Indiana HS Basketball Tourney running thread...

Thanks for doing the hard work, Crimson. I started to write up the matchups about three different times yeterday, but never got around to actually doing it.

My picks: Bowman, Wheeler, Wallace and North Central.

Here are some thoughts (and who I actually want to win):

Class A: Remember the scene in Hoosiers where Gene Hackman says taking his kids to the State Finals is like going to the moon with all the journalists? Well, consider the culture shock the same in this game. Barr-Reeve is no stranger to Conseco, having been to the finals twice...where they faced Oregon-Davis and Rossville. Well, Bowman ain't like O-D or Rossville. In the NCAA thread, someone questioned if there's ever been a bigger difference between two teams as Cornell/Kentucky. I offer this as my example.

I'm somewhat split on who I want to win this one. I thought Bowman got screwed last year, plus I absolutely hate the way Barr-Reeve (and many of those other teams down that way) play. Even more, I hate the bulk of fans, mainly in Southern Indiana, who use code words like "fundamental" and "disciplined" when they really mean "not black". Still, I can't in good faith pull for a team, Bowman, that is so blatantly playing AAU basketball at the high school level. Go Barr-Reeve.

Class 2A: Park Tudor's path to the finals hasn't exactly been tough. Their sectional was terrible. South Ripley might have been the worst sectional champion in the state, so that left them only needing to beat Winchester, who is always pretty good, and Forest Park...who decided to turn a four overtime game into a four possession game (serves you and your stall ball right). I'm interested to see "Yogi", who even if he is overrated, still has offers from half the Big Ten.

But, I'm pulling for Garrett. Once again, I can't cheer for glorified AAU teams in the State Finals.

Class 3A: Washington has the youngest Zeller who will try to do something his brothers couldn't do: win a state title as an underclassmen. Meanwhile, Wallace counters with an absolute stud forward, Branden Dawson, who has offers from Georgetown, UCLA, Indiana, Purdue and Michigan State. You probably have to go back to the 4A title game in 2007 where you had two big time blue chip recruits facing off against each other in a championship.

I don't really care who wins, but this is probably the game I'm looking forward to the most.

Class 4A: I didn't think North Central was all that impressive when I saw them play in the Hinkle Regional a couple weeks back. Johnson talked more shit than any player I've EVER seen at the high school level. Meanwhile, the Panthers boast one of my all-time favorite names in sports: reserve senior forward Trip McFall. Yes, that's really his name.

I'm pulling for Warsaw in this one. One of my former high school teammates, and the best man in my wedding, works in Warsaw and has developed a pretty tight bond with one of the Tigers' young forwards. He goes to all of his games and has served as a mentor as his parents get divorced. My friend and I have gone to the State Finals together every year since we've graduated high school, but this will mark the first time that either of us has actually had a true rooting interest in one of the games.

 

Anyone notice the small school who won the single-class Kentucky state title? Let the debate resume.

http://www.kentucky.com/2010/03/21/1191059/mike-fields-shelby-valley-wins.html

 

That "small school" was nearly 600 kids, meaning they would be in Class 3A in Indiana. It's a far, far cry from Milan winning in Indiana in 1954. It's similar to Delta in 1997 being viewed as a "small school" even though they had 600 kids when they were runner-up, including a couple guys who played D-1 basketball.

I spend more message board time at a very popular Indiana high school basketball message board and a poster over there broke it down pretty well and explained that another big difference between Kentucky and Indiana was the size of the schools. There aren't any mega schools (Carmel, North Central, et al.) with 3,000+ kids in Kentucky. So, the huge "upset" that happened in Kentucky this past weekend would merely be like a 3A school knocking off a smallish 4A school.

 

His younger brother attended school in the district where I teach, but school-jumping is the rage in Indy AAU circles (the Indy Star had a story last week posted online about an eighth-grader "declaring" which HS he'd go to). Nothing has done more to destroy high school basketball in Indiana than AAU.

Interestingly, Park Tudor was an obscure school for rich kids when I was growing up (fun fact: Eric Montross & Alan Henderson both went to junior high school there before going to Lawrence North & Brebeuf, respectively). A few years ago, they had a bunch of 7-foot exchange students, raised quite a stir, had some tourney success, and they've suddenly seemed interested in sports since. They had a weak sectional (only one team with a winning record), weak regional and Forest Park slowed the game in the semistate.
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Vonnegutnaked mentioned the Bowman team and Hoosiers. Someone on another site I frequent said the Dennis Hopper speech will be "no school this big has ever played for the Class A title before." Bowman's enrollment is about twice the Class A cutoff now.
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Also, Ballard (the "big school" in Kentucky that lost the title game) had an enrollment of 1800. Not quite the enrollment of mega-schools like Warren Central, North Central, Ben Davis and the Lawrence Township schools, but it's in line with what would be most of the upper half of Class 4A.

 

Montross actually played one varsity season at Park Tudor. He played three at Lawrence North. Montross actually lived in Lawrence Township though, a rarity for my alma mater ever since.

 

The declaring eighth-grader isn't completely new, though it's more common. The story that made the rounds back in the day was that Alan Henderson's parents talked to numerous high school coaches on the north side of Indianapolis and its 'burbs (his parents, who ARE the Huxtables -- dad a doctor, mom a lawyer, lived in Carmel at the time), and asked if their son would start on the varsity as a freshman. Brebeuf Jesuit said yes, and that's how Alan Henderson ended up there. My old geometry teacher at Carmel had not long before taken the head job at Brebeuf, and I'm sure he had to be thanking whatever god he worshiped for the day the Hendersons stopped by.

By the way, given Ed Schilling's connections to Calipari, I have to say it: I predict Park Tudor will lose, and will later have to vacate its appearance.

 

I went 3 of 4 on picks, missing only on Wallace, who lost in overtime to Washington.

The recap:

Class A: Bowman Academy 74, Barr-Reeve 52
The streak of terrible openers at Conseco continues with this one being no surprise. Sophomore DeJuan Marrero had 17 and 11, but of course drew the ire of the best kind of Indiana high school hoops fans, the "they just run and gun and don't play an offense I love white shooters" guy. At the end of the third quarter, with Bowman already comfortably ahead, Marrero came away with a steal and dunked the ball just after the buzzer had sounded rather than pulling up for a buzzer beating 3-pointer. The Bowman fans howled in delight, while everyone else in the building razzed the kid, who couldn't have cared any less since his team was about to win a title regardless. Only fun moment came late in the game when Bowman adult fans, not students, were acting immature and waving good bye to the Barr-Reeve fans. The folks from Southern Indiana responded by chanting, "We're really 1 A, We're really 1 A", a shot at Bowman's enrollment that should place it smack dab in the middle of 2A.

Class 2A: Wheeler 41, Park Tudor 38
Park Tudor is simply one of the worst teams I've ever seen in the State Finals in any class with the lone exception of sophomore Yogi Ferrell. He was good and had 21 points to keep Park Tudor in the game against Wheeler, who was pretty mediocre as well. But Yogi couldn't make either of two contested 3-pointers in the game's closing seconds.

Class 3A: Washington 65, Gary Wallace 62 (OT)
Easily the game of the day...and one I missed the entire first quarter of because I thought it started a half hour later than it did. Wasn't the prettiest game, but it was two teams getting after it with a couple high level studs on each side. The youngest Zeller had 22 points and 26 rebounds to lead Washington, while super recruit Branden Dawson had 22 and 11 for Wallace despite leaving the game at one point with an injury. However, Dawson, much like Ferrell in 2A, couldn't get either of two 3-pointers to go at the buzzer.

Class 4A: North Central 95, Warsaw 74
I was not impressed with North Central having seen them a couple times earlier in the season, but they came to play tonight. Warsaw couldn't guard them. Terone Johnson, Purdue signee, had 26 points to lead the way. Also saw something I can't ever recall seeing before: Warsaw's best player, by far, fouled out in the third quarter. Warsaw was already down 17 or so and Nic Moore was the only guy keeping the Tigers anywhere within striking distance. So, he picked up his fourth late in the third quarter and Warsaw decided to leave him in. It was just a few moments later when he got No. 5 and went to the bench. He ended up with 28 points before he left.

Today was about what I expected. I said it was sort of a down year in Indiana for great teams and that showed up last night. There was also some really nice talent on display, but most of those big time players were underclassmen and a little bit rough around the edges.

 

Good recap. Yesterday was the first time since I've been about eight I didn't get a chance to watch a minute of the State Finals, due to other commitments.

A lot of the ire directed at Bowman is that they're basically an AAU team posing as a high school, and then fudging their enrollment to stay in the lowest class. Some of the other Region coaches have been very vocal about Bowman's lack of ethics, and at least one (ex-Gary West coach John Boyd) has been willing to forfeit a game rather than play them.

Of course, I'm sure some of it is latent racism (heck, I believe the move toward class basketball was based on latent racism -- "we want white kids to have a chance to win"), but a lot of the ire once directed at private schools and Bubbler's alma mater for accused/perceived "recruiting" has bubbled over into ire at charter schools who are unabashedly shameless about it.

Amazed that Cody Zeller had 26 rebounds in the Washington/Wallace game.
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True story, my old HS coach (on the other end of Marion County from Bubs) had been approached by Alan Henderson's parents, but he chose to go to Brebeuf because we already had a 6'9" guy who was a Div. I prospect (Marcus Johnson, who ended up playing at Indiana State), and Henderson didn't want to share the spotlight. Coach: "you think I couldn't have played you both together?"

 

Gary is so fucked up I'm glad there's a charter school there to showcase its athletes. It's almost given focus to public schools like Wallace.

 

For the record, it's the IHSAA's fault Bowman is in 1A, not Bowman's. Bowman didn't fudge the numbers -- the IHSAA realigns every four years, and the last time they realigned, Bowman only had freshmen and sophomores (this is its first senior class). Not Bowman's fault. Bowman would have won the 2A title, and based on how it beat some top-tier 3A and 4A teams, might have done pretty damn well in a single-class tournament.

Secondly, the Bowman senior class has been together since sixth grade. Were they "recruited" then? Maybe. Wouldn't surprise me. But let's not paint the picture that they all hooked up two years ago and said, "Let's go to this charter school and beat up on undersized white kids."

What private/catholic schools do athletically is FAR worse than whatever Bowman may have done.

 

Max, that Bowman class was recruited then, because their AAU coach was hired as Bowman's coach with the full intention he would bring along those players. However -- and this is where public schools get their noses out of joint -- private and charter schools by nature recruit to fill their student ranks, athletes or not. Of course, plenty of public schools recruit, too. It's just that public schools, unlike private schools, have to at least rent an apartment somewhere in the area.

 

Fair enough. But every kid on the Bowman roster lives in Gary, at least, and they've all been together since middle school. It's not nearly as egregious as an Andrean, or all the Indy private schools. And while I'm not a fan of charter schools siphoning kids (and therefore money) from struggling public schools, if I had a kid in the Gary school district, I admit I'd probably want him or her to go to Bowman over the crumbling city schools.