Two of the best prep basketball players Wisconsin has ever produced are coming off a couple of their best college games, so we thought this would be a good time to check in with highly touted freshmen Henry Ellenson and Diamond Stone to see how they’re enjoying dorm life, dining-hall food and midterm examinations.
That’s not true. Both these guys could be first-round NBA draft picks in six months. We only care how they’re doing on the court, nine games into their first collegiate seasons.
Ellenson and Stone were co-winners of the state’s Mr. Basketball award last year after dominating in high school for Rice Lake and Dominican, respectively. The 6-foot-10 Ellenson, a modern "stretch" power forward who runs the court, handles the ball well and can finish inside and shoot from outside, is starting for Marquette. The 6-11 Stone, more of a traditional big man with strength and a polished low-post game who can also step out and hit 3-pointers, is coming off the bench for Maryland after initially being a starter.
On Tuesday night, Ellenson scored 20 points in Marquette’s 80-62 win over San Jose State, his third game of at least 20 points already this season. The smooth, crew-cut athlete also had eight rebounds and three assists in 32 minutes of work. Three nights before, in a blowout of Maine, he scored a career-high 23 points on 7-of-11 shooting (2 of 3 on 3-pointers) in just 21 minutes.
For the season, Ellenson is averaging 16.7 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, which rank eighth and seventh in the country, respectively, among freshman. Ellenson has only failed to reach double figures in scoring once this season, in an ugly Nov. 19 loss to Iowa.
Stone played his best game in Maryland’s 76-66 win over Connecticut on Tuesday night. The slimmed-down, baby-faced beast matched the career-high he’d set the game before in a rout of St. Francis (PA), scoring 16 points and adding a career-best nine rebounds in 22 minutes against the Huskies.
On the year, Stone is averaging 10.6 points and 4.3 rebounds per game for a team many expect to contend for the Big Ten title. His back-to-back 16-point games come as he was moved from the starting lineup to a bench role.
Both Ellenson and Stone were consensus top-10 national recruits coming out of high school, something Wisconsin never had before. Both could be one-and-done college players, off campus and onto an NBA roster within a year. But for this season, at least, it’s worth watching two of the state’s best hoopsters bounce the roundball for their universities.
Ellenson’s next game is Saturday, when the Golden Eagles travel to Madison, to face the Badgers in the annual instate rivalry. Their Big East season begins on Dec. 30 against Seton Hall.
Stone’s next game is Saturday, as the Terrapins play Maryland-Eastern Shore. He will return to his home state on Jan. 9, when Maryland plays at Wisconsin.
Ellenson's got the edge now, especially in terms of individual statistics, but Stone could well be contributing to a team playing deep into March.
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
