A question on Yahoo! Answers recently asked which of Indiana’s “Mr. Basketball” recipients enjoyed the best professional career. The best answer given was “The Big O”, Oscar Robertson, the 6’5” guard who won the award in 1956 and eventually played his way into the Basketball Hall of Fame with a stellar fourteen-year career.
After reading the exchange, however, I couldn’t help but wonder about the other winners of the award, which has been handed out since 1939. The first one that came to mind was Damon Bailey, who starred for Indiana University in the early 1990s but never played in the NBA (he sticks in my mind because of his appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated during a tournament run for the Hoosiers), and of course there were Steve Alford and Kent Benson, each of whom also stayed in state and led the Hoosiers to an NCAA championship.
The following chart compares the career averages of the twenty players who have been named Mr. Basketball and gone on to play professionally in the NBA or ABA. Jared Jeffries and Sean May are the only ones who are still active, though 2006 recipient Greg Oden should join them within a year or two.
| Player | Year | Career | PPG | RPG | APG |
| Oscar Robertson | 1956 | 14 years | 25.7 | 7.5 | 9.5 |
| Jimmy Rayl | 1959 | 2 years | 11.1 | 3.0 | 2.7 |
| Ron Bonham | 1960 | 3 years | 6.1 | 1.4 | 0.4 |
| Tom Van Arsdale | 1961 | 12 years | 15.3 | 4.2 | 2.2 |
| Dick Van Arsdale | 1961 | 12 years | 16.4 | 4.1 | 3.3 |
| Bill Keller | 1965 | 7 years | 11.8 | 2.4 | 3.6 |
| Rick Mount | 1966 | 5 years | 11.8 | 1.7 | 2.4 |
| Willie Long | 1967 | 3 years | 11.4 | 6.0 | 1.0 |
| Bill Shepherd | 1968 | 3 years | 5.7 | 1.1 | 3.9 |
| George McGinnis | 1969 | 11 years | 20.2 | 11.0 | 3.7 |
| Mike Flynn | 1971 | 3 years | 6.2 | 2.1 | 2.2 |
| Kent Benson | 1973 | 11 years | 9.1 | 5.7 | 1.8 |
| Kyle Macy | 1975 | 7 years | 9.5 | 2.2 | 4.0 |
| Ray Tolbert | 1977 | 5 years | 3.6 | 2.3 | 0.5 |
| David Magley | 1978 | 1 year | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.1 |
| Steve Alford | 1983 | 4 years | 4.4 | 0.9 | 1.0 |
| Jay Edwards | 1987 | 1 year | 1.8 | 0.5 | 1.0 |
| Glenn Robinson | 1991 | 11 years | 20.7 | 6.1 | 2.7 |
| Bryce Drew | 1994 | 6 years | 4.4 | 1.2 | 2.2 |
| Jared Jeffries | 2000 | 4 years* | 6.1 | 4.8 | 1.6 |
| Sean May | 2002 | 1 year* | 8.2 | 4.7 | 1.0 |
Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame - Mr. Basketball
7 Comments:
Larry Bird wasn't Mr. Basketball? Who won his senior year?
I'd be interested to see who the ones in the remaining years were. Wasn't Luke Recker a Mr. Basketball?
'74, right?
That year was a tie of Steve Collier and Roy Taylor.
The entire Mr Basketball list can be viewed at http://www.hoopshall.com/inductees/mrbasketball.html
I would have guessed 1974 as well. So there were not one, but two guys judged to be better? I call shenanigans.
Rick Mount played in the ABA, according to Wikipedia. And I seem to remember having had his basketballl card, at some point.
my name here, I do believe you are correct. The player search for "Rick Mount" on basketball-reference.com turned up 0 hits. When I tried "Mount", there he was.
Thanks for catching the mistake. I'll be sure to fix it.
God, you are such a stupid douche. I'm from Indiana and love basketball. Your list is like posting all the stupid douches in the world and not including "One More Dying Quail" for every year since you were born plus every year your mother douched her douche-producing douche-hole since she was born.
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