Favorites for Bee basketball Players of Year

By Andy Boogaard

02/06/12 23:08:08

With about a month remaining in Central Section basketball, here are The Bee Player of the Year favorites. And, remember, this excludes Kern County.

Boys Player of Year candidates

1. Grant Verhoeven, sr., Central Valley Christian: His four-year body of work, complete game and ticket to Stanford are difficult to beat.

2. Alex Fertig, sr., Buchanan: Leading scorer in school history and another phenomenal four-year performer. Would strengthen his case if the Bears won it all in D-I.

3. Robert Upshaw, sr., Memorial: Stock rising by the day, if that's possible for a 7-footer. Leading home victory two weeks ago against Bullard was huge. And, really, who wouldn't start their team with this guy?

4. William Stallworth, sr., Tulare: Hard to ignore teammate Keonta Vernon -- a junior beast inside -- but Redskins HAVE to have Stallworth running the floor and his 21.2 points, 5.7 assists, 7.4 rebounds and 3.2 steals.

5. Aaric Armstead, sr., Bullard: Collapse at Memorial (four airballs) hurt, but he's still the No. 1 player on the section's No. 1 team, and a dominant stretch run through Selland Arena would elevate his stock immensely.

Girls Player of Year candidates

1. Bayli McClard, jr., Hanford: From Madison Parrish to McClard, nothing's changed in section basketball -- clearly, the Bullpups have the elite team and the elite player. McClard and her marvelous inside-out game (17.3 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.4 steals, 2.7 assists) at 6-feet-1 make her the landslide POY choice at this point.

2. Deshayla Johnson, soph., Tulare Western: Easy to get lost in Tulare County -- especially so young -- but there's not a coach in the section unaware of this gifted guard and her 25.1 points, 5.9 assists, 6.0 steals, 3.7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks.

3. Alexandria Orlich, sr., Clovis West: There isn't a girls player in the section with more floor savvy than the four-year guard, who has an otherwise extremely young Golden Eagles team knocking for another Tri-River Athletic Conference title.

4. Tiana Maxwell, sr., Central: This is a family thing, considering dad (DeAndre Maxwell) was The Bee's Player of the Year in basketball at Bullard in 1991. The daughter is on pace to take more than 1,800 career points to Humboldt State.

5. Brittany Sims, jr., Edison: The 6-1 post player can run the floor like a guard and is developing into a major college prospect for a Tigers team pressing for a 12th straight County/Metro Athletic Conference championship and a top five seed in D-I.

Bullard point guard out for season

Bullard's rise among the upper crust of section girls basketball was jolted Monday when it was learned starting point guard Mahogany May will be lost for the season with a torn ACL.

A four-year varsity starter who contributed as a freshman to Roosevelt's 28-3, D-III championship in 2009, she had missed two games since injuring the knee in a 56-38 CMAC win over Memorial Jan. 27. Knights coach Bill Engel and his 19-4 team then held onto slim hope that she might return for the D-I playoffs, which will begin in two weeks.

Bullard, ranked No. 9 in the section and tied atop the CMAC with Edison at 5-1, does have an emerging star in freshman point guard Landynn Munster. But irreplaceable are the experience and leadership of May. And that's sure to surface in Friday's rematch at No. 5 Edison, which lost 49-45 at Bullard Jan. 25.

UConn chasing Ridgeview's McCall

UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma will be in Bakersfield next week to see Ridgeview junior center Erica McCall, Bakersfield Californian reporter Zach Ewing says.

That's a whopper when you consider UConn has won six of the past 12 national titles.

The 6-2 McCall is averaging 26.2 points, 17.1 rebounds and 7.3 blocks per year after going 19.8, 8.4 and 16.0 in those departments while leading the Wolf Pack to the D-III title.

She's expected to return the 18-5 team to the D-III final March 3. And to think CVC's Verhoeven and Memorial's Upshaw (Kansas State) are expected to make the dance, also.

For all the attractions in the section's seven-year basketball championships at Selland, never has it housed three recruits of this level in the same weekend.

Murphy returns to coaching roots

Former Clovis East football coach Tim Murphy has left Hunter High in West Valley City, Utah, without coaching a game and returned where he has wanted to be for a while -- Ygnacio Valley of Concord.

Murphy went 82-39 in 10 seasons at Clovis East, resigned there in November and was hired at Hunter in December. But Ygnacio Valley -- where he launched his coaching career -- continued to pursue and finally made the catch, allowing Murphy to move near his young daughter, Kennedy. She lives in Clayton, an East Bay neighbor to Concord.