2025-26 5Star Preps Boys Basketball Underclassman of the Year: Ben Cross, Knoxville Central

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BY JESSE SMITHEY

If, for some reason, you can’t reach Ben Cross with a call or text, odds are: you’re going to find the Central High School sophomore point guard in one place, more times than not.

“Ben, he is a gym rat,” Central coach J.P. Payne said. “He loves the gym.”

Being in the gym doesn’t always equate to success.

Practicing with purpose and intent, though, typically translates to the court.

And Cross’ focused time spent there paid dividends for himself and the Bobcats during the 2025-26 season.

The 5Star Preps Boys Basketball Underclassman of the Year led Central to a 28-4 record, a 10-0 record in District 3-4A league play — and, the program’s first district tournament title in more than 25 years.

“The season we had last year, it didn’t really go like we wanted it to. This season, I was just really motivated,” Cross said. “At the start of the year, our main goal was to win district and keep moving forward.

“So we all had that same goal, and we wanted to work really hard for it.”

The 6-foot, 150-pound Cross, who was named District 3-4A MVP, averaged 16.1 points per game to go along with 4.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.6 steals per game.

He also shot 39 percent from the 3-point line.

“He’s always asking, ‘Coach, can I get in the gym? Can I do this? Can I get extra shots up? What can I do better here? What can I do to expand my game a little bit?’ What I like about him is: his mindset is a killer mindset,” Payne said.

“He looks to attack. He looks to find ways to create for himself but also open up opportunities for other people. We’re working on a couple things to expand his game more beyond what you saw last season. He’s taken that on full force. But his mentality of coming in every day and working every day to try and get better, that says a lot about him.”

Payne took over the Central head coaching position in late April 2025. He later poured into the film, just to see exactly what he was inheriting. The sample size he viewed of Cross wasn’t expansive, but it allowed him to get a cursory assessment on what he’d be coaching in Cross.

But what transpired over the following five or six months gave Payne a more profound take on what Cross’ role would be at Central.

“Coming in, I knew he would be a valuable piece, but I didn’t know how valuable he was going to be. It just happened organically with him,” Payne said. “Just that gym-rat mentality. He’s getting in there and you see him every single day and it allows you to just observe and see him where he’s at, especially in the spring and the summer. You get into the fall stuff, you get to see him interact with the other players … you got to see the kind of kid he was and the effort he put into being successful not only for himself but the team he was on.

“I knew before the season started that he was going to be a big piece for us and our success — and he really was.”

Cross once dedicated a lot of his time to baseball and soccer. But around his eighth-grade year, he said, is when he cast those sports aside and devoted himself solely to basketball. And following his freshman season, Cross gained more confidence in his shot and perimeter scoring through hours of repetition in the gym.

Now, he wants to level up.

On the to-do list this offseason: growing mentally and physically, grasping a next-play mentality, working on shot creation when off the ball, and expanding his opportunities and choices with the ball when he gets downhill and into the paint.

The Central basketball program had their end-of-season banquet recently, and Payne said it was a great chance to honor the seniors and the careers they had but also the building block of success they helped create with the 2025-26 season. But at the same banquet, Payne made sure he challenged the younger members of the team — and that included Cross.

“‘How can we get to that bar that was set, and can we go above it?’ I think these guys have been working hard. They’re in the weight room. They’re hungry,” Payne said. “Some of the guys who didn’t get to play a ton of minutes last year, they’re hungry to get those minutes.

“They see what it takes to be successful.”

And much of that is: staying in the gym, like Cross.

PAST RECIPIENTS

2025 — Jamir Dean & Condis Cherry, Alcoa
2024 — Jonathan Woodlee, Maryville
2023 — Shane Cherry, Austin-East
2022 — Tyler Lee, Denaj Kimber & Taj Kimber, Fulton
2021 — Blue Cain, Catholic
2020 — Reid Satterfield, Greeneville
2019 — B.J. Edwards, Catholic