CHICAGO -- For the first time in five years, the state of Ohio is represented in the prestigious McDonald's All-American Game.
Wednesday night's game, which annually brings together many of the nation's best graduating high school basketball players, marks the first time since 2008 that two Ohio players will play in the game. Luke Kennard of Franklin High School in Southwest Ohio will play for the East team, while Carlton Bragg of Villa Angela-St. Joseph in Cleveland will play for the West team.
The 6'5 Kennard is headed to Duke after winning the last two Ohio Mr. Basketball awards. Kennard finished his high school career as Ohio's second all-time leading high school scorer with 2,977 points.
The 6'9 Bragg helped VASJ to a Div. III state championship last weekend. Last winter he announced he'll attend Kansas.
Bragg becomes the third McDonald's All-American from his school. Treg Lee of St. Joseph played in the McDonald's Game in 1987, and though Clark Kellogg was chosen for the 1979 game he could not play because of a conflict with St. Joseph's Ohio state title run. The school became Villa Angela-St. Joseph for the 1990-91 school year.
The McDonald's All-American Game dates to 1978. Ohio has hosted the game twice; it's no coincidence that Cleveland hosted the 2003 game that featured LeBron James and Ohio State's Schottenstein Center hosted the 2010 game that featured Jared Sullinger.
Wednesday night marks the fifth-straight time the game will be played in Chicago's United Center. Kennard won the event's annual 3-point contest held earlier this week at the University of Chicago.
Sullinger was the last Ohio player to play in the McDonald's Game in 2010. James is the only player to win Ohio's Mr. Basketball three times; other multiple winners include Sullinger, Kennard, O.J. Mayo, Greg Simpson and Jim Jackson. All were McDonald's All-Americans, though Mayo played his senior season at Huntington (W.V.) High School.
Besides VASJ, Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary is the only Ohio school to have multiple McDonald's All-Americans: James in 2003 and Jerome Lane in 1985.
Kennard is the first Dayton-area player since Daequan Cook of Dunbar in 2006. Bragg is the first Cleveland-area player in the McDonald's Game since Jawad Williams of Lakewood St. Edward in 2001.
Delvon Roe, also of St. Edward, likely would have been chosen in 2008 but suffered a knee injury that caused him to come up short of the required number of high school games to be selected to the McDonald's All-American Game.
This marks just the sixth time two Ohioans have been selected to the game in the same year. The others were William Buford (Toledo Libbey) and B.J. Mullens (Canal Winchester) in 2008; James and Drew Lavender (Columbus Brookhaven) in 2003; Damon Flint (Cincinnati Woodward) and Chris Kingsbury (Hamilton) in 1993; Lane and Rick Calloway (Cincinnati Withrow) in 1985, and Kellogg and John Paxson (Kettering Alter) in 1979.
