Daniel Alexander Wins Jonathan Bender Award

Top Left: Daniel Alexander and Villanova commit Maalik Wayns accepting their hardware.

Top Right: 2010 6'4" Jacob Horton of Houston Clearlake

Middle: 2010 6'8" Daniel Alexander of Dripping Springs

Bottom: 2011 6'0" Jake Kocher of Austin St. Michael'sThe quick weekend trip to Philadelphia for myself and three young Texas hoopers was a great experience for everyone. Rick Barrett's Midnight Madness was chock full of talent at every level, as far down as the Class of 2015.

6'0" Kamari Peel is a 12 year old 7 footer in the making, and Malik Ellison, son of Louisville Cardinal & NBA-ex Pervis Ellison stole the show. As in most of these events though, everyone comes to see the big boys.

Austin St. Michael's 2011 6'0' G Jake Kocher notched 10 points in the 2011 Game, on 4-6 shooting from the field.

Houston Clear Lake's 2010 6'4" Jacob Horton had 5 points on 2-3 shooting and also grabbed 5 boards in the 2010 Game.

With four East Coast McDonald's All American voters on hand, including Bob Gibbon's Top Assistant, Austin's 2010 6'8" W Daniel Alexander had 17 points and 7 boards in the marquee game at Rick Barrett's Midnight Madness. The Big Game was televised to over 9 million homes from Maine to Virginia on the Comcast Network. For his performance, Alexander grabbed the Jonathan Bender Top Underclassman Award, named after the young NBA great who was a schoolboy phenom from Mississippi.

In our haste to get to the airport at 3:30AM Sunday morning, Daniel forgot his trophy (pictured above) in the hotel room. Why'd we get such an early flight out? ...because Daniel wanted to rush back to Austin to be part of his sister's Baptism in Dripping Springs. He made it...by 5 minutes.

Congratulations to all of our Texas players. They distinguished themselves on the court and even more importantly conducted themselves like gentlemen.