State High School Boys Basketball Player of the Year | Franklin's Peyton Siva an all-around star

For once, everything was moving faster than Peyton Siva.

The Franklin senior had a dozen places to be at once, when the Class 3A state high-school basketball championship ended, with Franklin a 51-34 winner against Columbia River of Vancouver. Siva ran into the dogpile of teammates at center court. He ran to the railing to hug his mother. He did one interview. He shared a moment with coach Jason Kerr. He did another interview. He cut down a net.

And 20 minutes later, Siva was still on the court, the net around his neck. He did not want to let this team, and this season, go.

And what a season it was.

This year, Siva has won the state championship, won the Metro League, signed with Louisville, and was given a number of awards: McDonald's All-American, Washington's Mr. Basketball, and The Seattle Times' Male State Player of the Year.

Even before the 6-foot-1 guard played his first game at Franklin, he had the aggressiveness and athleticism that made the possibilities limitless every time he drove into the paint. But he has come a long way from his freshman season, when he was a role player on the 2006 Class 4A title team.

"As a ninth-grader, he was nothing but a scorer," Kerr said. "He didn't play very good defense."

He eventually grew into a player with such a complete understanding of Franklin's system that he could make his own adjustments to plays. Kerr watched in the championship game as Siva rearranged the players on offense to better attack Columbia River's zone, and realized Siva was right.

"I've learned more about basketball in these past few years than I had the rest of my life," Siva said.

Siva became a resilient defender. And he became so unselfish that there were times Franklin could not get him to shoot enough. His lasting memories of Franklin's last two losses — to Federal Way in last year's tournament opener, and to Bainbridge this season — were games he did not take over.

But there were plenty of games that he did take over. He led the Metro League in assists, averaged 18.1 points and scored 30 or more four times, including a season-high 35 points in the Sea-King District championship against No. 2 Bellevue.

"He lit us up in a hurry," Bellevue coach Chris O'Connor said. "I remember my assistant saying, 'What do we do?' and I said, 'I don't think there's anything we can do.' "

Louisville, the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, is hoping for Siva to make an immediate difference next season, and coach Rick Pitino has called Siva the most college-ready player in his recruiting class.

"He's about as ready as anyone I've had come out of here, there's no question," Kerr said. "There's a lot of reasons I would say that don't necessarily relate it to basketball."

It's those reasons, Kerr said, that make Siva special. It's that Siva goes to Bible study every Wednesday night, and doesn't miss church Sunday morning. It's that he's the kid who welcomes the basketball team's student manager into his group of friends. It's that after almost flunking out of school in the eighth grade, Siva devoted himself to turning his academics around and raised his grade-point average to a 3.3.

"On top of being exceptionally talented, to have those kind of attributes is just rare," Kerr said. "He's not just a basketball player, even though he's a damn good basketball player."

Tom Wyrwich: 206-515-5653 or twyrwich@seattletimes.com