10 high school Mr. Basketball winners who also won NCAA titles

The Kentucky Wildcats entered the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 1 in the nation thanks to three straight recruiting class ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 in the nation by 247Sports.

Being able to recruit the nation's best talent, or better yet the No. 1 player in the country, can be the key to winning an NCAA championship. However, recruiting the top player in the country doesn't always lead to a national title.

Surprisingly, only 10 players who have been selected as Mr. Basketball USA in high school have gone on to lead their college team to an NCAA title.

Here's a look at the 10 Mr. Basketball Winners Who Led their College Teams to an NCAA Title.

Mr. Basketball USA is an award chosen by longtime high school historian Doug Huff in conjunction with Ronnie Flores of Student Sports and Mark Tennis of Cal-Hi Sports starting in 1996. Players chosen prior to 1996 were selected retroactively. Of the 50 players chosen, 10 did not play college basketball and there were three players who won the award twice.


1. Lew Alcindor, Power Memorial, 1964, 1965
No other prized recruit has fulfilled his promise as much as Lew Alcindor, who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The top player in the country as a junior and a senior, Alcindor led Power Memorial to a 79-2 record. UCLA won the intense recruiting battle for Alcindor and he rewarded the Bruins with three straight NCAA titles from 1967 to 1969. He went on to become the all-time leading scorer in NBA history while playing for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers.

2. Patrick Ewing, Cambridge Rindge & Latin (Cambridge, Mass.), 1981
While Michael Jordan is often considered basketball's greatest player, it was Ewing who was named Mr. Basketball in 1981, the year that Jordan also graduated from high school. And it really wasn't even close. Ewing went on to play at Georgetown and led the Hoyas to three championship game appearances, winning it all in 1984. Georgetown could have won three titles with Ewing if not for an errant pass by Fred Brown to North Carolina's James Worthy in the 1982 game that helped seal the game for the Tar Heels, and a spectacular shooting display by Villanova in the 1985 championship game.

3. Jerry Lucas, Middletown (Ohio), 1957, 1958
Lucas is an Ohio legend, leading his team to 76 straight wins and a pair of state championships. He chose to stay home and play for Ohio State and he led the Buckeyes to a national championship as a sophomore in 1960. He also led the Buckeyes to the NCAA finals in 1961 and 1962 but lost both times to Cincinnati. Lucas was named the NCAA Player of the Year in both his final two years at Ohio State.

4. Darrell Griffith, Male (Louisville, Ky.), 1976
The high-flying Griffith stayed home to play for Louisville following his high school career and his presence on the Cardinals squad led to the school's first NCAA championship. Griffith led Louisville to a 59-54 win over UCLA in 1980 and was named the Final Four MVP.

5. Larry Johnson, Skyline (Dallas), 1987
Johnson was the nation's top player while at Skyline, but he did not head straight to the University of Las Vegas. Johnson spent two years at Odessa College and was twice named the junior college player of the year. Johnson played two years at UNLV, leading the Rebels to an NCAA title his junior year in 1990. UNLV was upset by Duke in the semifinals of the 1991 Final Four, ending an undefeated season for the Rebels.

6. Quinn Buckner, Thornridge (Dolton, Ill.), 1972
An outstanding all-around athlete in high school, Buckner earned Chicago area Player of the Year honors in both football and basketball and led the basketball team at Thornridge to back-to-back state championships. In college at Indiana, Buckner was an important player on a team that included future NBA players Scott May, Bobby Wilkerson and Kent Benson. The 1976 Indiana team won coach Bobby Knight his first NCAA championship and it is the last NCAA team to finish the season undefeated.

7. Mike Bibby, Shadow Mountain (Phoenix), 1996
The son of Henry Bibby, who played on the UCLA championship teams in the early 1970s, Mike Bibby graduated from Shadow Mountain in 1996 and led Arizona to a national championship in 1997. He earned Freshman of the Year honors and also finished third in the voting for the Wooden Award. Bibby's son, Michael, won a state championship at Shadow Mountain last year as a sophomore.

8. Reggie Williams, Dunbar (Baltimore), 1983
Playing on perhaps the greatest high school team ever, Williams led Dunbar to a 60-0 record over his final two seasons and played with future NBA players David Wingate, Muggsy Bogues and Reggie Lewis. While Ewing was the top player for the Georgetown Hoyas in 1984, Williams was a key player as a freshman, scoring 19 points in the NCAA final against Houston.

9. Michael Gilchrist, Patrick School (Elizabeth, N.J.), 2011
In his only season at Kentucky, Gilchrist helped the Wildcats win their eighth NCAA championship. He averaged 11.9 points per game.

10. Edgar Lacey, Jefferson (Los Angeles), 1963
Lacey started for UCLA on the 1965 team that won the NCAA championship. He broke his leg during his senior season and returned to play during the 1967-68 season. Playing alongside Alcindor, Lacey was benched midway through the season by Coach John Wooden, eventually quit the team and missed out on the 1968 championship.

So Close, Yet So Far

Then there are those Mr. Basketball winners who came very close to winning an NCAA championship, but fell just short of the prize. Here's a look at five.



1. Wilt Chamberlain, Overbrook (Philadelphia), 1955
The very first member of the Mr. Basketball USA list, Chamberlain led Overbrook to a 19-0 record as a junior and 19-1 as a senior. He posted a high game of 90 points and averaged 47.2 points per game in league play. He signed with Kansas and led the Jayhawks to a berth in the NCAA championship game against North Carolina during his sophomore year of 1957. The Tar Heels triple-teamed Chamberlain, who had 23 points in the contest. North Carolina won the game, 52-51, in triple overtime, sealing the game with a steal of a pass into Wilt in the low post in the final seconds. Despite losing the championship game, Chamberlain was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player.

2. Oscar Robertson, Crispus Attucks, 1956
Robertson led Crispus Attucks, an all-black school, to back-to-back state championships in Indiana. The 1955 state championship was reportedly the first state title for an all-black school in U.S. history. In college, Robertson became the NCAA's all-time leading scorer (2,973 career points) while leading Cincinnati to a 79-9 record. Despite averaging nearly 34 points per game, however, Robertson was unable to lead the Bearcats to a national championship. Cincinnati twice made the Final Four, but never won a title. Ironically, Cincinnati won NCAA titles in the two years after Robertson graduated.

3. Bill Bradley, Crystal City (Mo.), 1961
Bradley was twice an All-American in high school, scoring 3,068 points while at Crystal City. He attended Princeton and led the team to the Final Four in 1965. Princeton lost to Michigan in the semifinals, but Bradley scored 58 points in the consolation game (the NCAA no longer plays a consolation game) against Wichita State and was named the Final Four's Most Valuable Player.

4. Chris Webber, Detroit Country Day (Beverly Hills, Mich.), 1991
The winner of three state championships while at Detroit Country Day, Webber was the centerpiece of Michigan's recruiting class in 1991 dubbed "The Fab Five". The group also included Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson. The quintet helped the Wolverines reach back-to-back NCAA championship games, losing to Duke in 1992 and facing North Carolina in 1993. With his team down 73-71 in the final seconds of the 1993 game, Webber famously called a timeout. The Wolverines were out of timeouts, however, and the resulting technical foul allowed North Carolina to seal the game.

5. Cazzie Russell, Carver (Chicago), 1962
The Chicago Sun Times Player of the Year, Russell went on to Michigan, where he led the Wolverines to back-to-back Final Four appearances in 1964 and 1965. Although Russell averaged 30.8 points per game in 1965 and was named the College Player of the Year, it was UCLA that won the NCAA championship that year with a 90-81 win over Russell's squad.