By NICK SLOAN,
NJSloan212@gmail.com
Last year, I campaigned hard for Washington's Tra'Vaughn White and Schlagle's Rozell Nunn to receive a lot of consideration for the DiRenna Award, an award given out to the best basketball player in the Kansas City metro area.
White was named a finalist, but ultimately lost the award, meaning that my campaigning skills are not too good.
Oh well.
True competitors never quit and I'm here to offer the Kansas City high school basketball coaches two candidates for this year's award.
Sumner Academy's Benny Parker and Basehor-Linwood's Colin Murphy.
I'll start with Parker first.
What hasn't he done during his four-year career? He's started basically four full years at Sumner Academy.
Though I don't have stats for Parker's career, he has to be around the all-time leading scoring mark and all-time leading assists mark for Sumner Academy's basketball history.
Parker has been huge in getting two titles for Sumner Academy and he was the leader of last year's team.
This year, he's been well into the 20's several times. He had a 41-point outburst against Spring Hill during the Spring Hill Invitational.
He's improved his game quite a bit even after last year. His three-point shooting is dangerous now, not just average like it was his sophomore and early into his junior year. Parker's shooting is a lot better and he's become so dangerous from anywhere on the court.
His speed and ability to put pressure on the ball defensively makes him one of the best overall players in the metro area.
Even with the loss of Vernon Vaughn, Sumner Academy will still likely finish the regular season 17-3 (I don't see them losing to Schlagle).
The credit for Sumner Academy not falling off is directly with Parker. He's put Sumner Academy on his back throughout the year, though Marcus Allen has displayed special abilities too.
Parker's the unquestionable leader for the Sabres and he deserves a ton of love for the DiRenna Award.
Let me head west to Leavenworth County for our next candidate.
This is no disrespect to Ryan Murphy and Ben Johnson, but Colin Murphy has been the best player on that team most of the year.
Those three guys are good to great players, but Colin Murphy has been the difference maker all season.
Like Parker, Murphy is someone who can score from anywhere on the court. He's a good post player and has improved his toughness and tenacity in terms of scoring inside.
He's also a lethal three-point shooter - he knocked down five straight threes against Sumner Academy earlier this year.
Murphy's defensive abilities have also been underrated.
David Brox mentioned to me shortly after the Sumner-Basehor game how important Murphy's defense on Parker was at points in that game. Murphy, despite being a forward, is often placed on guards by Basehor's coaching staff on defense.
More often than not, Colin Murphy has been the leading scorer for the Bobcats this season, especially in the important games.
Colin was huge against Sumner Academy, scoring 25 points off of six three-pointers. He had 29 points against Lansing at home earlier this season and had 20 points on the road against Lansing last Friday night. Lansing's a great defensive team that often does a good to great job shutting down a team's best player.
That didn't happen with Colin Murphy this year.
When the games have mattered most, Colin Murphy has played his best.
(
Sidenote: Considering how dominant they were in both football and basketball, I'll always believe the Murphy Twins never got the respect and due they should have received from the big boys in the media. They are legitimate Division 1 prospects in football, or they should be at least. They are very good basketball players, each scoring 1,000 career points. They are a great story and it's one that was not told enough by the Kansas City press during their careers at Basehor-Linwood. Colin was one of the best quarterbacks I've ever covered. Ryan Murphy was outstanding at the wide receiving position. The Murphy Twins are winners. Talking to some Bonner Springs fans and parents of players after the game, they agreed with me about how the Twins were mostly snubbed. And you know how fierce that Bonner Springs-Basehor rivalry is. Bonner Fan isn't exactly the type to endorse Basehor athletes.)
Both Benny Parker and Colin Murphy are prime candidates for the prestigious DiRenna Award. Every word I've said about them above does not do each player justice in terms of how important and good they are on the court.
The bad news is the fact I'm campaigning for them now.
Based on my track record, both players will likely lose the award to someone with lesser stats and lesser importance to a team's success.
I hope I'm wrong.
