Mississippi High School Boys Basketball Player of the Week: How Voting Works & How to Win

Why the February ballot looks the way it does

Twelve nominees. Two players from Ridgeland on the same list. Two from Heritage Academy. One from a town called Shaw you may not be able to place on a map without looking it up. That is the Feb. 20, 2025 ballot for Mississippi's boys basketball Player of the Week, and it is worth reading carefully before you touch the poll.

Start with the geography. Shaw is a small Delta town in Bolivar County. South Pontotoc is a rural school in Pontotoc County. Hamilton sits in Monroe County near the Alabama line. Woodlawn Prep is a private school in Jackson. Starkville draws from a college town. All six communities have a fundamentally different support infrastructure — different alumni networks, different social media habits, different group-chat chains. They all land on the same ballot.

Then look at the stat lines. Demetrick Price Jr. of Shaw put up 41 points, 15 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals. Wilson McDonald of Alcorn Central went for 36 and 4 steals. David Washington of Starkville contributed 27 points but also 12 rebounds and 8 assists — a complete game across all five categories. Phil Nelson of Ridgeland had only 31 points, but 8 steals. Chris Willis of Hamilton posted 27 points and 9 assists without a single block or steal on the stat sheet.

The ballot does not weight these differently. A dominant scorer, an elite defender, a pass-first playmaker — they are all nominees, and the winner is whichever school's community shows up most completely by Sunday night. That is the entire mechanic.

What the Jan. 7 ballot adds: multi-game totals from a holiday stretch

The Jan. 7, 2025 poll covered Dec. 29 through Jan. 4 — a stretch that included multiple game days during the holiday break. Reed Green compiled aggregate lines, not single-game box scores, and the numbers reflect that.

Crayden Shannon of Saltillo: 91 points across three games (39, 27, 25), 13 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals. That is a three-game total. Cade Culpepper of Clarkdale: 83 points across three games, 31 rebounds, 9 assists, 8 steals, 3 blocks. Both players cleared 80 aggregate points on the same ballot. For context on what that means: a player averaging 27 points a game over a three-game week is already having an exceptional week. Shannon averaged 30.3.

Phil Nelson appeared on this ballot too — 24 points, 71% field goal percentage, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals — then came back six weeks later on the Feb. 20 ballot with 31 points and 8 steals. Multi-week nominations are not a fluke; they happen when a player is consistently producing at a level that Reed Green keeps noticing. That matters for communities planning a campaign: a player who made the list in January has demonstrated they can make it again.

The ballot size varies — 8 one week, 12 the next — and so does the vote concentration. Fewer nominees means votes are less split; each community's share of the total is larger. When the field is 8 rather than 12, reaching the same number of real voters produces a higher percentage of the final count.

MHSAA and MAIS on the same list — what it actually means

Public school or private, MHSAA or MAIS, Class 7A or 1A — none of those distinctions exist on the ballot. The Feb. 20 field had Heritage Academy (MAIS private) and Jackson Academy (MAIS private) alongside Ridgeland, Starkville, Shaw, Hamilton, and others governed by the MHSAA. Two Heritage Academy players appeared at the same time.

This is worth naming plainly: in MHSAA competition, MAIS schools play in their own association and never meet MHSAA schools in playoffs. On the SI ballot they compete for the same recognition in the same week. A school that would never share a floor with a rival in a sanctioned game shares a ballot with them every week of the season.

The practical implication is that Heritage Academy's fan base — which mobilizes for private-school sports through a distinct social network from the MHSAA public school community — is a real voting force on any week their players are nominated. Jackson Academy's network is similar. Those communities are accustomed to rallying for recognition they would not receive in a public-school post-season; when a SI ballot arrives, they use it.

Running a campaign before the Sunday deadline

The basketball poll closes Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Pacific — the same deadline Reed Green uses for the football poll. Basketball's weekend rhythm works in a supporter's favor: games happen Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and fans are already following scores when the new ballot drops. A link shared Friday night after a strong performance, then again Saturday after the next game, lands when supporters are most engaged.

Getting on the ballot in the first place requires reaching Reed Green. Send nominations to [email protected] or @reed_green7 on X, with the full stat line, opponent, and final score. The Jan. 7 ballot shows Green will compile multi-game aggregates for players who perform across a holiday stretch — so a player with strong outings Dec. 29 and Jan. 2 is worth nominating even if neither game alone is a standout.

Once the ballot is live, the contest is pure reach before Sunday. The organizer does not limit votes, so widening the circle — every player sharing the link in their own group chat, a booster page posting Saturday morning and again Sunday afternoon — matters more than grinding from one device. Because this poll is open and settled entirely by who turns out, vote-support campaigns built for weekly fan polls apply directly here.

More Mississippi fan-vote contests are listed at /usa/mississippi/. The full national directory of high school fan votes is at /usa/.