Inside Bay Area basketball star’s stunning departure for Vegas prep school — and his whirlwind first game

Former Riordan standout King-Njhsanni Wilhite: “I just played a top-five team in the country and we just beat them.”

CHANDLER, Ariz. — When the final buzzer sounded, King-Njhsanni Wilhite walked off the floor pumping a fist.

It had been a chaotic week for the 17-year-old high school basketball player from San Francisco. One day, he was the star of the Archbishop Riordan team. The next day, he was leaving for a little-known prep school in Las Vegas called Red Rock.

Monday night the 6-foot-1 point guard was helping Red Rock to a 67-60 win over AZ Compass Prep, which was ranked fourth in the country by ScorebookLive/SportsIllustrated’s Power 25.

Walking off the court, Wilhite couldn’t help thinking about all the things he’d read on social media about his decision.

“They told me it was a dumb move,” he said, triumphantly.

Wilhite makes the final two free throws as Red Rock pulls off an upset, beating AZ Compass Prep 67-60.
By my count, @yaboisanni finishes with 11 pts, 3 reb, 3ast and 3 TO (All 3 TO were in the 1st)

Story to come on @mercnews soon.@DarrenSabedra @joseph_dycus @KasselMedia pic.twitter.com/7mq0aVUXvI

— Alex Simon (@AlexSimonSports) January 3, 2023

But how does a high school senior leave a team in the middle of the season to join another team 600 miles from home? And why Red Rock, a fledgling school that doesn’t even have a website?

Sean Stevens, 46, and his brother Tim, 41, have harbored dreams of running a prep school basketball program for years and years. The seeds were planted in the late 1990s, when Tim played on a national title-winning Oak Hill Academy team.

The dream went next level in 2020 and the brothers set out to open Red Rock in 2022. They were checking out talent at a big summer tournament in the Phoenix area when Wilhite caught their eye.

“We were watching the game because of another kid,” Tim Stevens said, “but when we saw him play, we were like, ‘Man, we’d love him.’”

The Stevens brothers talked to Wilhite and his father after that game and they stayed in touch throughout Wilhite’s standout junior season at Riordan. They saw Wilhite score 29 points in the CCS final against Mitty and 35 in a NorCal Open Division quarterfinal win at De La Salle.

The Stevens brothers wanted Wilhite at Red Rock when school started in the fall, but Wilhite’s love for football kept him at Riordan. After scoring four touchdowns in four games, his season was ended by a collarbone injury. He stayed around the team for weeks, helping out where he could, before turning his attention to basketball.

And that’s where things start to get complicated.

As it turns out, Monday wasn’t Wilhite’s first game for Red Rock. In November he flew to Arizona to join the team in a tournament. With the games streamed online, word got out. Wilhite said he and his father met with Riordan coach Joe Curtin when they returned, explaining what was going on.

Asked Tuesday if he knew Wilhite had played for Red Rock in November, Curtin declined comment. In a text, he explained: “I don’t want this to become more of a distraction than it’s already been.”

“It’s just a weird predicament to be in,” Curtin had said last Friday. “It’s unprecedented, really. I can’t remember it happening. Not midseason … It’s just a weird, weird thing.”

Wilhite’s participation in those two games for Red Rock did not violate any CIF bylaws because they occurred before Riordan’s season began. With Wilhite at the point, the Crusaders started 7-2. He was MVP of the Crusader Classic, scoring 35 points in the championship game. He was named to the all-tournament team at the prestigious Gridley Invitational, scoring 52 points in three games as Riordan went 2-1.

Still, Wilhite questioned his chances of being recruited to a major college program while playing at Riordan.

“I’m worried about my future — I’m just trying to get a scholarship,” Wilhite said. “It’s a big sacrifice, leaving all of my friends and everybody back home. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to kind of think selfishly.

“I’ve got Plan A or I’ve got Plan B. I can stay here [at Riordan], probably win another CCS and go on to state. Or go on the national stage and have bigger eyes on you.”

At Red Rock, basketball takes four hours a day. Schoolwork takes another 4-6 hours. Classes are entirely online and academics are not the priority. Tim Stevens said that most players are already a “finished product, academically” by the time they come to Red Rock.

“We’re just trying to get you to the next level basketball-wise,” Tim Stevens said. “We’re not carrying the burden of academics with these kids, really, and that’s never a selling point. We want kids who have great structure already, their parents and their teachers take care of the school part and we, as a program, push them to get recruited and get a better basketball future.”

While Wilhite is banking on that, Red Rock is banking on him.

“He brings stability at the point guard, he brings a level of toughness that is unmatched out there,” Sean Stevens said. “I think he’s a fantastic point guard — as good as there is on the West Coast.”

“Plus,” Tim Stevens added, “any time you can get a player that’s known from a different city, it helps the program. And it’s going to help him, because it’s going to change the recruiting.”

Wilhite flew to Las Vegas on Saturday night and moved into the dorm house, where he shares a room with a teammate. Red Rock had two practice sessions Sunday to try to get Wilhite acclimated. Then the team started the five-hour drive to Arizona.

There was another practice Monday, then the game against highly touted AZ Compass Prep.

Wilhite did not start. Red Rock coach Derek Thomas, a longtime college assistant and former head coach at Western Illinois, sent him in midway through the first quarter. He displayed some jitters, committing three turnovers in the first quarter. But Red Rock built an early lead and held it for most of the game, which surprised Sean Stevens.

“If we came within 12, I was going to fist bump my coaches and say, ‘Great job and we’re there,’” Sean Stevens said.

Wilhite was able to settle into the game as it went on, stealing a sloppy inbounds pass and getting a layup late in the second quarter for his first basket. After sitting for the first two minutes of the third quarter, Wilhite played the final 14 minutes of the game. His ability to drive into tough spaces and maintain his dribble — the skill Sean Stevens said Red Rock needed — drew contact all throughout the second half, helping Red Rock get into the bonus early.

While Wilhite was frustrated with himself for missing four of 11 free throws, those trips to the line allowed Red Rock to set its defense and help keep the very talented AZ Compass Prep team from ever taking a lead. Wilhite’s final two free throws with eight seconds left gave him 11 points (on 2-of-7 shooting), three rebounds and three assists and sealed Red Rock’s big win.

“This is a program-changer,” Sean Stevens said. “I had no expectation of winning this game. We’ve got a great group, but Compass is the pinnacle of what we’re trying to do. I’m really blown away.”

The win might thrust Red Rock into the Top 25 and will surely make waves in the prep school circuit. And for Wilhite, after a week of hearing all of the chatter about him and his decision, it gave him reassurance that he made the right decision.

“Everybody’s always got something to say,” Wilhite said. “They’re clowning me for what I did, saying, ‘This is a bad move, it looks bad.’ Coaches saying I’m the leader of this Riordan team and asking why am I leaving.

“This is the reason why. I just played a top-five team in the country and we just beat them.”

Darren Sabedra contributed to this report.