Valor Christian’s Cole Scherer is Mr. Colorado Basketball again after brilliant senior season

Over the course of two dominant seasons, Valor Christian star Cole Scherer answered every question but one.

What does an accolade-laden Colorado dude have to do to get a Power 4 basketball offer nowadays?

Scherer balled in another universe for the Eagles the past couple of winters. He swept the state’s individual awards last season — CHSAA 6A Player of the Year, Gatorade state player of the year, MaxPreps state player of the year and The Post’s Mr. Colorado Basketball — while leading Valor Christian to the championship.

Then he duplicated that accolade four-peat as a senior while steering the Eagles back to the title game. For that, the 6-foot-2 point guard only got one Division I offer, from Eastern Washington, where he signed in November.

“Sometimes I think our college coaches get caught up in the measurables — how big is he, what’s his vertical and this and that,” Rangeview head coach Shawn Palmer said. “There’s some truth to that. But can the kid play at a high level, and does he understand the game? Cole does both.

“He traveled the country with his AAU team as well, so it’s not like he didn’t do it out of state on the circuit, too. … I think our local college basketball programs missed the boat on getting him committed to their program when it was pretty clear last year he was the state’s best player.”

The transfer portal and NIL landscape have altered the college options for players like Scherer, especially in a flyover state for boys hoops like Colorado.

For his part, Scherer is excited about the opportunity EWU presents, and his chance in Cheney, Wash., to prove all those Power 4 coaches wrong.

“I’m excited to get out there,” Scherer said. “A couple of their guards have entered the transfer portal and left, so I’m just honestly relying on God, on His plan, and I’m going to keep working to showcase what I have.”

After his prolific junior season, Scherer didn’t rest on his laurels.

The gym rat, who spent hundreds of hours in the gym over the past few years with his trainers, Jordan Jhabvala and Nick Graham, was prepared for the increased defensive game-planning teams threw at him this season.

The result? He led the state at 26.9 points per game, topping last year’s scoring average (22.0). He also increased his rebounding (6.7 from 5.6), assists (4.9 from 4.0), steals (2.5 from 2.2) and blocks (1.1 from 0.9).

Scherer finished with 2,039 career points as Valor Christian’s all-time leading scorer. He ranks 13th all-time in Colorado history, according to the CHSAA record book, and fourth all-time among players from the state’s two biggest classifications.

“He continued to evolve,” observed Valor Christian head coach Jeff Platt. “… And because he made the right plays to make his teammates better, it elevated their play. When teams tried to take Cole out of the game, we had other guys step up because Cole bought into playing how he’s going to have to play in college. He did that while still scoring at a high rate.”

Scherer is just the fourth player to win both Mr. Colorado Basketball and the Gatorade state player of the year multiple times, joining Denver East’s Dominique Collier, Regis Jesuit’s Bud Thomas and Mr. Big Shot himself, George Washington’s Chauncey Billups.

He led Valor Christian to double-digit victories in nine out of 10 playoff games over the last two seasons, the exception being the Eagles’ 65-63 loss to Eaglecrest in the Class 6A championship this season. Even though Valor Christian came up short of a repeat, Scherer remained unstoppable at Denver Coliseum, where he didn’t come off the floor for one second while averaging 34 points over three games.

In the championship, he posted a double-double with 35 points and 10 rebounds, his motor continuing to hum at a high rate until the final buzzer.

Scherer said he’s “always liked the bigger moments more,” and Platt agreed.

“He never flinched,” Platt said. “We just came up a little short that night (against Eaglecrest). Finishing the way he did, it epitomized his competitive level throughout the last four years.”

In the Final Four, Scherer ripped Rangeview for 39 points and 12 rebounds. Palmer’s game plan was to trap Scherer every time he had the ball. But Scherer seemed to always have an answer, even against the impressive athleticism of the then-undefeated Raiders.

“It’s hard to imagine trapping a guy almost every time he touched it in the full-court and the half-court, and he still ends up with 39, which shows you what kind of player he is and how frustrating it is to coach against him,” Palmer said.

In Scherer, Palmer sees parallels to other Colorado high school boys basketball stars of recent memory who were overlooked by Power 4 schools.

The Rangeview boss brought up guys like Grandview’s Eric Garcia (a standout at Wofford) and Eaglecrest’s Colbey Ross (a star at Pepperdine), both of whom went on to play professionally overseas. Late bloomer Dalton Knecht of Prairie View started at Northeastern Junior College before eventually making his way to UNC, then Tennessee. Now he’s with the Lakers.

And more recently, Palmer noted how Rangeview’s Obi Agbim and Overland’s Graham Ike paved their way to major college basketball after playing at Wyoming. Agbim spent time at the juco level and in the RMAC before Wyoming and hit the transfer portal after starring for the Cowboys this season. He’s now reportedly headed to Baylor. Meanwhile, Ike just finished a second consecutive strong season at Gonzaga following his first two years in Laramie.

Palmer predicts that if Scherer plays to his potential at EWU, it may not be his final college destination.

“Cole maybe could’ve waited to commit (and got more offers), but to his credit, he went with the program that believed in him,” Palmer said. “I think he’s going to be a very successful college basketball player. And you never know where he might end up.”