Introducing Mr. Basketball Candidate #10: Owen Coburn
As part of our preseason content, we’re counting down the top dozen candidates for this year’s Mr. Basketball award, presented annually to the top senior in the state. The list continues with our No. 10 candidate, Spirit Lake power forward Owen Coburn, a talented big man with excellent footwork. He’ll play his college ball at South Dakota State.
Name: Owen Coburn
Height: 6-10
Position: PF
School: Spirit Lake
2017-18 stats: 463 points (20.1/game), 255 rebounds (11.1), 23 assists (1.0), 50 blocks (2.2), 65.3 FG%, 80.4 FT%
Career stats: 1,133 points (16.4/game), 635 rebounds (9.2), 85 assists (1.2), 153 blocks (2.2), 65.8 FG%, 72.7 FT%
About Coburn: Coburn is one of the most skilled big men to come through Iowa in quite a while. A legit 6-10, he has the size and skill set to be a star on the hardwood, and a dominant force on both ends of the floor. He’s got great footwork and touch around the rim, has improved his range and is a great talker on the defensive end. He was following the trajectory of former Spirit Lake big man Ryan Kriener, piling up low-to-mid-major offers, and he may have ended up receiving the high-major looks that Kriener did in his 17U season, but decided to end his recruitment early, committing to Summit League power South Dakota State, where he should be a high impact player.
Why he can win Mr. Basketball: He’s one of the few standout performers from the northwest part of the state, which could get him some attention from the voters in that region. With another season similar to last year, he’ll end up averaging a double-double for his career, and doing so with remarkable efficiency, and those types of numbers will be difficult to ignore.
Odds he wins Mr. Basketball: The future Jackrabbit probably doesn’t have much of a chance this season, but that’s because of the overwhelming resumes that the top four players on this list will have. It should say something about how deep this 2019 class in Iowa is that a future D1 player is only 10th on our list for Mr. Basketball.