In a tiny back room connected to a classroom at Oshkosh North High School, 6-foot-7 senior Xzavion Mitchell towers over everyone.
As he walks in and sits down, decked out in Iowa State University gear with personalized shoes, Oshkosh North head basketball coach Brad Weber asks him how his shooting has been and if he’s heard from the Cyclones recently.
“Do you know your number yet [with Iowa State]?” Weber, in his sixth year at the helm of the program, said.
“Might rock double zero,” Mitchell said. “Number 22 is taken, so let me try something different.”
If Mitchell does wear double zero next year, it would be his next step in following the path of another Oshkosh North basketball legend – Tyreese Haliburton, who wears No. 0 for the Indiana Pacers and who played for the Cyclones from 2018-20.
Both Mitchell and Haliburton were two-time Fox Valley Association Player of the Year, and led their squads to the WIAA State Boys Basketball Tournament semifinals, with Haliburton’s Spartans winning the state championship in 2018.
But Mitchell has something that Haliburton never earned at Oshkosh North – the program’s first Wisconsin Mr. Basketball award, given to the best high school basketball player in the state.
Weber said Mitchell has always been different from other athletes he’s seen. He’s a great person both on and off the court.
“That is the thing that anybody who has played with him and against him walks away saying,” Weber said. “I think that obviously, in the sports world, a lot of the sound bites come out of what he’s doing and what he did on the court, which, you know, was remarkable. But from his teammates, they love playing with him.”
Weber said that Mitchell’s teammates just love being around him.
“He’s a great teammate, from opposing coaches and players and even community members the way they’ve embraced him, because they see that he is a very humble person, and that he is a very respectful person,” Weber said. “Those kinds of things are the things that I think get lost sometimes in the sports world that shouldn’t because he is a phenomenal individual.”
According to the Wisconsin Sports Network, Mitchell averaged 34.7 points per game and 9.4 rebounds per game with a 56.4% field goal percentage in 29 games played last season.
The power forward led the Spartans to an 11-7 conference record in the FVA before guiding the seventh seed to the 2025 WIAA State Boys Basketball Tournament semifinals, where they fell to top-seed Wisconsin Lutheran High School 58-57.
The Spartans led Wisconsin Lutheran by two points with less than five minutes remaining at the Kohl Center, but the Vikings outscored North 6-3 down the stretch to win the game despite a game-high 27 points and 13 rebounds from Mitchell.
Mitchell, who was named FVA Player of the Year for the past two seasons, said that it was a surreal moment to be named the top player in all of Wisconsin.
“I remember, growing up and entering high school wanting that award, maybe not thinking I was [actually] going to get it when I got older,” Mitchell said. “But that kept me in the gym too, you know, just seeing people be able to be named the best basketball player in the state. That just shows all the work that I put in these last four years.”
Weber said that Mitchell understood the weight of the award, but didn’t want it to be a distraction for the team.
“I asked him what the first thing that came to his mind was, and he said, ‘a relief,’” Weber said. “We were just at the beginning of our playoff run, and in his world, it was ‘now we can stop talking about this’ and just focus on the team and playing, which, again, I think just shows what a great teammate in person he is.”
Mitchell said his goal for the past three years was to help get the Spartans to state, and that he’ll never forget the experience of playing at the Kohl Center.
“Being in the offseason and seeing everybody still alive and playing, that obviously wasn’t a good feeling,” Mitchell said. “So being able to be there, you know, being one of the final teams, in the state to still play basketball, especially with the family we had and the group we had, was a great feeling, because those last few years didn’t feel so good.”
Weber said that he never takes for granted any of the trips that his squads take to the state tournament, but he appreciated this season more than any of the others.
“It would have been really easy with the adversity we faced during the season, to pack it in and say ‘this isn’t going to happen,’” Weber said. “But these guys did it. They came back every day, hungrier, willing to work longer and after practice with coaches, and so to see that work and that belief validated, you know, that’s why I think sports exist.”
Mitchell ended his senior season with 2,824 total points for Oshkosh North, nearly 1,400 more points than Haliburton scored for the Spartans from 2014-2018.
Mitchell finished his high school career with three All-FVA First Team and All-Defensive Team honors while Haliburton finished with two first team awards, a second team honor and three All-Defensive Team awards.
Weber said that Mitchell is an example of the hard-working basketball culture of Oshkosh.
“The university and the three high schools have a tradition of successful basketball,” Weber said. “We had talked about it at our banquet in 2009, we took a team to state and fifth grade Halliburton is watching and says, ‘I want to be that next guy.’ In 2018 we won a state championship, and fifth grade [Mitchell] is watching, going, ‘I want to do that.’”
Weber said that he is a strong believer of success breeding success.
“When you get to watch that happen, it gives you that reality of, ‘why not me?’” he said. “It inspires you. And then I think you know what all of these programs in Oshkosh have, as far as a blueprint for success. You get hungry kids who are inspired to see what people before them have done, then they get to just live that out.”
Mitchell said that as a kid, he grew up playing multiple sports through the YMCA in Oshkosh and was driven to play basketball just like his brother.
“I think that I just wanted to be the best at whatever level I was at,” Mitchell said. “I think that my competitive side of things kept me going at each level through basketball camps to youth teams to high school, I think just at each level, I just wanted to be the best.”
Mitchell said it took him a little bit to adjust to high school basketball in his freshman year.
“I didn’t believe in weights,” he said. “That was a big difference in just the physicality of high school basketball. But I think the biggest adjustment was when I realized that, you know, I wasn’t playing against middle schoolers anymore. It wasn’t eighth graders. I was playing against guys that are the same height, you know, just as fast and stronger.”
Mitchell said he had to stay in the gym and figure out new ways to become the best player he could, regardless of his role on the team, which turned him into the player he is today.
Weber said that he agreed that Mitchell had to go through a physical transformation when he entered high school, but he also had to get better at making his reads on the court.
“This past year, specifically, he knew the spots he wanted to get to, he knew how to get there, and then he knew how to make the read based off of what the defense was showing him,” Weber said. “Those were really the biggest things that I noticed out of him early on.”
Weber said that Mitchell, who is a four-star recruit and is the 83rd best player in the class of 2025 according to ESPN, has become a deadly shooter.
“His mid-range game is probably the best I’ve seen in my 26 years at the high school level,” Weber said. “And he can finish through contact and around contact. He can create for himself. He can create for others. You know, it is a complete package at our level. He is one that’s not far away from being at the next level.”
Mitchell said that his first season at Iowa State next year will be focused on adjusting to the collegiate level, just like what he went through when entering high school.
“I think it’s not going to come easy,” Mitchell said. “[I] just keep that same mindset of continuing to stay in the gym and figuring out ways to impact the team the best I can to the best of my capabilities. I think the biggest thing is obviously keeping what I’m doing and keep working.”
Mitchell said that his focus for college remains being humble on and off the court.
“I’m always the type of guy that’s like, I’m not going to sit here and just be like, you know, ‘I’m the best,’” he said. “Obviously, there’s aspects to my game that I need to work on, and especially going into college, I know what I need to work on, and I’m staying in the gym. I’m just a basketball player trying to get better.”
