UPDATE: Scott Rolen was evidently not the second-place finisher in Indiana Mr. Basketball voting. We don’t know how this became internet canon, but per the Indy Star (with a major assist on our end to Dan O’Brien in the comments section), Kojak Fuller was second in the voting and Matthew Graves finished third. Rolen did play on the Indiana All-Star Team that year, but he was not in the top three in Mr. Basketball voting.
Scott Rolen made the Hall of Fame, which is good. He, like so many before and since, was a much better baseball player than Yadier Molina, and Yadier Molina is definitely getting in. What we didn’t know, until our good friend Derek sent us a link to an MLB.com blog post from 2017 he evidently had open on his phone, waiting for this very moment, is that Scott Rolen was a very good high school basketball player. There are highlights in that link. He had game. Also? Runner-up for Mr. Basketball in the state of Indiana. Which provokes the question: In what state is it most impressive to be the runner-up for Mr. Basketball? Off the top of my head:
1. Indiana
This is obvious. You cannot beat Indiana in a high school basketball competition, and you can especially not beat Indiana in a high school basketball competition that’s happening off the court. Being runner-up for Mr. Basketball in the state of Indiana is the second-coolest thing we can imagine doing in the first eighteen years of your life. The first is winning the NIT as a young freshman point guard. Win Mr. Basketball in Indiana? Not as cool as being runner-up. More of a fun fact to be the runner-up. Winning it makes it harder to bring up without sounding braggy.
2. California
I don’t know, let’s just get it over with. Big state.
3. Illinois
Growing up kind of near Chicago, I’m familiar with Illinois high school basketball and generally know where Illinoisan studs played as preps. Big state, good basketball, noteworthy schools—that’ll impress me.
4. New York
Contrarily, because I didn’t grow up near New York City but I did have access to media, my only knowledge of high school basketball in the Empire State is that Mailor-Callow will do some shady things to win a state title. That knocks it down a peg in my eyes.
T-5. Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina
With high school sports, Ohio and Pennsylvania always get mentioned as one entity for some reason if you’re far enough away from Ohio and Pennsylvania. North Carolina, meanwhile, is a basketball state and is pretty big. That’s a solid combination.
8. Washington D.C.
I didn’t say this list was reasonable. D.C. jumps off the page, you know? When I think about it, it should maybe fade, but you can’t go against your gut reaction with these things. With other things you can. But not with these things.
T-9. Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey
Basketball states that aren’t that big but aren’t that small either.
12. Texas; 13. Florida
These are large states, but they’re football states.
T-14. Maryland, Oregon, Washington
These are medium states, but they have some basketball vibes.
17. Kansas
This is a small state but it’s obsessed with basketball.
T-18. Georgia, Michigan, Virginia
Michigan should maybe be higher, but what are you going to do? Track me down and fight me?
21. Iowa
Hoosiers did heroic work for making us associate youth basketball with barns.
22. Wisconsin
Milwaukee.
T-23. Minnesota, Missouri
Back to the barn thing: Once you list Kansas in this sort of list, Missouri’s fair play. but Missouri can’t come first. Ditto with Minnesota needing to be behind Wisconsin.
T-25. Arizona, Tennessee, Colorado, Connecticut
Decently big states we haven’t listed yet.
29. Utah
You can picture good high school basketball being played in Utah. Also, there has to be an explanation for how Utah State’s always kind of ok at this.
T-30. Montana, Oklahoma
I don’t know what it is but when I call to mind my idea of high school basketball in these two states, it looks good.
T-32. Rhode Island, Delaware
Again, it looks good here in my head. Less chaotic, more shooters. I’m probably being racist right now.
T-34. South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Nevada, Arkansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, Nebraska, Idaho, West Virginia, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, Wyoming
Yeah, I just googled a list of state populations in order and put the rest in here. It’s not that I disrespect these states’ basketball abilities, but I don’t have a reaction when I imagine being told by someone that they were the runner-up for Mr. Basketball in one of the states in question. My imagined response is “So did you play Division I, or…?”
The point is, Scott Rolen is an impressive guy. And his jumper was nice.
Scott Rolen of Jasper was selected to the 1993 Indiana High School Basketball All-Star Team. But he was NOT the Mr. Basketball runner-up. Jeffersonville’s Sherron Wilkerson was initially voted Mr. Basketball with Anderson’s “Kojak” Fuller a close second. White River Valley’s Matthew Graves was third. Wilkerson later had to vacate the tile, which was awarded to Fuller. Again, Jasper’s Scott Rolen was an Indiana All-Star but NOT the “Mr. Basketball” runner-up.
Wow, thanks for bringing this to our attention! We’ve added a correction.