The 2026 Boys Basketball State Tournament Superlatives and All-Tournament Team

The final games of the high school basketball season completed this past weekend in Madison as 15 state tournament games were played and five state champions were crowned. Below is the all-tournament team and a few superlatives for each Division.

Long-time head coach Steve Collins announced in his post-game press conference that he will be stepping down as head coach of Madison Memorial. Collins is one of the best coaches in state history in Wisconsin, having led the Spartans to eleven state tournaments, three state championships, and five runner-up finishes. Collins finishes his coaching tenure with 519 career wins, which puts him in the top 25 all-time in state history.

Zavier Zens was announced as Mr. Basketball in the state of Wisconsin in front of the Kohl Center crowd before their game on Friday night. He finished his prep career with a third straight state championship, as a 1,000 point scorer, and earning all the honors this year. In this state tournament, Zens scored 41 combined points while shooting 70% from the field. He was the catalyst in the championship game and has been a pleasure to watch over the last three years. After leading arguably one of the best high school teams in state history, Zens will head to Northern Iowa next season to continue his basketball career.

Anthony Miller of Madison Memorial had the Kohl Center buzzing plenty in the two games he played in. Leading a Memorial team that shot lights out from three in game one, Miller tied the Division 1 State Tournament record by making ten triples in the two games, shooting 71% from beyond the arc. His shot is short and compact, but pure. Miller set a tone in the state championship game, making four triples in the first half, including two early on.

Andrew Braun, sr, Madison Memorial
Grant Hardy, sr, Appleton North
Bennett Reimer, sr, De Pere
Riley Walz, jr, Wisconsin Lutheran

Jack Bookter, sr, De Pere
Kager Knueppel, jr, Wisconsin Lutheran
Kinston Knueppel, soph, Wisconsin Lutheran
Caleb Liggon, sr, Madison Memorial
Anthony Miller, sr, Madison Memorial
Nathan Ramus, sr, Appleton North
Matthew Rosplochowski, soph, Appleton North
Zavier Zens, sr, Wisconsin Lutheran

Zavier Zens, Wisconsin Lutheran

With Whitefish Bay winning the Division 2 boys basketball state championship the Blue Dukes are the kings and queens of the Division 2 basketball in the state of Wisconsin. The Whitefish Bay girls won the Division 2 state championship a weekend ago and the party in the Bay will continue as the amount of gold going back to the school has now doubled.

Division 2 saw a trio of players that aren’t the primary or even possibly the secondary scoring options have huge contributions in their state game/s. For West Salem, junior Elliott Corcoran has come on huge in the second half of the season and coming off the bench, he scored 17 points and hauled in 5 rebounds in the semifinal loss. Bryson Fogle was the steadying leader for Slinger in both games and had a pair of 20-point performances on the biggest stage. Jack Brodersen is at times the fourth scoring option for Whitefish Bay as the Blue Dukes have a talented guard rotation. In the championship game, he showed that he could be the number one guy on plenty of teams across the state. Brodersen finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds for the state champs.

Elliott Corcoran, jr, West Salem
Matt Schoenfeldt, sr, Whitefish Bay
Jude Siikarla, jr, Slinger

Jack Brodersen, jr, Whitefish Bay
Bryson Fogle, sr, Slinger
Colin Julien, jr, Whitefish Bay
Jack Kohnen, jr, Slinger
Eli Krueger, jr, McFarland
Tyson Labus, sr, Whitefish Bay
Mace Miskel, soph, Whitefish Bay

Colin Julien, Whitefish Bay

Racine St. Catherine’s played 36 minutes on Thursday and Saturday. The Angels played full court defense for all 36. Seymour and Lake Mills are two very good teams and top 5 teams in Division 3, no doubt. The Angels defense forced 32 turnovers in two games and had plenty more deflections that stalled possessions. Ryan Thompson’s group was relentless, had the quickest hands, and did not seem to run out of energy in 36 minutes of play.

Brady Benish is one of the top shooters in the state and got to show that to a statewide audience on Thursday afternoon. Despite the fact Lake Mills lost, Benish had the Kohl Center and his opponents buzzing in the semifinal matchup with St. Cats. He buried eight of sixteen shots from deep and finished with a game high 26 points. The final three he buried was a 20-foot step back with Jayden Phillips right in his face. It resulted in a genuine reaction from Phillips that gave the respect to Benish and also looked like “how did he just do that”. The two shared a dap up then and after the game, one of the biggest signs of respect you can get on the basketball court.

LaMont Hamilton was a part of the state championship St. Cats football team a season ago. In that game he had 155 receiving yards, 87 return yards, and 33 rush yards as well as four touchdowns. He’ll head to Minnesota to play football for the Gophers next year. Hamilton led St. Cats to a gold ball this past weekend at the Kohl Center and had 43 points between the two games. Hamilton is a perfect example of why we should encourage students to be multi-sport athletes. The pros of being a multi-sport athlete far outweigh the cons, and supporting that as coaches and parents should be much encouraged.

Collin Christian, jr, Lake Mills
Jayden Phillips, sr, Racine St. Catherine’s
Xavier Salzman, sr, Seymour

Brady Benish, sr, Lake Mills
Isaac Feske, jr, Seymour
Tanner Grinnell, sr, Saint Croix Central
LaMont Hamilton, sr, Racine St. Catherine’s
Kyler Marks, sr, Seymour
AC Ward, sr, Racine St. Catherine’s

LaMont Hamilton, Racine St. Catherine’s

Cambridge showed why it got to the school’s first state tournament and eventual state championship game this week by doing what they’ve done all year, cutting to the basket. In the Bonduel game, the Blue Jays attacked baseline and scored off of weak side 45° cuts almost at-will. In the championship game, Cambridge took advantage of the Pioneers’ aggressive play in the passing lanes and hit a good amount of back door cuts, resulting in baskets at the rim.

Hardiman took a back seat to teammate Dooney Johnson in the first half of the Division 5 state championship game with Cambridge. The Cambridge defense adjusted in the second half, staying sound in their gaps off-ball and limiting Johnson’s ability to get to the rim and resulting in just six second-half points. Enter Hardiman who had 15 of 17 points in the second half. In transition and the half court, Hardiman got to the rim and finished with thunderous dunks. His most impressive came off a put-back where he was fouled and finished the and-1 at the free throw line. It came after a four minute Pioneer possession when Juneau was up just two points.

The drum line is by far and away my favorite half time performance you can see at the state basketball tournament. It had been a while since we’ve seen a drum line at the state tournament, but in the Division 4 semifinal game against Regis, Juneau brought out a drum line for the halftime show. A group of about ten Juneau students brought the energy at half court. If you weren’t there, you wouldn’t have noticed that one of those drummers was a player on the basketball roster. Tiouwalase Oni was part of the drum line, dressed in his jersey that he wore during the game.

Oscar Brown, soph, Cambridge
Jasan Dennis, sr, Milwaukee Juneau
Jack Weier, soph, Bonduel

DJ Cooper, soph, Regis
Jaden Hardiman, sr, Milwaukee Juneau
Jett Horton, sr, Cambridge
Dooney Johnson, jr, Milwaukee Juneau
Cal Nottestad, sr, Cambridge
Blake Risler, sr, Regis
Takis Tyler, sr, Milwaukee Juneau
Ryan Westrich, sr, Bonduel

Dooney Johnson, jr, Milwaukee Juneau

Reedsville senior point guard Ben Prochnow is just what the headline says, a wizard with the ball in his hand. He’s led the stat in assists per game the last two seasons, averaging 10.8 this year for the Panthers. In the two state games, Prochnow had 17 assists. To add to his sorcery, the lead guard hit a 360° layup to give the Panthers a one-point lead with 13 seconds left in the state semifinal game against Sheboygan Lutheran.

If you didn’t tune into the Friday morning game between Reedsville and Sheboygan Lutheran, you missed arguably the most entertaining and best game of the entire tournament. What you may have missed on the TV was the coaching chess match between Reedsville’s Ron Prochnow and Sheboygan Lutheran’s Nick Verhagen. Prochnow seemed to have a never-ending list of sets he would relay to his son and point guard Ben to initiate offensively. Coach Verhagen and his assistants were paying close attention each possession and yelling out the calls/defensive assignment each set. As a coach, this was one of my favorite things to watch during the entire tournament.

All three of the Division 5 games were relatively competitive. Reedsville and Sheboygan Lutheran showed out in the first game on Friday. The second half of Southwestern and Prentice had a comeback and over 80 points scored. The championship game with Southwestern and Prentice had a lightning first half pace and was close as well. On top of that, the communities showed out for all four teams, making for a great showcase for Division 5 at this year’s state tournament.

Hardy Hueckman, jr, Prentice
Remi Lawrence, sr, Southwestern
Jack Schwahn, sr, Reedsville

Cayden DeMuth, sr, Southwestern
Brennen Hackbarth, sr, Sheboygan Lutheran
Aiden Keleher, sr, Southwestern
Oliver Leibham, sr, Sheboygan Lutheran
Evan Lord, sr, Prentice
Ben Prochnow, sr, Reedsville
Arden Strenn, sr, Reedsville

Ben Prochnow, sr, Reedsville