Here’s a depiction of the 20 x 30 poster that John Penkala won, as designed by Tamela Anderson (aka Mrs. Twine Line).
Twenty-one readers, in the course of participating in The Elkhart Truth contest to predict my Top 10 Elkhart County boys basketball players of the last 25 years, combined to include 18 players not even in my Top 25 as parts of their Top 10.
So, the readers presented even more proof of how challenging this project was.
Today we review how the readers voted.
There were 35 ballots submitted (you could vote more than once, and 14 readers did so), and as far as I can tell, each ballot was a genuinely serious and thoughtful effort. There was no naming of a player who should not have all been considered, and no ballot naming players from just one, two or three favorite schools.
Overall, 28 players were named on those reader ballots — and that’s even though the readers already knew who my Nos. 14 through 25 were and logically did not duplicate those choices.
Readers could also wait to vote after my Nos. 11-13 were revealed (Aaron Thomas, Matt Grieser and Brent Eaton) and about half the ballots did indeed come after that point.
Otherwise, there likely would’ve been at least 43 players submitted for Top 10 consideration.
Looking at the readers’ choices collectively, they wound up with the same top three players in the same order as myself, going with Shawn Kemp, Jamar Johnson and Ross Hales.
The rest of their composite Top 10 consisted of the same set of players as mine, but the order varied.
The most notable difference was their placement of Dairese Gary at No. 4, while I had Gary at No. 9. I say Gary’s spectacular college career combined with that career being so recent had some influence there (I did not weigh college bodies of work), but as I also said before, you could shuffle my Nos. 3 through 12 into virutally any order without getting much argument from me.
As for myself, as we put a wrap on this, I’ve been largely unswayed on my order by the feedback, constructive and otherwise. Regardless, all of it is appreciated.
The most difficult part for me wasn’t the Top 10, but having to leave some players out of the Top 25 altogether.
I won’t go any further than one more player on my order — though I could go about 10 further, and it would include several players no readers had on their ballots – but my next man up would’ve been Kevin Sindle of Memorial. Here’s a guy I pushed without reservation for Indiana All-Star consideration based on his senior year, and a guy who overcame an incredible hardship in the process that was no fault of his own, and he doesn’t make my Top 25?
So, if I were to do this over, I might’ve had but one change, or at least a way to create one more tie. Maybe. Still not sure.
Anyway, it’s been a blast other than the pain of the actual sequencing of players.
One of the amusing things for me was what a lightning rod of sorts that Ryan Thwaits happened to become for all things Top 25.
It was the selection of Thwaits, at No. 16, that inspired the first email from a fellow player. Upon Thwaits’ selection, an endorsing Derrick Deshone, who had been tabbed No. 17 a week earlier, wrote that “Ryan Thwaits is one of the best, if not the best (and smartest) player I have seen. … Love his game and he was very underrated!”
On the flip side, when I phoned No. 11 Aaron Thomas (getting back in touch with some of these players for updates was an especially rewarding part of this project), the first thing he said was, “I don’t care where you put me, as long as it’s higher than Thwaits.”
Thomas went on to quickly explain that he was kidding about one of his good friends.
It was also Thwaits who submitted one of the two entries I happened to receive from former players.
And, it was Thwaits who had the only ballot of all to exactly match my Top 5.
Hmm — you’re right, Derrick, Ryan was the smartest player.
Closing this out, listed below are the top finishers in our reader contest.
As outlined in a recent Twine Line, 110 points were possible in the contest. Individuals received 20 points for getting No. 1 exactly right and 10 points for each other player they had in exactly the same spot as myself. For each player named who matched a player in my Top 10 but what was not in the same exact spot, one point was subtracted for each spot of difference.
John Penkala and Fred Stayton each won some prizes outlined in that column (Stayton by virtue of a tiebreaker).
Finally, below the top-readers list is the composite list of how the readers voted. A No. 1 vote was worth 10 points, a No. 2 worth nine, and so on down to one point for a No. 10 vote. As you’ll see, Sindle, Jayme Mathews of Fairfield and Kyle Johnson of Jimtown each got at least five mentions. Tremendous players, all. Again, bear in mind that my players who were ranked Nos. 14 through 25 aren’t a part of the list, as explained above, and that my Nos. 11-13 mentioned above were also revealed before about half the ballots were submitted, so in that regard, the list is quite skewed.
Top Reader Ballots
(110 points possible)
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John Penkala 98
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Fred Stayton 94
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Brian Jamison 94
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Ryan Thwaits 94
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John Preheim 88
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John Hulewicz 88
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Fred Stayton 88
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Trent Bitting 87
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John Bitting 86
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Bill Kurtz 86
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Dave Vollmar 85
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(Note: Individuals could enter twice, and Stayton had two of the top entries.)
Reader Top-10 Composite Voting*
(350 points possible; first number in parentheses is ballots named on out of 35; a second number in parentheses indicates No. 1 votes)
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Shawn Kemp/Concord (35/33) 347 points
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Jamar Johnson/Concord (35/1) 300
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Ross Hales/Memorial (31) 203
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Dairese Gary/Concord (30) 184
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Ryne Lightfoot/NorthWood (33) 168
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Shawntes Gary/Concord (31) 143
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Andy Hirschy/NorthWood (30) 128
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Derek Drews/Central (29) 120
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Andrew Hershberger/Goshen (26) 84
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Todd Johnson/Memorial (15) 63
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Aaron Thomas/Northridge (8) 29
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Kyle Johnson/Jimtown (5/1) 27
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Brent Eaton/Northridge (6) 23
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Jayme Mathews/Fairfield (6) 19
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Kevin Sindle/Memorial (8) 18
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Ben Werner/Fairfield (2) 10
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Matt Grieser/Goshen (3) 9
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Tyler Leighton/Jimtown (3) 8
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Eric Eaton/Northridge (2) 8
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Brian Bechtel/Fairfield (3) 7
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Mike Swanson/Concord (1) 7
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Bill Mutch/Concord (2) 6
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Kyle Sears/Memorial (1) 6
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Andy Ganger/Goshen (1) 3
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Eliot Friesen/Bethany (1) 2
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Jeremy Herring/Jimtown (1) 1
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Robby Prenkert/NorthWood (1) 1
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Charlie Roeder/NorthWood (1) 1
* — Denotes Anthony’s Nos. 14-25 (Ben Larson, Daimon Beathea, Ryan Thwaits, Derrick DeShone, Skyler Titus, Roger Prough, Jeff Massey, Brodie Garber, Karvel Andreson, Demarco Taylor, Jordi Buller, Anthony Kyle and James Scott) were not eligible to be voted upon in above list.
