Arkansas-bound power guard from FAB 50 title contender Paul VI (Va.) beats out talented crop of seniors to be named 2026 Mr. Basketball USA by Ballislife.com. Jordan Smith’s individual dominance against tough competition and his spectacular career are just too much for 27 other contenders to overcome. Smith is joined by one other national player of the year candidate on all 10 ballots in the final Mr. Basketball USA Tracker balloting. The first Mr. Basketball USA Tracker was conducted in 2008, the first real time choice came in 1996 and our retroactive picks date back to 1955.
RELATED: 2025-26 Underclass POYs | Preseason Mr. Basketball USA Tracker | All-Time Honorees |
Editor’s Note: Long-time Mr. Basketball USA panel member Chris Lawlor passed away in February of 2026. His vote has been honorably replaced by Van Johnson Jr. of Baseline Hoop Sports. This year’s Mr. Basketball USA announcement and honor is dedicated to Lawlor’s memory and contributions to high school sports.
At a Nike EYBL session in Phoenix last spring, we happened to run into a muscular player at a local Starbucks who was getting a quick drink and bite to eat before the impending three-day event. We figured there would be some players in the strip mall mere minutes from the facility and when we saw some Team Takeover players, we immediately recognized Smith and pressed him on a local honor that escaped him after a terrific junior season at Paul VI (Chantilly, Va.)
We point blank asked Smith if Cameron Ward of Largo (Upper Marlboro, Md.) was deserving of the Washington Post’s prestigious All-Met Player of the Year honor. Without hesitation, the humble teenager stated, “Cam deserved it, he was a good choice, but I’m going to get it next year.”
Did he ever.
The All-Met POY honor now belongs in the hands of local scouts and sportswriters after the Washington Post cut its sports division, while it seemed Smith had DMV basketball in the palm of his hands during the 2025 and 2026. After a spectacular senior season, Smith kept his word and earned one of the most prestigious local honors in the country. When all the seasons of the nation’s elite were analyzed, Smith once again stood out from the rest and today is honored with the title of 2025-26 Mr. Basketball USA.
Today’s announcement is a culmination of a great career for Smith at Paul VI. The 6-foot-2 dynamo with the quiet, but fiery, demeanor led the Panthers to four consecutive seasons in which they were FAB 50 ranked. Smith and company didn’t just crack the rankings, they were major FAB 50 title contenders.
This past season, Smith averaged 26.6 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 5.6 apg and 3.2 spg for a 33-3 club that finished No. 5 in the FAB 50. In 2024-25, Smith led Paul VI to WCAC regular season and tourney titles and a No. 11 final ranking when he was named to the fourth five All-American Elite Team. As a sophomore, he was a key cog on a team that lost to an all-time great Montverde Academy (Fla.) in the Chipotle Nationals title game while finishing No. 3 in the FAB 50 and during his freshman season, the Panthers were good enough to spend time at No. 1, just as they did in 2025-26.
More than his individual stats, the 10-man Mr. Basketball USA Tracker Panel felt Smith was the country’s biggest difference-maker in terms of winning high level games. The overwhelming and prevailing factor in Smith’s candidacy couldn’t be accounted for in stats: Paul VI never seemed out of any game as long as Smith was on the floor.
“Jordan has been the most consistent and dominant player in high school basketball and it wasn’t close,” said panel member Ani Umana of SCNext. “He took a team to Chipotle and they competed. He was the most valuable player this past season; take him off Paul VI and it is not a FAB 50 team.”
Against the toughest traditional parochial school competition in the country, Smith helped Paul VI win four WCAC regular season titles and go 64-1 in the games in which he suited up (he missed three WCAC playoff games as a freshman). Smith didn’t get to his level of play by simply having the burning desire to win, but by improving his skill level of the course of his career. In addition to being arguably the nation’s best on-ball defender, the Arkansas-bound Smith shot 56 percent from the field and 37 percent from 3-point range.
“Jordan’s decision making and play making his senior year was instrumental in our success” said Paul VI head coach Glenn Farello. “His ability to create 2 on the ball helped us shoot 40 percent from 3 as a team and his own 3 ball improvement made him difficult to defend.
“Jordan not only raised his own game this past year, but he brought his teammates along with him in making everyone around him better and challenging them. He wants his teammates to succeed and believe in themselves and the work that we do.”
Smith’s dominance and Paul VI’s team success (the Panthers fell to eventual FAB 50 No. 1 in the Chipotle Nationals quarterfinals despite 35 points from its best player) led to him earning eight first-place votes and 97 overall points out of 100 to easily distance himself from runner-up Tyran Stokes, a physical 6-foot-7 forward who led Rainier Beach (Seattle, Wash.) to a state title and No. 21 FAB 50 ranking. Stokes earned one first-place vote and four second-place votes (worth nine points each) to finish with 83 overall points. Smith and Stokes were the only two candidates to appear on all 10 ballots.
Caleb Holt (60 points) of FAB 50 No. 4 Prolific Prep (Southwest Ranches, Calif.) and Jason Crowe Jr. (54 points) of Inglewood (Calif.), California’s all-time leading scorer with 4,718 points, appeared on nine total ballots. The third player to receive a first-place vote was point guard Miles Sadler, the catalyst for FAB 50 No. 1 CIA Bella Vista (Scottsdale, Ariz.). The West Virginia-bound lead guard also collected two second-place votes to finish fifth in the balloting behind Holt and Crowe with 51 points.
Twenty-eight candidates received recognition for the production-based national player of the year honor. Last year when NCAA Player of the Year Cameron Boozer (Duke) took home the prestigious honor there were 24 candidates and two years ago when NBA Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg was the pick of the panel there were 31 candidates. The Mr. Basketball USA Panel to determine the national player of the year was formed for the 2007-08 season.
Today’s announcement means the Mr. Basketball USA honoree is headed to the University of Arkansas for the first time dating back to 1955. Smith’s selection is the first from a Virginia-based program since Brandon Jennings of famed Oak Hill Academy in the first year of the POY Tracker (2007-08). Smith was also named Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) Player of the Year and is the first Mr. Basketball USA honoree from the famed, competitive league since future NBA forward Danny Ferry of DeMatha (Hyattsville, Md.) for the 1984-85 season.
When Paul VI fell to CIA Bella Vista, Smith bent over in exhaustion and from the sting of coming up short of winning the prestigious tournament and giving his team a shot to finish No. 1 in the FAB 50. The bullish guard did meet most of his team goals and his skill and determination to uplift teammates led him to reaching the ultimate individual goal for high school basketball players.
It always felt as if Smith’s team was never out of the game, and that feeling will linger as Smith’s title of Mr. Basketball USA will.
Editor’s Note: Click on the “+” sign next to each player’s number to view how many first, second, third or fourth place votes he got and his overall point total. Previous tracker results are also listed (“Prev.”). Panel member Chris Lawlor passed away in February of
| Rank | Prev. | Name | High School | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Jordan Smith Jr. (10) | Paul VI (VA) | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 97 |
| 2 | 2 | Tyran Stokes (10) | Rainier Beach (WA) | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 83 |
| 3 | 5 | Caleb Holt (9) | Prolific Prep (FL) | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 60 |
| 4 | 3 | Jason Crowe (9) | Inglewood (CA) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 54 |
| 5 | NR | Miles Sadler (8) | CIA Bell Vista (AZ) | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 51 |
| 6 | NR | Abou Toure (5) | Notre Dame (CT) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 27 |
| 7T | 4 | Deron Rippey Jr. (6) | Blair Academy (NJ) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 24 |
| 7T | NR | Quentin Coleman (5) | Principia (MO) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 24 |
| 9 | 6 | Christian Collins (5) | St. John Bosco (CA) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
| 10T | 10 | Brandon McCoy Jr. (7) | Sierra Canyon (CA) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| 10T | 11 | Cameron Williams (4) | St. Mary’s (AZ) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 20 |
| 12 | 14 | C.J. Rosser (2) | Southeastern Prep (FL) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| 13 | NR | J.J. Andrews (2) | Little Rock Christian (AR) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| 14 | NR | Colben Landrew (3) | Wheeler (GA) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| 15 | 9 | Marcus Spears Jr. (2) | Dynamic Prep (TX) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 16T | NR | Taylen Kinney (1) | OTE Elite (GA) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 16T | NR | Paul Osaruyi (1) | CIA Bell Vista (AZ) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 18T | 7 | Bruce Branch (1) | Prolific Prep (FL) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 18T | 17T | A.J. Williams (1) | Eagle’s Landing (GA) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 20T | NR | Quinn Costello (1) | The Newman School (MA) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 20T | NR | Cayden Daughtry (1) | Calvary Christian (FL) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 20T | NR | Caleb Gaskins (1) | Columbus (FL) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 20T | NR | Zavier Zens (1) | Wisconsin Lutheran (WI) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 24T | 21T | Tajh Ariza (1) | Link Academy (MO) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 24T | 15 | Beckham Black (1) | Southeastern Prep (FL) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 24T | NR | Toni Bryant (1) | Southeastern Prep (FL) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 24T | NR | Luke Ertel (1) | Mt. Vernon (IN) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 24T | 13 | Bryson Howard (1) | Frisco Heritage (TX) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
2025-26 Mr. Basketball USA Tracker Panel
Paul Biancardi, ESPN National Director of Basketball Recruiting
Frank Burlison, BurlisonOnBasketball.com Publisher
Jordan Divens, Maxpreps.com National Basketball Editor
Ronnie Flores, Ballislife.com National Grassroots Editor
Chris Lawlor, Blue Star Media National Analyst
Horace Neysmith, AllMetroHoops.com
Jamie Shaw, Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst
Patrick Stanwood, Patrick Stanwood Basketball
Dinos Trigonis, Fullcourt Press Editor & Publisher
Ani Umana, SportsCenter Next National Scout
About Basketball USA Tracker Panel
Ballislife.com’s panel of 10 experts, which includes three McDonald’s All-American selection committee members, casts its vote for the top national player of the year candidates. Each panelist lists his top seven candidates regardless of class. The votes are then tabulated on a 10-point scoring system with a first-place vote equaling 10 points, a second-place vote earning nine points and down to four points for a seventh-place vote. The number in parenthesis refers to the numbers of ballots on which a player appeared and previous rankings refers to position in the previous tracker.
For the all-time list of Mr. Basketball USA honorees, CLICK HERE.
Ronnie Flores is the national Grassroots editor of Ballislife.com. He can be reached at [email protected]. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @RonMFlores
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