Indiana HS Basketball Tourney running thread...

Eh, little hard on him. He did average 33.7 points per game.

Combination of things:

1. He's not LeBron, but he's still pretty damn good...easily Mr. Basketball. He doesn't have LeBron's extreme athleticism, but Thomas is a much better shooter than James at the same age. He's also a couple inches shorter, but pretty thick. He'll be a nice player at Ohio State, though he's not even the Buckeyes best recruit.

2. Speaking of other Buckeyes recruits, Luers played a tough schedule this year including a loss to Columbus Northland. Throw in losses to Detroit Country Day, in OT at Lawrence North and a couple of ofther tough games. They played a big boy schedule, but they just didn't have the same level of support for him this year.

3. All the hilljacks can rejoice...Damon's record stands and it's going to take a special, special combination of factors for it to ever be broken.

 

I am at home today due to Mrs. Appgrad05 and lil' Appgrad coming home from the hospital yesterday afternoon. Did check out the Danville/Brebeuf game earlier. Was less than impressed with Danville. Perhaps I caught them on a bad afternoon.

 

Then he better get ready for a fight, because Lynn Houser is crushing hard on young Rhett.

 

Rhett Smith fan club? Even if I were in it, it wouldn't have done an ounce of good today as Sullivan shot about negative-20 percent in its loss to Boonville.

Odd game, Sullivan couldn't hit the broad side of the Hatchet House, but were still within two midway through the third quarter. I wasn't impressed with either team today. Washington, which was nearly tripped up by Corydon, will boatrace Boonville if they play that way tonight.

 

Meanwhile, undefeated, No. 1 and defending state champion Bloomington South gacks away a late lead against Jeffersonville...losing by two.

So, possible back-to-back undefeated champ is off the table in 4A, while a shot at the all-time scoring lead also won't come to an end at Conseco in two weeks. This year's State Finals are suddenly looking very bland.

 

There's no Devil like a Red Devil. Nice to see Jeff get back in the spotlight.

 

3A might be interesting. Danville didn't look very good this morning, but was very solid defensively against Mt. Vernon tonight, and made enough plays to win. They have 6-10 Purdue recruit Travis Carroll and a nice supporting cast. They'll play Washington and Cody Zeller next week in the semistate. About 5,000 at Shelbyville tonight ... it was sunny-day-in-the-tropics hot in there tonight.

But an interesting day ... Luers getting beat, Bloomington South, unbeaten Brownstown losing to Forest Park. Mt. Vernon-Danville in what could have been a State Finals-level game. I'm interested to see the two teams out of Gary.

 

This isn't about the Indiana tourney but a state tourney game out this way. I'm talking with a fan of Team A - he's chatting me up telling me how great this one kid is. He said "I think there are a couple of scouts over there - the two black guys." I look over there, they aren't wearing logos, don't have notebooks or anything, they're just two black men watching two teams from towns that are very white. So they must be scouts.
The other thing I enjoyed about the game was Team A was clearly better than Team B which just can't play at Team A's tempo - Team A jumps out to an eight point lead with five minutes left in the first half and Coach A puts his team into a four corner stall. Never saw that before. Team leads by 11 at the half so of course Coach A slows his offense down, Team B starts launching threes and makes enough of them, plus a bunch of foul shots because Team A starts sending Team B to the foul line, to cut A's lead to 2 points with five minutes left in the game. Team A goes back to their regular tempo and wins by eight. God I hate overcoaching.

 

State Finals are set for the 100th ... I mean 13th edition of the Indiana State Enrollment Division championships:

1A: #1 Gary Bowman (23-1) vs. #2 Barr-Reeve (24-3)
Bowman is the first charter school to use the Muncie Burris loophole in basketball. They built a charter school, hired an AAU coach, suddenly got every good athlete from Gary to enroll in a brand-new school, limited the enrollment to be in Class A (although their current enrollment would put them squarely in the middle of 2A) and gamed the system to ensure a bunch of titles. Didn't work last year due to either selfishness or questionable officiating, but they're in the finals this year with a stud team that is probably the best Class A team Indiana has ever seen. Barr-Reeve is a classic Southwestern Indiana team ... they'll have two-minute possessions and play a 30-28 game if they have to, or they'll run if they can. Expect the former in this game.

2A: #2 Wheeler (23-1) vs. Park Tudor (15-10).
Don't know much about Wheeler, but PT is a very, very, very elite (and expensive) private school in Indy that suddenly has been building a decent basketball program of late. Coached by ex-Wright State coach Ed Schilling, they have one of the state's top sophomores in Yogi Ferrell, who hit a short jumper at the end of the fourth OT to win the semistate. PT had a losing record in the regular season, and if they win, I believe would be the first team to have a sub-.500 record and win a title (the worst record to win in the real tournament was Jasper in 1949, which went 11-9 in the regular season).

3A: #5 Gary Wallace (19-4) vs. #6 Washington (22-3)
Apparently, Bowman's recruiting wasn't all-encompassing, as Wallace has quietly demolished teams in NW Indiana all year. Washington is making yet another appearance at the finals, having won two enrollment division titles in '05 and '08 with a Zeller at the helm. This time, Cody Zeller leads his team to Indy. Wallace is probably the strongest of the three teams they will have played in Indy. I also like Washington because their coach has a name that gives copy editors fits ... Gene Miiller (yes, there are two "I"s).

4A: #3 North Central-Indy (24-3) vs. #6 Warsaw (23-2). Great matchup of athletes -- NC's Terone Johnson (Purdue) and sophomore DeVauntes Smith-Rivera vs. Warsaw junior Nic Moore. Saw the Warsaw semistate game yesterday and Moore was on fire. Should see a contrast in styles -- NC likes a helter-skelter game, Warsaw doesn't. Also a great example of Indiana small-town politics -- Warsaw's folk were trying to run the coach out a couple of years ago, and now he's got them in the finals. Grab the popcorn and watch the critics twist in the wind . This was a game #1 Bloomington South was the anointed team from the south in, but they managed to barf up a 14-point lead to Jeffersonville two rounds ago, and Jeff lost 82-77 to NC on Saturday in front of 8,000+ at Southport.

My picks: Bowman, Wheeler, Washington, North Central.

 

Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell (doesn't he live out by you, crimsonace?) is an unwitting victim of the increasing child pornization of youth basketball, particularly the kind practice by Clark Francis, who named him the top fourth-grader in the nation a number of years ago. Ye gads. Ferrell isn't going to pass six feet tall, and the poor kid has had to deal with the "best fourth grader" crap as everyone around him got taller. Maybe he can talk with Damon Bailey. Still, the kid is good. Not as highly ranked as DeVauntes Smith-Rivera, who, let's face it, should be ranked highly just for his cool name.

Interesting that Gary Lew's gettin' out tonight even though Bowman is around. Part of the problem, if you will, for Bowman is that the coach pulled in all his current AAU players, so Bowman had a strong base to begin with. Except that it's no guarantee that subsequent AAU players will follow their path. Anyway, it's interesting that Indianapolis charter schools have said they have no intention of creating basketball powers, though Herron's hiring of Sherron Wilkerson and attempt to get Butler recruit Chrishawn Hopkins to transfer in might say otherwise in that case. I believe the mayor killed one sports-themed charter that was planned for Indy.

Ed Schilling at Park Tudor is an interesting character. Played in Miami of Ohio backcourt with Ron Harper. Had a long association with John Calipari, coaching under him at UMass, the Nets and Memphis. With Dave Jamerson, now an Indianapolis minister, opened Champions Academy, a training facility where a lot of NBA players with Indiana ties (and some who don't) work out in the offseasons. Champions Academy has a loose affiliation with the sorta-icky Champions for Christ, known for negotiating a shit contract for Curtis Enis and being accused of ripping off players who used it as an agent.

Park Tudor barely cared about sports for the longest time, but I'm guessing it cares now because in the last few years some other high-end private schools have opened in the Indianapolis area, while some existing ones (namely, Heritage Christian) have ramped up their sports programs and gotten a lot more attention. Park Tudor, if it needed to, could scare up the money to hire Calipari himself, but Schilling has so many contacts through Champions that I'm sure Park Tudor figures he can find some talent.

 

There's a LOT of teams in the championship field that can die in a fire as far as I'm concerned.

For emotional purposes, I'll take Barr-Reeve, Wheeler, Gary Wallace and Warsaw. My head says Bowman, Wheeler, Washington and North Central.

 

Appreciate the rundown of games Crimson and the background info Bob.

When did Park get big enough to be 2A?