Introducing Mr. Redford

GLH editor opines on Mr. Basketball award, endorses Redford

By Jared Field

6 February 2008

greatlakeshoops.com

When my phone rings on game nights I'm never sure who is calling, though the first words after the compulsory "hello" are almost always the same: "How many did Brad get?"

So far this season the answer has always been somewhere between 30 and 52 and the follow-up has been, "yeah, and they won."

Redford's eagles, still undefeated, won their 15th game of the season in impressive fashion over Caro Tuesday night.

Brad, for his part, scored 35 points in the first half and 52 points for the game (so much for the box-and-one). He also increased his run of consecutive free throws to 92, putting him within range of the national record of 126 in a row. (He currently holds the national record for free throw percentage, 98.2 percent.) Redford is also shooting a ridiculous 46 percent from 3-point range.

Earlier this season, Redford scored 27 points in the first quarter in a win over Hemlock.

He is currently averaging 39 points per game for the fourth-ranked team in the state in class B.

Yeah, he's that good.

But what has basketball fans in mid-Michigan confounded is the prospect of Redford losing out on the Mr. Basketball award.

The talk has begun and everyone has an opinion.

One high school coach in the Flint-area told me this recently with respect to the award and Redford: "If that kid doesn't win Mr. Basketball, the award means nothing."

The detractors are back

The naysayers point to Frankenmuth's conference, the TVC, which is not one of the strongest in the state. The implication, of course, is that Redford could not do what he is doing in another conference.

I disagree.

I've been following Redford since he was a sophomore and never once have I seen him look like he was out of his league. He never backs down from anyone and has always been the most impressive player on the floor no matter who Frankenmuth has played.

(He would be the best player by far in the Flint-area's Big Nine, a conference I cover frequently.)

And yes, Frankenmuth has played tough teams in their non-conference schedule.

Brad has had success against teams like Flint Southwestern, Leslie, Saginaw Buena Vista, Haslett, Ypsilanti, etc. This is to say nothing of his exploits playing summer basketball with the Michigan Mustangs against some of the top basketball players in the nation. In July of 2006, Redford won the Adidas Main Event 3-point shootout in Las Vegas.

Summer ball at that level is not for the faint of heart.

The TVC is a big conference, so Frankenmuth is limited in what they can do with their non-conference schedule; but, Coach Crawford and company are not afraid to play anyone. 

I'm of the opinion that those among us who are quick to downplay what for Redford has been a historic senior season are blind to their own prejudices. They simply cannot wrap their minds around the idea of the top basketball player in the great state of Michigan being a barely six-foot tall white boy from a tiny Bavarian hamlet in mid-Michigan.

That sentiment is nothing new, of course.

We've seen this before.

When Drew Neitzel won the award in 2004, he did so in spite of the prevailing wisdom coming out of the media-rich Detroit-area about how Neitzel wasn't good enough to shine the sneakers of the Motor City's best--Malik Hairston and Joe Crawford.

Fans in southeast Michigan waxed and waned about how Neitzel wasn't going to be able to cut it in the Big Ten and how the Renaissance boys were shoe-ins for early entry into the NBA.

Time has told us that they were wrong.

They did it again in 2006 when the award went to Grand Rapids South Christian's star guard David Kool.

"How can a Mr. Basketball award winner not go to a bigger school than Western Michigan?" was the buzz at that time.

Kool wasn't as athletic as Tory Jackson or Deshawn Sims, both of whom were heading to high-major programs. No one was arguing that; but, he was the best basketball player in the state that season--as was Neitzel in 2004.

The bottom line is this: if the criterion for the award is simply the best player in the state in a given season, Redford should be the obvious choice. The problem is that we really don't know what the award is about.

Basketball junkies undoubtedly remember 2002 when Paul Davis won the award after only playing half the season on a mediocre team at Rochester. Davis would go on to a very good collegiate career, but Anthony Roberson had a much better senior season at Saginaw--as did Lester Abram at Pontiac Northern.

Davis won the award merely as a prospect, which called into question what the award was actually about. 

Whatever this award is, I know what it should be: It should be the award that honors the best senior high school basketball player in the state.

The stay at home variable

Further complicating the award is the conventional wisdom that where a player signs to play after high school matters to the BCAM voters. There may be some truth to this when you consider that only one player, Wilson Chandler, has won the award in spite of signing outside of Michigan in the past decade.

Redford, unlike the preseason favorite to win the award, Draymond Green, will play his college ball out of state in Ohio at Xavier University. Green, who committed to play his college ball with Michigan State, was the prohibitive favorite to win the award after winning the state title as a junior.

Then Redford did what he does best: he proved the naysayers, including yours truly, wrong.

I had Draymond Green penciled in as my choice for the award before the season started and now I am eating my words. While Green has had a very good season, he might not even be the best player in Saginaw since the emergence of senior guard Daniel West.

Further, Green has the extra baggage of an embarrassing ejection (and subsequent one-game suspension) still lingering from this past December.

Why should Redford be penalized for signing out of state when the two biggest in-state schools chose not to get serious about recruiting him?

Xavier's people got in early--before bigger programs like Syracuse, Wake Forest and Indiana--and they were rewarded for it.

Who's better?

By nearly every account, the 2008 class in Michigan is not nearly as talent-rich as its predecessors. That being said, there are several players in this state worthy of consideration.

Dominique Buckley at Romulus is a tremendous guard talent as is his counterpart at Detroit Northwestern, Eric Evans. Since sheer stupidity will not allow Evans to win the Mr. PSL award this season (read Steve Bell's Mlive blog), his chances of winning Mr. Basketball have all but vanished.

Buckley doesn't have the numbers of many of the other finalists-to-be, but he plays in a much tougher conference than players like Blake Cushingberry and Drew Maynard--two other candidates for the award.

Paul Williams (right) at Detroit Renaissance is the only player, in my mind, who comes close (though not that close) to the kind of production we've seen out of Redford. Williams, a four-year starter, is averaging 24 points per game and six rebounds on one of the top teams in the state. Williams' all-around game is impressive, especially considering how good his team is. Any other year he would probably be the guy.

Redford is the only weak conference player in my top five, but his performance has been anything but.

My top five, based on NOTHING other than their senior seasons

1.) Brad Redford, Frankenmuth - Xavier

2.) Paul Williams, Detroit Renaissance - Dayton

3.) Dominique Buckley, Romulus - Iowa State

4.) Draymond Green, Saginaw - MSU

5.) Eric Evans, Detroit Northwestern - Dusquesne