NBA-bound Sunrise basketball star Matas Buzelis named Gatorade Player of Year finalist
Sunrise Christian Academy senior Matas Buzelis, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, has been named a top-three finalist for the Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year award, Gatorade announced Wednesday morning.
It is the second straight year Sunrise has had a finalist for the national award, as Gradey Dick, current KU star, won the award last spring. Buzelis, a 6-foot-10 do-everything standout, is joined by Cameron Boozer, a sophomore forward from Miami, and Isaiah Collier, a senior point guard from Marietta, Ga. who is committed to play for USC.
Buzelis, who will play for G League Ignite next season, was also recently named the MaxPreps Kansas High School Basketball Player of the Year earlier this week.
He is averaging 15.7 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 0.9 steals and 1.7 blocks for Sunrise, which is 21-7 this season and ranked No. 16 in the national prep rankings by ESPN.
“Matas is a 6-foot-10 Swiss army knife,” Sunrise coach Luke Barnwell told The Eagle earlier this season. “He truly is a guard with the way he handles the ball and the way he moves and shoots it and scores it. We haven’t had a guy like him at his size before. His athleticism is so fluid and effortless. He’s ultra-talented, but he’s also very unselfish. He passes it extremely well and his ceiling is just crazy high because of how fluid of an athlete he is with his skill set.”
This story was originally published March 15, 2023 at 7:00 AM.
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