ESPNHS California

State’s top honor goes to Archbishop Mitty of San Jose’s 6-foot-8 junior. The last junior to be the Cal-Hi Sports Mr. Basketball State Player of the Year was Tyson Chandler and the one before that was Jason Kidd.

It’s one thing to be chosen as the Mr. Basketball State Player of the Year for a state as big as California. But doing it as a junior puts that player in an even more exclusive club.

Aaron Gordon, the dynamic 6-foot-8 forward from Archbishop Mitty of San Jose, is now a member of that club after being named as the 2012 Mr. Basketball honoree.

Gordon tops a group of four other finalists – Mater Dei’s Katin Reinhardt and Xavier Johnson along with La Verne Lutheran’s Grant Jerrett and Richmond Salesian’s Jabari Bird – primarily due to his dominant showing in leading Mitty to its second straight CIF Division II state title.

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We choose honorees for seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen and for each CIF division. Toughest picks were for Division IV and freshmen.

Congratulations to these boys players for being selected as an ESPNHS Cal-Hi Sports State Player of the Year. Stay tuned for the release next week of the 34th annual ESPNHS Cal-Hi Sports All-State Teams and for our announcement of Ms. Basketball 2012 on Wednesday. Here is a complete list of our boys basketball individual honorees for the 2011-12 season:

Seniors – Katin Reinhardt (Mater Dei, Santa Ana)

On those rare occasions when an underclassman is named Mr. Basketball, an entry for state senior player of the year is added to the Cal-Hi Sports state record book. That player for this season is Reinhardt, the unofficial runner-up to Aaron Gordon of Mitty for Mr. Basketball honors after leading Mater Dei to its second consecutive Division I state title with only two losses to out-of-state foes.

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Open Division might be coming next season so here’s a look ahead if it happens and what teams could be in it.

At her last press conference during the CIF basketball championships, retiring executive director Marie Ishida said it was “a toss-up” whether the proposal to add an open division to the basketball championship event would pass when the CIF Federated Council votes on it in May.

To the uninitiated, a preferred total of eight teams in Northern California and eight teams in Southern California would be chosen for the open division after all of the section playoffs are complete. These teams would then compete for north and south open division titles and would then play each other for the open division state crown.

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CIF state finals will be No. 1 vs. No. 6, No. 3 vs. No. 9, No. 5 vs. No. 11 and No. 2 vs. No. 8. Biggest riser of the week is Price of Los Angeles. Biggest dropper is De La Salle.

Other highlights of this week’s rankings include:

*Bullard of Fresno latching onto a top 10 position due to its buzzer-beating victory over Long Beach Poly

*Lincoln of San Diego breaking into the honor roll as the only newcomer even with 10 losses on the season

*Mater Dei and Archbishop Mitty getting closer to preseason starting positions of No. 1 and No. 2.

Get all the details in the ESPNHS rankings tool.

Click here: All-State Football Teams for 2011 Season

William Stallworth of Tulare makes history for being named State Grid-Hoop Player of the Year for the second straight year. We also choose four others on first team, five on second team, five on third team and 40 for special mention.

There's something special about grid-hoop athletes since few sports demand more all-around athleticism than football and basketball. It is tough to perform at a high level in one sport at a large school, let alone two, but the following athletes did it at California schools during the 2011-12 school year.

There has been a major decrease in the sheer amount of grid-hoop standouts across the state since our initial all-state teams were chosen for the 1986-87 school year, but there were still plenty of talented football-basketball combo players to choose from.

Leading the way for the second consecutive year is senior guard/wide receiver William Stallworth of Tulare Union, the 2011-12 ESPNHS Cal-Hi Sports Grid-Hoop Player of the Year. Last year, Stallworth became only the second CIF Central Section athlete to earn the honor since 1979-80, joining 2005-06 honoree David Ausberry of Lemoore.

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Important announcement from Cal-Hi Sports | Archived Cal-Hi Sports content

It’s the calm before the storm as every ranked team except two has little difficulty in games played last week. Next week, changes should occur due to tough matchups in the CIF Southern Section.

Other highlights of this week’s rankings include:

Pacific Hills of Los Angeles returns at No. 20 in only change of the week with Sacred Heart Cathedral falling out.

Salesian, De La Salle and Newark Memorial wrap up regular seasons and move into the CIF North Coast Section playoffs as D4, D1 and D2 strong favorites.

Lamond Murray Jr. and Jason Kidd Jr. both have strong outings for their state-ranked squads.

Get all the details in the ESPNHS rankings tool.

Important announcement from Cal-Hi Sports | Archived Cal-Hi Sports content

No. 1 Mater Dei starts the CIFSS Div. IAA playoffs as the top seed, but an even tougher bracket in that section could be Div. IVAA where No. 11 Serra of Gardena, No. 15 Bishop Montgomery, No. 16 La Verne Lutheran, No. 17 Price and No. 18 Windward all reside.

Other highlights of this week’s rankings include:

De La Salle of Concord getting back into the top five with two more wins keyed by senior point guard Amadi Udenyi.

McDonald’s All-American Grant Jerrett and Eric Cooper Jr. both shine for La Verne Lutheran in overtime win against Price.

Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco does not drop after losing overtime thriller to higher-ranked Archbishop Mitty

Get all the details in the ESPNHS rankings tool.

Taft of Woodland Hills gets rewarded with No. 9 ranking after beating Loyola of Los Angeles at the Nike Extravaganza.

Other highlights of this week’s rankings include:

La Costa Canyon, Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco re-join the mix after being ranked earlier in the season

Two CIF divisional state champs from the last two years play each other this weekend when Price of Los Angeles faces La Verne Lutheran.

Sheldon wins at the buzzer against Jesuit of Carmichael, then gives No. 3 Salesian a battle to the wire one night later

Get all the details in the ESPNHS rankings tool.

Important announcement from Cal-Hi Sports | Archived Cal-Hi Sports content

Tehachapi’s Cory Lange nets a 45-point game, then does even better with 48.

Another boy to score 48 last week was L.A. Franklin’s Zachary Hinton.

For the girls, triple-doubles were the story with one player – Cajon’s Dejaunee Brooks – who is now averaging a triple-double.

Note: We’re proud once again to collect weekly writeups of the most significant individual high school basketball totals in California. We use these as the basis for updating the state record book, which has been published seven times, most recently in the spring of 2009. To report a state stat star of your own, please email highlights to Mark.Tennis@espn.com.

(After games of Saturday, Jan. 28 and some games as of Tuesday, Jan. 31)

Boys Basketball

Joel Anderson (Banning, Wilmington)
For the ninth time this season, Anderson scored at least 30 points in a game and he finished with just that in a 72-52 Marine League win over King-Drew. Earlier in the week, he scored 34 points in a 59-44 win for the Pilots over Carson.

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Important announcement from Cal-Hi Sports | Archived Cal-Hi Sports content

Marcus LoVett Jr. tries to be as normal a freshman as possible despite 31.7 per game scoring average

After what he’s done so far this season, to say Marcus LoVett Jr. from Providence of Burbank has exploded onto the scene would be a bit of an understatement.

In fact, the freshman from a very talented Los Angeles-area Class of 2015 has taken center stage among his peers.

Last week in a 73-66 victory over Campbell Hall of North Hollywood, the 5-foot-11 combo guard had a statement game.

LoVett finished with 45 points and five assists, out-dueling another top freshman, Aaron Holiday (27 points), the younger brother of 2008 Mr. Basketball State Player of the Year and current Philadelphia 76ers guard Jrue Holiday.

For that performance, plus a season that sees him leading the state in scoring, LoVett becomes one of only a handful of freshman to be named ESPNHS Cal-Hi Sports State Athlete of the Week.

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Important announcement from Cal-Hi Sports | Archived Cal-Hi Sports content

Miramonte’s Loutzenhiser makes 10 3-pointers while Pasadena Poly’s Michelle Miller pours in season-high 52 points

Tallest boys player in state history gets 30 points, 15 rebounds, 8 blocks

Note: We’re proud once again to collect weekly writeups of the most significant individual high school basketball totals in California. We use these as the basis for updating the state record book, which has been published seven times, most recently in the spring of 2009. To report a state stat star of your own, please email highlights to Mark.Tennis@espn.com.

(After games of Saturday, Jan. 21 and some games as of Tuesday, Jan. 24)

Boys Basketball

David Ahern (Marin Catholic, Kentfield)
The Wildcat senior makes a return to this feature after scoring a career-high 37 points but it wasn’t enough in a 63-52 loss to arch-rival Drake of San Anselmo.

Brandon Baker (Crenshaw, Los Angeles)
With first-place on the line in the Coliseum League. Baker scored a team-high 32 points as the Cougars picked up a narrow 68-67 win over Dorsey in the final seconds of the game.

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