Recently, we unveiled our plan to name area programs’ top five players of the 21st century, which sits at 25 seasons in both football and basketball.
Reminder, this is based on high school career performance ONLY. This is by no means a definitive list and, if anything, is encouraging debate on potential omissions to this list.
Through exhaustive research, reaching out to former coaches and players and our own personal opinion, here is the OTH Quarter Century Team for Blackhawk Christian Braves boys basketball.
Note: The list is in alphabetical order
Russell Byrd
Byrd developed into a dominant guard/forward at Blackhawk Christian as one of the first big standout players for the school, where he averaged 14 points and 10 rebounds as a sophomore, elevated his game to 19.1 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 3.2 assists as a junior and capped off his high school career with a stellar senior season averaging 23.2 points and 10.1 rebounds — becoming the school’s first Indiana All-Star. He went on to play at Michigan State.
Frankie Davidson
He concluded his senior season in 2018-2019 with averages of 21 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. He starred in the state tournament, contributing 20 points in the final to lead the Braves to the Class 1A championship, their first ever. Over his prep career, he set school records with 1,443 career points, 636 in a single season, and 335 rebounds in a season; he also led the state in three-point percentage as a sophomore. His performance earned him the inaugural Outside the Huddle Player of the Year in 2019. Frankie continued his basketball journey at Grace College.
Caleb Furst
Furst ended his high school career as the program’s all-time leader in both scoring (2,087 points) and rebounds (1,254), while also adding 213 blocked shots. As a junior, he averaged 22.1 pts, 13.4 rebs, 3.6 asts, and 2.0 blks, and led the team to a 23–3 record. He followed with a senior campaign of 21.4 pts, 14.1 rebs, 3.0 asts, and 2.2 blks, guiding the Braves to a Class 2A state championship, and earning Indiana Mr. Basketball and Gatorade Player of the Year honors. Furst was a two-time Outside the Huddle Player of the Year and won two state titles with Blackhawk Christian. He continued his career at Purdue.
Jalan Mull
As a senior, Mull helped lead his team to a 26–3 season with Sectional and Regional titles, earning him News-Sentinel Player of the Year honors. As a senior, Mull averaged 13.9 points to go with 7.6 assists and 4.7 steals per game, while shooting 40 percent from behind the three point line. He became the program’s all-time leader in steals and second in assists. During his junior year with the Braves, which was his first, Mull averaged 13.4 points, 9 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 3.4 steals per contest. He went on to score over 1,000 career points at Saint Francis.
Kellen Pickett
Pickett became the school’s all-time leader in blocked shots as a senior—but also starred offensively, putting up 19.3 points and 11.5 rebounds per game in his final season. A member of the Indiana All-Star team, Pickett was also a two-time Outside the Huddle All-Area Player and a part of the OTH All-Defensive Team. As a junior, he was the area’s leader in rebounds per game with 11.9, and also averaged 20.5 points, 4.5 assists and an area best 3.8 blocks per game. Pickett won Sectional titles as a freshman and senior, a Regional crown as a junior and state title as a sophomore. He went on to play at Wright State.
These opinions represent those of Bounce and Outside the Huddle. No opinions expressed on Outside the Huddle represent those of any of our advertisers. Follow Bounceon Twitter at Bounce_OTH
Be the first to comment