Indiana Mr. Basketball: Lawrence Central’s Kyle Guy
Last night, the Indianapolis Star made the announcement that Lawrence Central’s Kyle Guy has won the 2016 Indiana Mr. Basketball award. He beat out Arsenal Tech’s C.J. Walker and Southport’s Joey Brunk. There isn’t a ton of surprise that…
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Continue ReadingLast night, the Indianapolis Star made the announcement that Lawrence Central’s Kyle Guy has won the 2016 Indiana Mr. Basketball award. He beat out Arsenal Tech’s C.J. Walker and Southport’s Joey Brunk.
There isn’t a ton of surprise that came from the announcement. Kyle Guy, a Virginia Cavaliers commit, was the best player in the state this year as a senior and he did really well showcasing that during each game. Lawrence Central was much improved after a rocky start to the previous season. This year, they were among the best in the state and Kyle was the biggest reason why.
Guy isn’t your typical Mr. Basketball award winner if you just look at him from a distance but on the basketball court he’s something that this state doesn’t have much of, bulldogs. He’s an aggressive kid with a thin frame and has as much confidence as you could pack in his body. Playing at Lawrence Central and in the best area of talent in the state, he was constantly pushed and forced to be better or fall behind. I firmly believe, his confidence was the driving force behind his ascension from unknown to Mr. Basketball.
And he was widely unknown. A scrawny 6’2 kid from the eastside of Indianapolis, he had to prove himself. He went from a solid Best Choice team to Indiana Elite’s top team quickly between his sophomore and junior years. Kyle could shoot the ball and that was his calling card early but as he played against tougher and tougher talent, you saw him develop into a more diverse player. His on-ball skills really took hold as he tried to keep himself at the point guard spot. His decision-making also made strides and when more and more talent was added around him, he quickly became a favorite of not only his teammates and coaches, but of coaches and scouts.
During the spring before his Junior season, he played up on Indiana Elite’s top team as an underclassmen. He played with the likes of Ryan Cline (Purdue), Dylan Windler (Belmont), Chandler White (Toledo), and many others that year. Guy was still one of the better players on that team. Fast forward a year later and Kyle is the leader of the 2016 group for Indiana Elite and the best player playing against a ton of talent in the Adidas Gauntlet. He goes into the fall and is on a ton of the All-Star camps and Adidas Nations. By the end of all of that and right before he starts his junior year at Lawrence Central, Guy makes a surprise commitment.
The ACC doesn’t typically dip into the Midwest and Big Ten country but something about Tony Bennett caught Kyle’s eye during his on-campus visit and made his decision for him. Kyle was now a Cavalier. At the time, Guy was being recruited by almost every school in the Midwest and he spurned the likes of Indiana, Purdue, Butler, Iowa, and Northwestern to head east and play for Virginia in the ACC. This wasn’t typical but it was inline with what Kyle had done to this point up in his career. He pushed and put himself in a situation that was going to test himself. Would Kyle have fit better in the Big Ten? Probably but the ACC presents him with a different challenge.
In most years, Kyle might have been ranked higher than he was. For us, he was easily the best player in the state. For Scout.com, they have Guy ranked at 52 in the nation. While guys who had come before him like Gary Harris, Zak Irvin, Caleb Swanigan, or Trey Lyles, had all been higher ranked, the class of talent in 2016, nationally, is among the best we have seen in quite some time. He quite possibly would have been right in line with those guys but there is so much talent and NBA level guys that 52 could really be like 30 in any other year.
Kyle, at the end of the day, should have a very good college career and be one of the better players the state has seen. He’s different. He’s not the prototypical big man or athletic wing. He’s a thin-framed 6’2 guard who knows how to score the ball and has more confidence than anyone else on the basketball court. He’s a winner and a great teammate and it’s no surprise he won this award. Kyle was the best in the state.