleman, Chambers, Coffey) win the Award, followed by Minneapolis North (Overton, McNeal, Rueben, El-Amin) with four, while Champlain Park (Gipson, Wright) and Apple Valley (Tyus Jones, Tre Jones) each have two apiece.

Of the 19 winners, 11 (Downing ’79, Overton ’80, El-Amin’95-’97, Humphries ’02, Taylor ’03, White ’09, Coleman ’11, Chambers ’11, Tyus Jones ’14, Amir Coffey ’16, Tre Jones, ’18) led there teams to state championships. All went on to play Division I basketball.

Mya Whitmore (Hill Murray, Class AA, 1987), Tamara Moore (Minneapolis North, 1998);

Mauri Horton (Minneapolis North, 1999); Shannon Bolden (Marshall, 2002); Jenna Smith

(Bloomington Kennedy, 2006); Angel Robinson (St. Paul Central, 2007); Tayler Hill

(Minneapolis South, 2009); Rachel Banham (Lakeville North, 2011); Nia Hollie (Hopkins, 2016).

Minneapolis North had back-to-back winners (Moore, Horton) while 8 of the 9 (Moore ’98, Horton ’99, Bolden ’01, Smith ’05, Robinson ’07, Hill ’09, Banham ’10, and Hollie ’16) have won State Championships. All 9 went on to play Division I basketball.