Morning State Sports Briefs: Dekker named AP state Player of the Year

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Sam Dekker of Sheboygan Lutheran was named yesterday as the AP boys’ state high school basketball player-of-the-year. Dekker edged out Zak Showalter of Germantown in voting by a statewide panel of sports-writers and broadcasters. Both are headed to UW-Madison this fall to play for Bo Ryan’s Wisconsin Badgers.

Dekker made one of the most memorable shots in years at the WIAA state tournament. His three-pointer with six seconds left gave Sheboygan Lutheran the Division-Five championship. The shot went viral on the Internet – and it showed up in ESPN’s “Best-of-the-Best” poll on its Web site. Meanwhile, Showalter’s father Steve was named the boys’ state coach-of-the-year. His Germantown team won the Division 1 title on Saturday night. Showalter reluctantly took over the coaching job 12 years ago while serving as a Germantown police officer. He still does both jobs. Dekker and Zak Showalter also made the AP’s all-state first team, along with J.P. Tokoto of Menomonee Falls, Matt Thomas of Onalaska, and Jordan Fouse of Racine Saint Catherine’s.

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Marquette University athletic director Larry Williams says his school is looking forward to tomorrow night’s NCAA men’s basketball Sweet-16 game against Florida. And they’ve put an alcohol incident behind them, in which six players got $374 tickets for being underage in a Milwaukee night club where alcohol was served. The incident happened on January 29th at Apartment 720, a club for VIP’s that’s only open on weekends. The tickets were handed out March 12th. And Milwaukee Police released records of the citations yesterday, two days before the game. MU Head Coach Buzz Williams says the timing “doesn’t add up.” He says both he and his players have been accountable. The athletic director said the six players were disciplined, but he didn’t say how. Vander Blue was ticketed along with Todd Mayo, Derrick Wilson, Juan Anderson, Jamail Jones, and Jake Thomas. All but Thomas are in Marquette’s regular playing rotation. Third-seeded Marquette plays Number-seven Florida tomorrow in the semi-finals of the NCAA West Regional in Phoenix. Wisconsin plays top-seeded Syracuse tomorrow night at the East Regional in Boston.

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A junior guard from suburban Milwaukee says he’ll play his college basketball at Marquette. Duane Wilson of Whitefish Bay Dominican made an unofficial visit to the Golden Eagles on February 19th and told his parents that night he wanted to play for them. But the family decided not to announce the commitment until after the season. And yesterday, Wilson announced his plans during a school assembly that celebrated Dominican’s Division 4 state championship from last weekend. He averaged 19 points, six assists, four rebounds, and three steals for a Whitefish Bay Dominican squad that went 27-1. Wilson was named an all-state selection by the coaches’ association, and was named a second team all-stater by the AP.

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