The following is the most obvious sentence you will read all day.
Stanley Johnson is the Register’s Orange County boys basketball player of the year.
Johnson, a 6-foot-7 senior at Mater Dei, led the county in scoring at 25 points a game. He averaged 8.1 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 2.5 steals.
He has played in a handful of national postseason all-star games, including the McDonald’s All-America game.
Johnson was Trinity League player of the year, CIF-SS Open Division player of the year, Gatorade state player of the year, and MaxPreps’ national player of the year.
He was the Register’s player of the year last season, and capturing the honor this season, too, was on Johnson’s list of goals.
“It’s special to win it again,” he said. “To do it my senior year is the most special because of the season we had.”
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RELATED:
2013-14 All-County boys basketball team
Canyon’s Harrison is boys basketball coach of the year
All-County boys basketball: Second team
All-County boys basketball: Other teams
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Mater Dei won Southern Section and CIF state championships, and was named MaxPreps’ national champion. The Monarchs went 35-0, their first undefeated season since 1985. Johnson was the chief reason for all of that, and Mater Dei coach Gary McKnight is grateful.
“Stanley’s talent level and his will to make sure we win was second to none,” McKnight said. “At the same time, he was able to work with other guys on the team to get them involved and was even like a coach at times.”
Johnson played point guard for the Monarchs because they needed him to do so. But he could thrive at any position on the court.
“For a high school kid to be able to go from center to shooting guard to point guard, that’s just unheard of,” McKnight said.
“I didn’t volunteer to play the point,” Johnson said. “But that’s what our team needed me to do.”
Johnson could score in every way possible, and he was assigned to cover the opposing team’s best offensive player. His individual game achievements in 35 games are plentiful.
Just a sample …
He scored 38 points, 28 of those during the fourth quarter and two overtime periods, as Mater Dei beat Etiwanda in a CIF Southern California Regionals Open Division semifinal.
Johnson scored 28 points with 15 rebounds, five of those offensive rebounds, in a win over Chino Hills in the CIF-SS Open Division championship game. In the final minute he made the go-ahead basket and some win-clinching free throws.
He scored 25 points with eight assists in a win over Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland in the CIF State Championships Open Division final. That win gave Mater Dei four state titles in Johnson’s four years as a Monarch.
Johnson scored 27 points in a win over Whitney Young of Chicago in the Nike Extravaganza.
That’s player of the year stuff. Is it “best Orange County player ever” stuff?
Mater Dei assistant coach Jerry DeBusk, whose 37 years of coaching (20 as head coach at Santa Margarita) includes five section and two state championships, said Johnson is in that discussion.
“He’s right there with guys like Klay Thompson,” said DeBusk, referring to the Golden State star whom DeBusk coached at Santa Margarita. “Guys like Chris Burgess and Miles Simon.
“Stanley sees the game extremely well,” DeBusk continued, “and he can ‘talk’ the game as well as any high school player I’ve been around. He has a very, very good feel for the game.”
Now, it’s on to Arizona for Johnson, who signed with the Wildcats in November. The NBA beckons, too.
How soon?
“I think Stanley’s a one-year or two-year college player,” McKnight said. “I’d like to see him play four years in college to become one of the best players in college basketball.”
In the 2013-14 season, Johnson was the best player in county high school basketball.
Maybe he was the best player ever.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
