SAN JOSE, CA -- Ben Kone drinks more little bottles of Pedialyte before every game than a sick child puts down in a week.
Hardly a kid at six-foot-nine, 240 pounds, the Mitty basketball star ingests two bottles of the electrolyte solution the night before a game and two more when he awakes in preparation for contests. The regimen helps him avoid the type of leg cramps he had in a NorCal playoff game against Las Lomas.
Mitty defeated Las Lomas, but Kone had to leave the game at a crucial juncture in the second half with leg cramps.
"When I took the SAT, I didn't get a chance to be in my routine and it threw me off a little bit," Kone said of the Las Lomas game. "(When I got the cramps) I was like 'This is ridiculous.' I walked over to the bench and (coach Tim Kennedy) is like 'You didn't drink the Pedialyte did you?'"
Kennedy -- who Kone calls "TK" -- was correct, Kone had skipped the child's medicine that day. But you can bet the Mitty junior will be faithfully imbibing the elixir Friday night and Saturday morning before the Monarchs meet La Mirada in the state Division II title game at Cal's Haas Pavilion. Tipoff is at 4 p.m.
"We hope he will be drinking his Pedialyte starting today so there are no issues with cramps!" said Kennedy on Wednesday, three days before the game.
There's no doubt Kone -- pronounced Kon-nay -- is the key for Mitty in its fifth state title game in six years. He averaged 21 points and 15 rebounds per game this season for the Monarchs though he was just 16 and did not have his driver's license during the regular season.
"We haven't seen anyone quite like Kone," Las Lomas coach Sol Henik told Prep2Prep after Kone scored 24 points against his team. "He's a special player; he's so strong and he's such a force going to the basket and he's relentless."
Kone is being recruited by many of the Pacific 12 teams and others including San Diego State which is hot on his trail, said the intelligent and unfailingly polite Monarch star.
Said Kennedy this week: "What makes Ben special as a person is his dynamic personality. It has come out in these last few games where he has been laser-focused and our team has fed off his energy."
Mitty (20-10) has won four straight games since a 45-42 loss to section champion Serra in the CCS semifinals. Kone has led the way and is now hoping to help Mitty put a state title banner in the rafters, like his predecessor Aaron Gordon who is now in the NBA.
"I keep telling TK (Kennedy) I'm tired of seeing Aaron's banners without any of mine next to them," Kone said. "Both Aaron and Drew (Gordon) were great players at this school. For me it's not a competition against them. I want to carry on the legacy of greatness at the school."
Ironically it was at the urging of a player from league rival Serra that Kone started playing basketball. The future Mitty star was coaxed to try out for the sixth grade team at Bowditch Middle School in Foster City by Lee Jones, now a junior point guard for Serra.
"I needed to do something because my mom was like 'You can't just sit around the house.'" Kone said. "My friend Lee and I used to play on the outdoor courts and he said 'Hey, you should play basketball.' So I said 'OK, I'll try it out.' So I made the A team for my sixth grade and that was kind of fun."
Kone was a quick study. By seventh grade he decided he wanted to play in the NBA. His mom Kristina Kone wrote emails to the travel ball Oakland Soldiers and Oakland Rebels and the Soldiers gave him a tryout.
Kone made the Soldiers' seventh grade team where he met Brandon McGee who he'd later play with at Salesian High before Kone transferred to Mitty. By the summer before his ninth grade year at Salesian, Kone was faithfully taking shooting lessons from Glenn Graham (still his shooting coach) and playing for the Soldiers' 15-year-old team. Among his teammates were Anthony Townes who now plays for Modesto Christian and Ryan Stewart who is at Prolific Prep.
"I wasn't really liked on the team because I was a goofy kid who was only 14 and they were already in high school and they were like 'Who is this kid?'" Kone said. "But they learned to push me in the right way. I learned a lot from both of those guys. I remember Anthony Townes being able to hit a jump hook from just about anywhere on the court and Ryan Stewart shooting over me. That's when I made the jump from just being a big kid."
Kone put his ability to work after arriving at Mitty as a sophomore, leading the Monarchs to league and Open section titles in 2013-2014. The Monarchs only finished third in the WCAL this year, but find themselves back in the state title game after defeating DII foes Las Lomas, Cosumnes River and Sacramento in NorCal play.
Though Kone is fierce and emotional on the court, his mom says he has a tender side.
"He's a very loyal and protective son," said Kristina Kone by phone from her San Francisco home near AT&T Park. "He's a creative and smart person who has a lot of other interests besides basketball."
Among Kone's talents are photography and music. He's constantly taking photos and fancies himself a music producer like one of his heroes, Pharrell.
Oh, and Kone can also put away the Pedialyte like nobody's business -- and will in the coming days leading up to the state title game.
John Murphy is the Web Content Manager of Prep2Prep. He may be reached at jmurphy@Prep2Prep.com and followed @PrepCat.
STATE TITLE GAME SCHEDULE
Mar. 27-28 at Cal
Friday
Girls' Division V: La Jolla Country Day vs. Eastside Prep, 10 a.m.
Boys' Division V: Sierra Canyon vs. San Francisco University, noon
Girls' Division III: Brea Olinda vs. Bishop O'Dowd, 2 p.m.
Boys' Division III: Damien vs. Campolindo, 4 p.m.
Girls' Division I: Gardena Serra vs. Sacramento McClatchy, 6 p.m.
Boys' Division I: Chino Hills vs. San Ramon Valley, 8 p.m.
Saturday
Girls' Division IV: Sierra Canyon vs. Stockton Brookside Christian, 10 a.m.
Boys' Division IV: Crespi vs. Sacramento Capital Christian, noon
Girls' Division II: Keppel vs. Mitty, 2 p.m.
Boys' Division II: La Mirada vs. Mitty, 4 p.m.
Girls' Open Division: Mater Dei vs. Stockton St. Mary's, 6 p.m.
Boys' Open Division: Mater Dei vs. Bishop O'Dowd, 8 p.m.
