Mentor’s Fritts named Mr. Basketball

Associated Press

Justin Fritts has almost a 4.0 grade-point average, scores 28 points a game in basketball and is a star pitcher.

Oh, and he also likes his little brother.

The basketball part of that is the biggest reason why he is the 25th winner of the Ohio Associated Press Mr. Basketball award, announced Wednesday. But the rest also says quite a bit about the Mentor High School senior.

“My brother’s name is Brandon. He’s 16 and he also goes to Mentor,” Fritts said.

So, is it kind of a pain to have a little brother at school with you?

“Oh, no. He’s a good kid,” Fritts said. “He got the height in the family. He’s 6-foot-4. So I’m a little jealous, but I’ll live with it.”

Fritts, a 6-2 swingman, averaged 28.1 points, 8 rebounds, 3.7 steals and 2.9 assists for Mentor, which finished the season ranked No. 3 in the AP’s Division I rankings.

His coach, Bob Krizancic, marvels at what kind of a player he was.

“In his four-year career, we won 84 games, we went to four regionals and we got to state — we lost to Moeller two years ago,” Krizancic, a Youngstown State graduate and former coach at Girard, said. “His biggest attribute is he’s able to make the big play. This year the ball was in his hand, win or lose. He wanted the ball, that’s the important thing. He’s going to be extremely hard to replace.”

Krizancic said Fritts excels in a lot of areas.

“He’s explosive. He’s tough mentally, tough on the court. We came in when he was a freshman, so he’s played four years for us. We knew right away that he was kind of a special young man,” he said. “And he gets up and down the floor as well as anybody I’ve ever coached.”

Others considered for the award include Columbus Northland’s Jalen Robinson, Marc Loving of Toledo St. John’s, Adolphus Washington of Cincinnati Taft, Stow’s David Walker and Dylan Kaufman of Berlin Hiland.