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

The thing most voters don't realize about this poll

There's no winner article. That's the single most useful thing to know before you invest time in this ballot. Every other High School on SI Mississippi poll — football, boys basketball, baseball — gets at least a brief write-up when a winner is declared. The girls basketball poll closes Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Pacific, and then the result lives in the vote count, not in a published story. If you want to know who won a given week, the closest thing to a record is the poll itself while it's still accessible.

This isn't a knock on the poll — it's just what the data shows. SI runs a lean operation for Mississippi girls basketball coverage, and Reed Green builds the weekly ballot from nominations sent to [email protected] or via X at @reed_green7. The infrastructure is the same as football (same platform, same Sunday close, same unlimited cap). What's different is what happens after: football results surface in a follow-up article; basketball results so far have not.

What that means practically: the confirmation a supporter's group is looking for — "did our player win?" — won't be waiting in a Google result on Monday morning. The poll is the record. Show up before Sunday night.

What two confirmed ballots reveal about this field

Two polls from the 2024–25 season give a clear picture of who this ballot draws on and what standout performances look like here.

The Jan 22 ballot — 10 nominees from games Jan 12–18 — was the richer of the two in terms of published data. Caitlin Hall of Coahoma County led with 30 points and 19 rebounds in a win over Holly Springs. Makylah Banks of J.Z. George logged 34 combined rebounds and 20 steals across three games — the steals total is not a rounding error. Riley Boone of Okolona posted 17 points, 15 rebounds, and 15 steals against Smithville. Three nominees with lines that would appear unusual at any level of the sport, and all three from programs outside the state's largest classifications.

The Feb 20 ballot was different. Eleven nominees, but the article published no stats — names and schools only. Meg Barbour (Jackson Prep), Olivia Tunstall (Thrasher), Taylor Garner (Falkner), Macie Phifer (Ingomar), Chloe Chism (New Site), Marleigh Myers (Leake Academy), Ella Robertson (Sumrall), Kayllis Walker (Laurel), Carlyle Carruth (Parklane Academy), Shamira Morton (Canton), and Laylah Johnson (Pigsah again). That late-season week shows two things: the field can appear twice in the same season (Laylah Johnson), and a stat-free ballot is still a real vote — a community that pushes hard enough wins regardless of what the article says about their player.

How the Sunday close actually works in Central time

The poll closes Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Pacific. Mississippi is Central time. Do the math: that's 1:59 a.m. Monday in Hernando, Starkville, Okolona, or anywhere else in the state. The practical effect is that Sunday evening is not the final push — Sunday night into early Monday morning still counts.

This differs from Mississippi in one specific way compared to the football Player of the Week, which draws on a larger and louder fanbase and peaks earlier on Sunday afternoon. A girls basketball community that keeps its link circulating into Sunday night is voting into a quieter field. The opponent's supporters have often gone quiet by then.

The other structural factor: a 10-to-11-name field concentrates votes. In football, the same SI Mississippi poll can carry 34 nominees — each vote lands in a larger pool and individual share moves more slowly. At 10 names, a school that shows up organized can shift the percentage fast. Fran Kelly's Hernando community mobilizing against 9 other schools is a different math problem than any football week with 30 nominees.

Getting on the ballot in the first place takes a nomination — stat line, opponent, score — sent to [email protected] or to @reed_green7 on X. A performance that nobody flags can be missed. The nomination is the first vote.

For how recurring fan votes work in general, the how-to guide walks through the weekly cadence. The boys basketball poll runs on the same Sunday schedule at mississippi boys basketball player of the week. More Mississippi contest coverage is at /usa/mississippi/, and the national directory is at /usa/.