John Mitchell III

[nenebskers]

Tonight Creighton hosts Hartington Cedar Catholic. 6'1 guard John Mitchell III, who most of you probably have never heard of, needs 22 points to break 1,000 for his career. What makes this future 1,000 point scorer different? He's only a sophomore! As a freshman he averaged 24 a game. This year he is averaging 33.6 per game with multiple games over 40. Assuming he scores his 1,000th point tonight he will have done it in just 37 games.

If he stays at Creighton, stays healthy, continues to score at his current pace,, and the team makes some deep post season runs over the next three seasons, he has a great chance to become the state's all time leading scorer. Below is list of the 2000+ point scorers in boys state history. Depending on how deep of a post season run his team makes he's on track to finish his sophomore season between 1,300-1,600 points. They have 8 more regular season games, 3 in the Lewis and Clark Conference tournament, and 1-6 in postseason play.

Points Player, School, Year Graduated

2748-Bill Holliday, Wilsonville, 1960

2406-Ron Simmons, Sumner, 1964

2337-Bob Siegel, Fairbury, 1973

2336-Lindley Thompson, Paxton, 1996

2332-David Wingett, Winnebago 2017

2292-Ron Zook, Glenvil, 1950

2247-Kurt Lauer, Gibbon, 1964

2247-Rylee Reinertson, Gibbon, 2014

2237-Bruce Chubick, West Holt, 1989

2205-Austin Kaczor, Ewing, 2010

2195-Wes Eikmeier, Archbishop Bergan, 2008

2185-Chad Ideus, Adams, 1994

2167-Jason Glock, Wahoo, 1991

2147-Jon Dolliver, Stanton, 1996

2144-Roger Witt, Otoe, 1957

2140-Anthony Harms, Filley 1998

2112-Mike Gesell, South Sioux City, 2012

2110-Dru Kuxhausen, Scottsbluff, 2017

2098-Dann Martin, Maxwell, 1985

2086-Noah Schutte, Laurel-Concord-Coleridge, 2020

2076-Jay Spearman, Sutton, 1990

2066-Bob Moore, Clarkson, 1956

2058-Jesse Carr, Ainsworth, 2008

2049-Ryan Young, Grant, 1985

2040-Jim Uchtman, Humphrey, 1968

2036-Pete Tipton, Hartington, 1975

2012-Randy Gilson, Maxwell, 1992

2002-Kent Payne, Palmer, 1980

 

[123GRC321]

Awesome thanks for sharing

 

[SPbObRT]

strange looking shot but the kid can ball. very good athlete with good court savvy.

 

[huskers_2001]

I have seen this kid play, he is very polished for a sophomore. It will be interesting to see how he progresses over the next couple of years. Does he play on the AAU circuit?

 

[nenebskers]

strange looking shot but the kid can ball. very good athlete with good court savvy.

Agree, shot is a little Lonzo Ballish.

 

[nenebskers]

I have seen this kid play, he is very polished for a sophomore. It will be interesting to see how he progresses over the next couple of years. Does he play on the AAU circuit?

Yes, not sure with who but someone out of Lincoln.

 

[GrizzzlyPanda]

He played for Lincoln Supreme 15U National last year

 

[Alum-Ni]

 

[SPbObRT]

his mother was a pretty good player back in the day, think he has got some good Levis

 

[runningback43]

I've seen him play a handful of times the last two seasons. He's a really nice player and a good kid.

 

[Alum-Ni]

Mitchell had 53 pts in a win over Elkhorn Valley on Friday night

 

[SPbObRT]

kid is a baller, i wonder how he would do playing against better competition, ie bigger schools

 

[Alum-Ni]

 

[ClkTwr2011]

kid is a baller, i wonder how he would do playing against better competition, ie bigger schools

Typically, I see these small school kids are still good players as the competition stiffens. Generally what happens is they get "out sized" rather than "out skilled". 6'1" is good sized in Class D, and generally affords plenty of good looks at that level. In higher classes, there are less looks due to 6'1" being undersized. They are still great players but generally don't score nearly as many points.

Look at that list of 2,000 point scorers. How many are from Class A or Class B? Very few because it is just really hard to score like that in those classes.

Either way, I would love to get to see him play. I know the Volk family and am certain that he is a good kid as others have said.

Congratulations to John and wish him future success!

 

[Llama57]

Typically, I see these small school kids are still good players as the competition stiffens. Generally what happens is they get "out sized" rather than "out skilled". 6'1" is good sized in Class D, and generally affords plenty of good looks at that level. In higher classes, there are less looks due to 6'1" being undersized. They are still great players but generally don't score nearly as many points.

Look at that list of 2,000 point scorers. How many are from Class A or Class B? Very few because it is just really hard to score like that in those classes.

Either way, I would love to get to see him play. I know the Volk family and am certain that he is a good kid as others have said.

Congratulations to John and wish him future success!

And, most kids don't play as fresh/soph at class A/B

 

[ClkTwr2011]

And, most kids don't play as fresh/soph at class A/B

My kids are long gone from Nebraska HS Basketball, but I remember the day that I came to the realization that the difference between classes is unbelievably large.

Howells had a boys team win Class D-1 with an undefeated group maybe 7 years ago. That was a very skilled, physical, and athletic team. I had watched them play a couple times before our kids actually took the court against them in the East Husker Conference championship game.

We were C-2 and had a "nice" team. I can't remember for sure but believe we won maybe 17 games that year. But the thing is, very few of those wins were tough wins. We won the games we should have won (weaker competition) and didn't win any that were toss up or underdog games.

We played them to the final buzzer and they beat us by 1. Their team, fans, staff all agreed that we were far and away the toughest team they had seen all year including the D-1 State Title game.

Don't get me wrong, there are talented kids in every class and at every school. I am not talking down on anyone here due to the size of their school.

 

[highschoolfootballnut]

My kids are long gone from Nebraska HS Basketball, but I remember the day that I came to the realization that the difference between classes is unbelievably large.

Howells had a boys team win Class D-1 with an undefeated group maybe 7 years ago. That was a very skilled, physical, and athletic team. I had watched them play a couple times before our kids actually took the court against them in the East Husker Conference championship game.

We were C-2 and had a "nice" team. I can't remember for sure but believe we won maybe 17 games that year. But the thing is, very few of those wins were tough wins. We won the games we should have won (weaker competition) and didn't win any that were toss up or underdog games.

We played them to the final buzzer and they beat us by 1. Their team, fans, staff all agreed that we were far and away the toughest team they had seen all year including the D-1 State Title game.

Don't get me wrong, there are talented kids in every class and at every school. I am not talking down on anyone here due to the size of their school.

This very true, and even more true when you start comparing basketball players from more populated states to Nebraska kids as well, Basketball is a very tough sport to get a scholarship in for a Nebraska kid, unless he stays in the state or goes to one of the Dakotas

 

[ClkTwr2011]

This very true, and even more true when you start comparing basketball players from more populated states to Nebraska kids as well, Basketball is a very tough sport to get a scholarship in for a Nebraska kid, unless he stays in the state or goes to one of the Dakotas

This is very true. My oldest son's AAU/Club team played some very talented teams over a span of a couple summers. They played against a lot of future college basketball players, a fair number being D1 kids. Few of these kids were from Nebraska (as you are saying).

He played against a team that Mike Gesell (South Sioux City and University of Iowa) played on. He was at a completely different level. My son said that there was just not much that could be done to keep him from scoring. His team could handle their team, but only because they just didn't let anyone else score much.

We all think that we know what a Power 5 type of D1 player looks like, but we don't. Those kids are (as you said) few and far between.

 

[highschoolfootballnut]

This is very true. My oldest son's AAU/Club team played some very talented teams over a span of a couple summers. They played against a lot of future college basketball players, a fair number being D1 kids. Few of these kids were from Nebraska (as you are saying).

He played against a team that Mike Gesell (South Sioux City and University of Iowa) played on. He was at a completely different level. My son said that there was just not much that could be done to keep him from scoring. His team could handle their team, but only because they just didn't let anyone else score much.

We all think that we know what a Power 5 type of D1 player looks like, but we don't. Those kids are (as you said) few and far between.

On top of that basketball is a world sport now, so getting a D-1 scholarship or even seeing the floor for NaIa team is pretty darn tough, even small Naia schools have foreign players these days, the competition is literally the world

 

[HighPlainsCoach]

Looking at the last three games, it seems someone has figured out a defensive scheme.

 

[nenebskers]

Looking at the last three games, it seems someone has figured out a defensive scheme.

One of the games I watched involved the opponent playing man to man with full out denial on him. After about a quarter he relegated himself to just standing near half court over half the time. He was completely disinterested in effecting the game with defense or rebounding. It was very odd to say the least to watch. 4 on 4 and another 1 on 1 just standing 35 feet away from the basket.

Talented player no doubt but he and more so the coaching staff are going to need to come up with a much better game plan going forward if they want to succeed at a higher level. It was surprising to see them so unprepared for such a simple defensive game plan by a well coached opponent.

 

[FlyEagleFly11]

He didn’t play the sub district final because of knee injury. Hope it’s nothing serious

 

[Llama57]

He didn’t play the sub district final because of knee injury. Hope it’s nothing serious

I've heard ACL. Hoping for the best for the kid.

 

[Alum-Ni]

I've heard ACL. Hoping for the best for the kid.

He did fully tear his ACL and partially tore his miniscus. Hurt on a flagrant foul I believe.

 

[Big Red Thoughts]

He did fully tear his ACL and partially tore his miniscus. Hurt on a flagrant foul I believe.

Any further info on this? Who was flagrant foul against?