Christian Sanders leads 14-0 Renaissance. Her college decision says all you need to know.

Unbeaten Detroit Renaissance hopes to make another long run in the Michigan high school girls basketball state tournament.

Much of the load will depend on senior point guard Christian Sanders.

“She’s the head of the snake,” coach Dashawn Wood said last week. “We go where she goes.”

Sanders certainly is the leader of the Phoenix (14-0), but few will go where she is headed next fall.

THE TEAMS: Michigan high school boys and girls basketball state rankings, Feb. 4

Despite holding scholarship offers from Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, Bethune-Cookman, Niagara and North Dakota, Sanders will enroll at the University of Chicago.

The first bunch of Division I offers come with full scholarships. Those schools will pick up virtually all of the costs of her four-year education.

The University of Chicago, on the other hand, is a Division III school that does not offer athletic scholarships.

Once there, Sanders plans on majoring in economics.

One could ask if Sanders truly has a grasp of the economic impact of going to Chicago and the thousands upon thousands of dollars she is passing up by turning down the D-I offers.

“I have a great econ teacher — Mr. (Kevin) Smith,” she said. “He really made me love it.”

Sanders believes it was the right move because she is looking at the long view.

“My mom said the ball is going to stop bouncing eventually, so you always have to have a backup plan, an after-basketball plan,” Sanders said. “That’s how it came into play.”

Also coming into play: Sanders is a marvelous student. She has a 4.4 grade point average and scored an outstanding 1,480 on the SAT.

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Unfortunately, most athletes today say they chose a school based on academics and then spend the next four years trying to avoid any challenging classes in order to remain eligible.

Too often they wind up with meaningless degrees in fields that make it difficult to land a good job.

On the other hand, Chicago’s faculty boasts the most Nobel Prize laureates in the world, and there is no place to hide when it comes to choosing classes.

“The coaches really made it feel like home,” Sanders said, “and the academics are unbeatable pretty much anywhere. This is a perfect fit for me.”

Sanders had no pushback from her parents — mom Selam and dad Derron — when she told them she was passing up the free rides in order to attend Chicago.

“No, they were happy with my decision,” Sanders said. “They knew some people that had gone there before. They were really happy I had found a school that was right for me.

“They supported me 100%.”

Her parents had no choice but to go with their daughter’s wishes. She had done everything correctly her entire life, so how do you let her get to this point and tell her no?

“My husband and I always say we play chess not checkers,” Selam said. “It depends on your definition of return on investment.

“It really makes a difference what are you looking at — three years, five years, eight years out — and what does that landscape look like?”

The landscape in the business world is competitive, so the Sanders family is betting Christian’s time at Chicago will position her well for the future.

“You can’t put the money on networking relationships and exposure,” Selam said. “There are things that that school provides you and can give you access to that you can’t necessarily get everywhere. We have to look at what does that mean for your future.”

Sanders’ immediate future is the upcoming Public School League playoffs, which the Phoenix are favored to win again.

Then it will be on to a crowded field in the Division 1 state tournament.

Renaissance has been impressive in beating defending D-2 champ Lansing Catholic, Chicago Kenwood Academy and Toledo Rogers. And then it has run roughshod over the PSL teams.

“We’ve had some moments this year, but we’ve also had some games that were that competitive, so we’re still trying to figure out who we are,” Wood said. “That’s why we don’t play the score, we play each possession and keep fighting.”

In addition to Sanders, Renaissance has a solid inside presence of 6-foot-3 Anaya Hardy, who has signed with Louisville.

Hardy didn’t begin playing basketball until her freshman year when she played on the freshman team at Livonia Stevenson. She transferred and sat out her sophomore season and seems to be improving daily.

“She’s big, mobile, athletic, catches and finishes around the basket,” Wood said. “She sprints the floor, gets layups, can block shots, can defend on the perimeter. It’s hard to get a player that size, that fast.”

Her size alone helps Renaissance, but the engine is Sanders, who finds ways to make plays.

“She scores, she can pass, she plays defense, she’s been here four years, she’s been to the Breslin twice,” Wood said. “She’s got a lot of experience. She was Miss PSL last year; she was all-state. She’s everything to us.”

And next season, she will be doing all of those things for the University of Chicago.

“The school is really impressive,” she said. “It was perfect for me so I had to go. I couldn’t let it go.”

THIS WEEK: Michigan high school boys and girls basketball state rankings

Noel Dean returns to the Mitten

Noel Dean is coming home to Michigan and his next home will be in Chelsea.

One of the most successful high school football coaches in state history, Dean, 55, is taking over at Chelsea, following a three-year term coaching high school ball in Georgia.

In 22 seasons at Lowell, Dean won three state championship games and had three runner-up finishes while compiling 219 victories.

Three years in Georgia were enough for Dean to realize how badly he wanted to be back in Michigan, but he was particular in where he wound up.

“We wanted to have a place with a really high academic standards that valued family and character and all of that, and Chelsea kind of personifies that,” Dean said. “They became the top of the list for me, and then I just had to become the top of the list for them. That was the goal and it happened.”

The Chelsea opening happened when John Lucas, who won the 2021 Division 4 state championship, decided he wanted to return to the state’s west side and took the job at Jenison.

Dean doesn’t see a big turnover on the staff, which is a good thing for all.

“I don’t see a lot of major changes there,” Dean said. “I’ve met with all of them and we’ve had really good conversations. I’m excited to learn football through these guys.”

Former Chelsea football coach and athletic director Brad Bush is the person who oversaw improvements in the school that have been beneficial to the school’s athletes in a variety of sports.

“I’ve never had a strength and conditioning program like the one they’ve carved out at Chelsea with Adam Taylor, who runs that,” Dean said. “That’s one of the major anxieties I have, you have to spend a lot of time just getting that started to get that culture change, and to know it’s in such great hands already, I don’t know if I can function without that anxiety in that.

“I’ll have to figure out a way to move my anxiety to other areas.”

Many aspects of the district appeal to Dean. Chelsea reminds him a lot of Lowell and East Grand Rapids, communities that have two of the state’s top schools.

He likes that he has met so many people in town who grew up there and never left.

“I’m still trying to figure out what’s wrong with the place, and they tell me I probably won’t,” Dean said. “Everything is such quality so far, so it’s really exciting.

“My wife and I are really excited to make that our home for the next 20 years and coach a lot of football, and help people with their children.”

Rankings reroute

This week's boys basketball rankings went through a bit of a shakeup, and much of it is the result of the 2K24 Showcase at Aquinas College.

Why all of the rankings upheaval? Consider these results:

Detroit Cass Tech 59, Kalamazoo Central 42. Ann Arbor Huron 72, Grand Rapids Northview 71. East Kentwood 70, Warren Lincoln, 43. Lima (Ohio) Sr. 51, Grand Rapids Catholic Central 45. Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 56, East Lansing 37. Grand Rapids Christian 60, Muskegon 51.

It might be a result of the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s decision to increase the number of regular season games a team can play from 20 to 22, but these one-day showcases provide a tournament atmosphere, and give fans a preview of what is to come in March.

Mick McCabe is a former longtime columnist for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at mick.mccabe11@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @mickmccabe1. Order his book, “Mick McCabe’s Golden Yearbook: 50 Great Years of Michigan’s Best High School Players, Teams & Memories,” now at McCabe.PictorialBook.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Christian Sanders' college decision says everything you need to know