While it has taken some time for us to release our annual Player of the Year nominations in each region of the state of Arizona, here are our selections for these honors, as selected by our amazing and hard-working Arizona Preps staff. We will select our Player(s) of the Year for boys and girls high school basketball in the state of Arizona. Each of our selections will include our top performers throughout the state for the AIA, CAA and prep school divisions, as each selection by our staff will encompass each division for consideration. Here are this year's 2023 selections for our Players of the Years for boy's basketball in the state of Arizona by our Arizona Preps' staff.
We begin with our 2023 Arizona Preps Co-Players of the Year - Perry High School's 6-foot-8 senior Cody Williams (University of Colorado signee) and 6-foot-8 sophomore Koa Peat. These two young men were selected by our Arizona Preps' staff as both prospects performed at a high level all high school season - leading their Perry High School basketball program to back-to-back state championships and this year's first annual Open Division State Championship. Williams and Peat are both recognized nationally by every major scouting service as elite-level talents and current NBA prospects, and both players teamed up together to make the Perry program dominant all season - finishing with an amazing 30-1 overall record. Williams and Peat were a dominant duo all season long and teamed up nicely in big games, which included wins by the program this season over top-rated programs such as Liberty (AZ), Cardinal Hayes (NY), San Ysidro (CA), Gilbert (AZ), Snow Canyon (UT), Ironwood (AZ), Federal Way (WA), Olympia (WA), St. Mary's (AZ), Sunnyslope (AZ), Basha (AZ), Brophy Prep (AZ), Pinnacle (AZ) and Desert Mountain (AZ).
The teammate pairing of Cody Williams and Koa Peat on the same team is nothing like the state of Arizona has ever seen. Both prospects are rated among the Top 10 players nationally in their respective classes (2023 and 2025 Class) by every major scouting service, and both prospects are considered as future NBA Lottery picks in the NBA Mock Draft online. Both performers will also become McDonald's All-Americans, after Cody Williams already received the honor this year. Peat will soon enough become a McDonald's All-American selection as well in two years. Never before have two elite prospects with such national fanfare played together on the same high school team in this state, and Williams and Peat made it look comfortable as both players led Perry High School to a season to remember for the ages.
We will eventually see both of these two young men in the NBA, but for the last two high school seasons, we were blessed to see them play together, which was an amazing sight to see, as this is such a rare sight to behold. Cody Williams will now go on to do big things at the University of Colorado next college season in the PAC-12 Conference and will set himself up for a future NBA career, while Koa Peat, merely a sophomore, will enter his junior season - looking to carry his top-rated Perry program to a second-consecutive Open Division State Championship. Big things still to come for both of these two young men in their futures - in the sport of basketball and in life. These are two superstars - both developing at a different level and pace, but both certainly future NBA studs. We were definitely blessed to watch them together for two seasons. Great luck to both of them and congratulations on this selection.
