After helping lead St. Andrew’s to its first state basketball championship as a junior, Joshua Minott had a tough task for a senior encore.
A first-team All-County selection as a junior, Minott grew into a senior leadership role and helped get his team to the regional semifinals, where they fell short to eventual Class 3A state champion Calvary Christian despite Minott nearly carrying the Scots to a win.
Although Minott fell short of reaching Lakeland for the second year in a row, he excelled in his final high school season, and he is the Sun Sentinel’s Palm Beach County Class 5A-1A player of the year.
“I feel like I accomplished the role” “People expected me to step up senior year; I feel like I did that. Junior year, playing alongside Yussif [Basa-Ama] was just a great opportunity all around. I love St. Andrew’s — love the school, great program, great coach. Overall, I just enjoyed the time I was able to spend with them. It was a great experience.”
Minott was one of the premier scorers in South Florida, averaging 23.1 points per game along with 8.3 rebounds per game.
“I realized that I was probably going to have to get more rebounds,” Minott said. “There was probably going to be a scoring deficit with Yussif gone, so that was one thing I had to do: step up as far as putting points on the board.”
The Scots senior had a strong start to the year, but when the calendar turned from 2020 to 2021, he went on a dominant stretch. In his last seven games, Minott averaged 27.8 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. St. Andrew’s went 5-2 in those games, with their only two losses coming to eventual state champions Calvary and Pine Crest.
Minott grew into one of Florida’s top basketball prospects. He is rated a four-star prospect by 247Sports’ composite rankings, and he is listed as the No. 9 small forward and No. 38 player in the 2021 class. Minott is signed to play at Memphis.
“I really like [coach] Penny Hardaway, the whole fact that he’s a big guard,” Minott said. “I feel like he’s someone that can help me develop into a better, big guard. I like the analytics they really look into. They look at stuff no one else does.”
