Radcliffe: How will history remember the 2018 Mr. Basketball Decision?

As Jordan McCabe lit up the Kohl Center on Saturday, leading Kaukauna on a rally past Milwaukee Washington for the Ghosts’ second state title in three years, he solidified his place in Wisconsin basketball history. The senior virtuoso scored eight points in the final 1:10, including two stone-cold three-pointers and a glorious drive and score with 2.3 seconds left to give his team a 76-74 win.

RELATED:Chosen from crowded field of candidates, Kaukauna's Jordan McCabe named Mr. Basketball for 2018

Surely, it was a performance that cemented the legitimacy of McCabe’s sole selection as 2018 Mr. Basketball, right? Just one day earlier, the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association announced it had chosen McCabe for the prestigious honor.

It’s complicated.

There are many — especially in the Milwaukee area — who feel Whitnall guard and University of Kentucky recruit Tyler Herro was not chosen because of “politics” — more specifically, because he decommitted from his initial pledge to the University of Wisconsin.

This might be a paradoxical situation where more than one thing is true. It’s true that McCabe is deserving of winning Mr. Basketball — and deserving enough to win Mr. Basketball on his own, without sharing the award. It’s also a shade naïve to think these claims of politics are completely unfounded.

McCabe leaves a mark

It wouldn’t be fair to McCabe to think of the 2018 award as tainted. Not only did he win two state titles and deliver a singular performance to clinch the second crown (though the award recipient was selected prior to the state-tournament games), but he checked every box.

He averaged 26.6 points per game, with 6.0 rebounds (for someone standing 6-1, no less) and 7.8 assists. He did this against a top schedule, with two battles against Division 1 champion Oshkosh North, three games against out-of-state teams and a schedule against a Fox Valley Association that is generally considered one of the best conferences in the state.

RELATED:WIAA basketball: Jordan McCabe, Kaukauna edge Milwaukee Washington at the end

He's headed to a Division I university in West Virginia, a program ranked No. 2 in the nation at one point this year and playing in the Big 12, which was the best conference in college basketball this season. The Mountaineers earned a trip to the Sweet 16 (as did Herro's future squad, Kentucky) over the weekend.

He passes the eye test. As gaudy as his numbers are, he might be just as notable for his ball handling wizardry — the stuff viral YouTube videos are made of.

Did we mention he won a state title as a sophomore, too? It's not technically a career award, but this is clearly an honor that encompasses some of that data. The award is given annually to only a senior, after all.

So what’s the controversy? It’s almost impossible to top that résumé. Let’s just say this: it’s difficult to imagine a world where Jordan McCabe isn’t Mr. Basketball — but is there one where he could have been Co-Mr. Basketball?

The legacy of Tyler Herro

Herro has been a scoring machine, notching 32.9 points per game this year despite incurring a calf injury just after Christmas. His 7.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game were icing on the cake. The schedule doesn’t offer the same perceived intensity as what Kaukauna faced in the FVA, but Herro’s crusade to 2,000 career points (despite missing half of his junior season with injury) has included big-time performances against high-powered teams such as Brown Deer, Pewaukee, Milwaukee Lutheran and (earlier in the season) Destiny, Milwaukee Riverside and a powerful team from Illinois.

He’s headed to the University of Kentucky, playing for one of the unquestioned Blue Bloods in college basketball.

That may be the fundamental difference between Herro and everyone else: the 6-6 shooting guard is the state’s most projectable senior talent. He has NBA potential and was invited to showcase his talents at one of the two or three biggest NCAA programs in the country. He appears in national rankings and was selected to the Jordan Brand Classic for the nation's top incoming recruits. The question then becomes: should the degree to which Herro is “special” become an overriding factor in choosing Mr. Basketball, an award which uses a just-nebulous-enough criteria to make that question difficult to answer?

RELATED:Whitnall's Tyler Herro lives up to billing and more during senior season

There are other hairs you can split if you’re trying to parse between the other special talents in the state, namely McCabe and Tyrese Haliburton of Oshkosh North, the best player on arguably the state’s best team, a Division 1 champion that also defeated Kaukauna handily late in the season. McCabe and Haliburton, who is heading to Iowa State next season, both had an enviable number of talented supplemental pieces on the roster. Whitnall, by comparison, had a litany of senior leaders who played their roles perfectly, but Kaukauna and Oshkosh North were stacked (and their state-championship trophies serve as proof).

Herro also did it all while battling the pursuant jeers from opposing students (and plenty of non-students) disapproving of his decision to forgo his initial commitment to Wisconsin. Elite players who elect schools other than in-state options face this, anyway. For Herro, a confident kid who clearly didn’t mind standing up to the challenge, the scrutiny was ten-fold. That Herro was able to deliver 30-point performances night after night in those conditions is a testament to his talent. Imagine being a high-school kid who faces adults outwardly questioning your character every week.

The Haliburton Factor

If I had to speculate, I would guess the presence of Haliburton — a surefire Mr. Basketball recipient in most seasons — further complicated the thought process. Three times in recent history, the WBCA has shared the award between two recipients, including 2007 (Keaton Nankivil and Scott Christopherson), 2015 (Diamond Stone and Henry Ellenson) and 2016 (Trev Anderson and Sam Hauser).

But wouldn’t it seem odd if Haliburton, who shared conference player of the year honors with McCabe in the FVA, was left out of a two-way share? It’s a tough sell to choose one of those two FVA players plus another player to place ahead of the other. Haliburton’s résumé merited enough attention that you could understand if the coaches association decided it couldn’t offer any share without offering a three-way share of the award, especially when the Co-FVA honor was factored in. 

Haliburton already earned the Gatorade Player of the Year in Wisconsin.

In the interest of preventing a first-time occurrence of a three-way share, the WBCA perhaps decided to simply go with the old-school approach of choosing just one.

Too much sharing

Yet, the WBCA’s eagerness to award shares in recent history casts a shadow on the 2018 decision; it’s fair to examine why this year was different. It probably would have been a much simpler situation if only one selection had been made in the three seasons where the award was split.

In 2010, TJ Bray of Catholic Memorial was a remarkable all-around player, perhaps the best I’ve ever seen in my coverage of prep sports. He won Mr. Basketball outright while Madison Memorial’s Vander Blue — again, a talent you could identify as “special” — was left out. Blue also famously verbally committed to Wisconsin before changing course and committing to Marquette. 

Two similar stories doesn't make a trend. But it’s also worth considering who’s giving away the award: a WBCA that has, by its nature, a relationship with the state’s college coaches (both Greg Gard and Steve Wojciechowski are on the board as “division reps”). Is it possible there’s a shade of politics in play? Of course. Especially in a state like Wisconsin where fans often get territorial about in-state products, those who choose to go elsewhere could have a higher burden of proof to merit appreciation.

In conclusion

Those who feel Herro was short-changed have a difficult argument with the way McCabe finished his season. If you feel politics were in play, there’s an unfortunate volume of plausible deniability in that area, and it isn’t fair to McCabe to view him as anything less than a clear-cut choice. Though, given the WBCA’s recent willingness to give the award to more than one recipient at a time, it is fair to wonder why that mechanism wasn’t employed in 2018.

At the end of the day, it's the coaches association's award, and it's free to use whatever criteria it wants to choose Mr. Basketball. If that opens the door for politicking, then that's the breaks. Regardless, Herro, McCabe and Haliburton will be inextricably linked in the minds of Wisconsin basketball fans as their basketball careers advance.