Best High School Boys Basketball Player in Every State 2022: Midwest

These are the best high school boys basketball players in every state headed into the 2022-2023 season for the midwestern states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Best High School Boys Basketball Player in Every State 2022: Midwest

It's a pretty simple concept — you have the No. 1 draft pick in every state in the U.S. when it comes to high school boys and girls basketball. Who do you take?

Welcome to Stadium Talk's picks for the best boys basketball players in every state headed into the 2022-2023 season. This week we're looking at the midwestern states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Illinois: Dai Dai Ames

High School: Kenwood Academy (Chicago)

Position: Point Guard

Graduation Year: 2023

Height/Weight: 6-foot-2, 165 pounds

College: Kansas State (committed)

Bottom Line: Darren "Dai Dai" Ames — great name — was named Class 4A All-State as a junior in 2022 after he averaged 19.3 points, 4.7 assists and 2.4 steals. He is already committed to playing for new Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang, who has already made inroads with many of the top recruits in the midwest.

Ames might only be 6-foot-2, but he's a nightmare on both ends of the floor, as he can fill it up on one end and is a defensive menace on the other.

Indiana: Xavier Booker

High School: Cathedral High School (Indianapolis)

Position: Center/Power Forward

Graduation Year: 2023

Height/Weight: 6-foot-10, 210 pounds

College: Michigan State (committed)

Bottom Line: Cathedral High center and Michigan State commit Xavier Booker is a Top 10 national recruit and a player who could make an immediate impact at the next level.

Booker had a breakout season as a junior in 2021-22 — averaging 12.5 points and 6.7 rebounds as he helped lead a stacked Cathedral squad to a Class 4A state championship.

Iowa: Omaha Biliew

High School: Waukee Senior High School (Waukee, Iowa)

Position: Forward

Graduation Year: 2023

Height/Weight: 6-foot-8, 210 pounds

College: Iowa State (committed)

Bottom Line: Don't get it twisted — Waukee Senior High power forward Omaha Biliew could be a game-changer for Iowa State if he ever ends up on campus, and he's the highest-rated recruit the Cyclones have landed in the modern era.

Biliew, a five-star prospect Top 10 recruit for the Class of 2023, has a pro-ready body at 6-foot-8 and 210 pounds and picked Iowa State over Kansas, Oregon and the G-League Ignite. Why do we love Biliew so much? It's rare to find a player this young who has already crafted his reputation based on his defense and rebounding. That's the good stuff.

Kansas: Matas Buzelis

High School: Sunrise Christian Academy (Wichita, Kansas)

Position: Small Forward/Shooting Guard

Graduation Year: 2023

Height/Weight: 6-foot-9, 190 pounds

College: G-League Ignite (professional)

Bottom Line: Matas Buzelis will spend his final year of high school basketball at Sunrise Christian Academy after being named the 2022 New Hampshire Gatorade Player of the Year, leading Brewster Academy to the NEPSAC Class AAA championship as a junior.

Buzelis averaged 11.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.3 blocks and 1.2 steals for Brewster in 2021-22 and played for the World Team at the Nike Hoop Summit following his season. The son of a former Lithuanian National Team player, Buzelis started his career at Hinsdale Central (Ill.) High and is projected to be a lottery pick in the 2024 NBA Draft after spending what would be his freshman year of college with the NBA's G-League Ignite.

Michigan: Trey McKenney

High School: St. Mary's Prep (Orchard Lake, Michigan)

Position: Guard

Graduation Year: 2025

Height/Weight: 6-foot-4, 205 pounds

College: Uncommitted

Bottom Line: St. Mary's Prep star Trey McKenney is already a Top 20 recruit for the Class of 2025 — it's not hard to see him continuing to rise in those rankings over the next two years as Big Ten and Big 12 teams are already falling over themselves to get at the 6-foot-4, 200-pound guard.

McKenney was named a MaxPreps Freshman All-American in 2022 after he averaged 16.5 points and 6.3 rebounds for St. Mary's and started every game for his school on the way to a 20-5 record. He's also the only sophomore from the midwestern states to make our list.

Minnesota: Daniel Freitag

High School: Jefferson Senior High School (Minneapolis)

Position: Guard

Graduation Year: 2024

Height/Weight: 6-foot-2, 175 pounds

College: Uncommitted

Bottom Line: Jefferson's Daniel Freitag was the only underclassman to make the Minnesota AP All-State squad — first or second team — after he averaged 26.7 points as a sophomore in 2021-22.

With two years of high school basketball still left to play, Freitag's stock continues to rise and he could be a Top 50 national recruit soon. Freitag had an early offer from Wisconsin before his sophomore year and now holds offers from Baylor, Iowa, Iowa State, Minnesota, Virginia and Nebraska as well.

Missouri: Elliot Cadeau

High School: Link Academy (Branson, Missouri)

Position: Point Guard

Graduation Year: 2024

Height/Weight: 6-foot-1, 170 pounds

College: Uncommitted

Bottom Line: Elliot Cadeau will be in a new state and at a new school for his junior season with Link Academy — the five-star recruit and No. 1 point guard in the Class of 2024 played as a freshman at Bergen Catholic (N.J.) High and missed his entire sophomore year with a high ankle sprain.

Cadeau is one of the more unique prospects you'll see on this list — he plays for Sweden's national team (his mom is Swedish) and helped lead them to the 2022 FIBA U18 European Championship Division B gold medal over the summer, earning tournament MVP honors after he averaged 21.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists.

Also worth noting and in the same vein — Cadeau's sponsorship deal with Swedish company Vitamin Drink made him the first U.S. high school player to sign an international Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) contract.

Nebraska: Josiah Dotzler

High School: Bellevue West High School (Bellevue, Nebraska)

Position: Point Guard

Graduation Year: 2023

Height/Weight: 6-foot-3, 180 pounds

College: Creighton

Bottom Line: Bellevue West guard Josiah Dotzler has been one of the elite players in the midwest the last two seasons, helping lead his school to a Class A state title as a freshman, followed by back-to-back state runner-up finishes the last two seasons.

Dotzler's stats have made a significant leap each year, and as a junior, he averaged 15.7 points, 4.5 assists and 2.3 steals. Dotzler will follow older brother Josh's footsteps on the college level — he's committed to play for Creighton, where Josh played from 2005 to 2009.

North Dakota: Darik Dissette

High School: Minot High School (Minot, North Dakota)

Position: Shooting Guard

Graduation Year: 2023

Height: 6-foot-4

College: North Dakota State

Bottom Line: Darik Dissette was named Class A All-State after leading Minot High to a 27-2 record and the Class A state championship as a junior in 2021-22.

Dissette averaged 22.0 points, 8.1 rebounds and shot 56 percent from the floor in his junior season and was at his best in the Class A state title game with 22 points and 13 rebounds in a 73-62 win over West Fargo on his way to being named Class A Tournament MVP.

Dissette will stay in his home state for his college basketball career — he committed to play for North Dakota State following his junior year.

Ohio: Gabe Cupps

High School: Centerville High School (Centerville, Ohio)

Position: Point Guard

Graduation Year: 2023

Height/Weight: 6-foot-2, 170 pounds

College: Indiana (committed)

Bottom Line: If Gabe Cupps looks familiar or his name sounds familiar, that tracks — he's the kid who went viral after he got into a 3-point shooting contest against the father of one of his AAU teammates when he was 14 years old … that father being NBA superstar LeBron James.

Cupps has become a star in the three years since that video blew up the internet, leading Centerville High to a Division I state runner-up finish in 2022, as he averaged 14.2 points, 6.8 assists and 2.5 rebounds. Cupps was named Mr. Ohio Basketball and Ohio MaxPreps Player of the Year as a junior and is committed to playing for Indiana.

Oklahoma: David Castillo

High School: Bartlesville High School (Bartlesville, Oklahoma)

Position: Guard

Graduation Year: 2024

Height/Weight: 6-foot-1, 165 pounds

College: Uncommitted

Bottom Line: Bartlesville's David Castillo was just one of three sophomores to make The Tulsa World's 2022 All-State team and might be one of the best guards in the country for the Class of 2024.

Castillo averaged 24.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists as a junior for Bartlesville, as his team went 9-9. (It's worth noting that Bartlesville is coached by former Kansas State guard Clent Stewart.) Where Castillo really turned heads for the first time was in international play as he helped lead the Team USA U16 National Team to a gold medal at the FIBA Americas World Championships in 2021.

South Dakota: JT Rock

High School: Lincoln High School (Sioux Falls, South Dakota)

Position: Center

Graduation Year: 2024

Height/Weight: 7-foot, 230 pounds

College: Uncommitted

Bottom Line: What an absolutely fascinating prospect. My goodness.

Lincoln High's 7-foot-1 center, JT Rock (another great name) still has two years to develop before he gets to the next level. He already has offers from Iowa, Creighton, Iowa State, Kansas and Minnesota, among others, and is arguably the best high school hoops prospect to come out of South Dakota since Mike Miller in the late 1990s.

He also seems like a pretty good dude.

Wisconsin: Milan Momcilovic

High School: Pewaukee High School (Pewaukee, Wisconsin)

Position: Forward

Graduation Year: 2023

Height/Weight: 6-foot-8, 205 pounds

College: Iowa State (committed)

Bottom Line: One of two players on this list committed to playing for Iowa State alongside Waukee (Iowa) power forward Omaha Biliew, Pewaukee High's Milan Momcilovic was named Division 2 All-State and the Woodland-West Conference Player of the Year after leading his school to the Division 2 state championship as a junior in 2021-22.

Momcilovic, 6-foot-8, averaged 18.1 points and 7.7 rebounds in 2021-22 and picked the Cyclones over offers from Minnesota, UCLA, Creighton and Virginia, among others. It's not hard to imagine him and Biliew tearing up Big 12 competition at the forward spots for the Cyclones in the near future.

Interested in high school basketball? Don't forget to check out our other high school basketball player rankings:

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