Former ‘Mr. Basketball’ makes name for himself with Rady Children’s Invitational showing

An unlikely supporters’ section voiced its approval for Rady Children’s Invitational Most Valuable Player Brock Harding on the way to a 74-63 TCU win over Wisconsin on Friday.

Trading the cold of Moline, Illinois — high temperature over the weekend: 33 degrees — for mid-70s outside and even hotter hoops inside the Jenny Craig Pavilion, Harding’s parents and his childhood school nurse cheered on a championship performance.

“That was such a surprise,” Harding said of being greeted by Elizabeth McLaughlin, a nurse at Jordan/Seton Catholic Schools in the TCU guard’s western Illinois hometown. “It was great getting that sense of home in San Diego.”

McLaughlin, who apologized for her voice going hoarse from rooting on the Horned Frogs, cared for Harding when he experienced migraines as an elementary school student.

“He really suffered,” said McLaughlin, who Harding knew back in school as Nurse Buffy. “But clearly, he’s doing fine.”

Harding’s been more than fine on the basketball court for a while now. He transferred to the public Moline High School from Seton and developed into a prep sensation, winning Mr. Basketball for the state of Illinois in 2023.

He’s in an elite class with past winners of the award that include former NBA MVP Derrick Rose and current New York Knicks superstar Jalen Brunson. Adding the Rady Children’s Invitational hardware to his resume, Harding joined USC’s Javian McCollum and Purdue’s Trey Kaufman-Renn as the first three MVPs in the tournament’s history.

And while San Diego is quite a trek from Moline, Harding performed here with the same fire that earned him Mr. Basketball in his home state. He shot 6 for 9 from the floor on the way to 16 points, dished five assists and grabbed four rebounds in TCU’s championship-game defeat of Wisconsin.

His effort on Friday followed a 19-point, 12-assist double-double in TCU’s 84-80 win Thursday over reigning national champions Florida.

“With the work this team puts in, we can really accomplish anything we want,” Harding said. “We don’t have a ceiling.”

TCU showing limitless potential in San Diego speaks to how abruptly things can turn around. The Horned Frogs opened the 2025-26 campaign with a stunning, 78-74 loss to a University of New Orleans program that finished 4-27 a season ago.

UNO dramatically overhauled its roster in the offseason under the direction of hip hop mogul and new President of Basketball Operations Percy “Master P.” Miller, but the opening-night upset was shocking nonetheless. And, according to Harding, “it was a wake-up call.”

“We thought we had a good team. We knew we’d brought in a lot of good pieces in the offseason,” he said. “But if you don’t bring your all every single night, there’s other people who want to win games, too.”

TCU lost again 11 nights later on Nov. 14, but the 67-63 setback to Michigan offered a much more positive measure of what the Horned Frogs could be. TCU has since won three straight, with its two impressive performances at the Rady Children’s Invitational. Friday’s title tilt also demonstrated the Horned Frogs’ growth in the limited time since seeing Michigan, as TCU avoided letting a halftime lead slip away to the Wolverines’ Big Ten Conference counterparts, Wisconsin.

The Horned Frogs saw a double-digit-point lead whittled to just four by intermission, thanks to the 3-point shooting of John Blackwell — who scored 30 points on Friday — and savvy playmaking by former San Diego State guard Nick Boyd.

But while Boyd finished with 15 points, he was held seven points below his season average — and 21 fewer than his eruption in the Badgers’ win Thursday over Providence. Guarded primarily by Harding, the explosive Boyd was not able to get his first shot attempt off until more than five minutes into Friday’s championship.

Harding held Boyd for just six second-half points, and TCU weathered the Wisconsin onslaught to push the lead to as many as 19 points.

In addition to his impressive statistical line, Harding was instrumental in the Horned Frogs establishing the game’s physical tone. Despite standing just 6 feet tall, the guard crashed to the glass and pursued loose balls with reckless abandon, culminating in a scuffle that earned Wisconsin’s Andrew Rohde a rally-killing technical foul.

McLaughlin, who was in town visiting family and decided to cheer on the youngster from Moline, said she couldn’t help but cringe seeing someone she knew as a youngster bumping around with opponents up to a foot taller and dozens of pounds heavier. But it’s also indicative of Harding’s game dating back to his elementary school days, and a main reason he’s “the hometown star” in the Quad Cities.

“He comes back and speaks to the kids,” she said. “He’s always been that way. He’s always been a leader.”