Villanova may not have been able to defend its NCAA title this year, but Wildcats fans have plenty of reason to be excited about next year. Wildcats commit Jeremiah Robinson-Earl was named tournament MVP after leading IMG Academy (Bradenton) to the GEICO Nationals championship on April 6. The 6-foot-9 power forward helped IMG do what it couldn’t do at the Culligan City of Palms Classic this past December, when IMG fell prey in the quarterfinals to Mountain Brook (Alabama). 

Robinson-Earl scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the GEICO championship game against La Lumiere (Indiana), a school that had gone back and forth with City of Palms champ McEachern (Powder Springs, Georgia) atop the rankings during the latter part of the season. Robinson-Earl went for 16 points and nine rebounds in the GEICO semifinals against three-time City of Palms champ Montverde Academy.

Jaden Springer, ESPN’s 11th-ranked junior, made a run at MVP honors with back-to-back 26-point performances for IMG before submitting 13 points in the finals. Arizona-bound Josh Green led all scorers in the final with 19. At No. 7 among seniors, Green is the most highly rated IMG player on ESPN’s list, and that’s an accomplishment. Only two players who saw minutes for IMG in the final aren’t in the ESPN rankings, which cover the country’s top 100 seniors, top 60 juniors and top 25 sophomores.

But IMG didn’t have a monopoly on talent at the GEICO Nationals, as fellow City of Palms entrant Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Virginia) boasted plenty of stars. ESPN No. 2 senior Cole Anthony, whose college choice remains a mystery, popped off for 30 points in the GEICO quarterfinals against Wasatch Academy (Mount Pleasant, Utah). Cam Thomas, ESPN’s No. 22 junior, scored 22 points for Oak Hill in the semifinals.

Still, just as in the City of Palms, a highly anticipated Oak Hill-IMG matchup failed to materialize thanks to La Lumiere’s one-point win over cold-shooting Oak Hill in the semifinals. And GEICO fans didn’t get to see the talented McEachern team that took the City of Palms by storm. The school dropped out of the season’s final tournament after its top players declined to participate, citing schedule conflicts.

Thus, Montverde Academy, despite falling to IMG in the GEICO semifinals, remains the only school ever to win both the City of Palms and the GEICO Nationals in the same season. The Eagles did it twice — in 2012-13 and 2013-14.