A (Virtual/Online) Saturday in Indiana
Maya Makalusky of Hamilton Southeastern (10) goes up for a shot for the 2024 Indiana Junior All-Stars against the Kentucky Junior All-Stars on June 2 in Scottsburg, Indiana. Grace Mbugua (white uniform) of Danville Christian (KY) is the defender. Photo Courtesy of Pat McKee | Indiana Basketball Coaches Association.
Playoffs Analysis in Indiana
February 21, 2025
In the last few years, I have put a February Saturday or two aside to watch Indiana’s high school playoffs. As this is the 50th IHSAA Girls Basketball State Tournament, I thought it was appropriate to give some national exposure to this event by discussing various aspects of Indiana high school girls’ basketball, ending up with my one-day online tour through a portion of its girls’ regional playoffs.
It is well known that the Hoosier State gives support well above the national average for its high school basketball teams. What most fans do not know is the infrastructure of support by the Indiana Coaches Association, which during the season regularly puts out releases about its teams and players. In most states, one is lucky to find schedules and results (most use MaxPreps and all schedules and results are posted at JohnHarrell.net). In too many states, there is little fuss over the postseason as if it is something more of a task to get past than an annual event to be celebrated as Indiana does.
Talent
Granted, below I was only looking at Class 4A (largest class) and Class 3A teams, but there were plenty of Division I prospects in those contests. Like so much of the country, the number of major Division I prospects was much more limited. When living in Florida several decades ago, I stated that the top 10 players in Florida at times would win a theoretical game against the 10 best players from Indiana. However, if you played a contest with players 41-50 from each state against each other, Indiana would win most times. This likely still is true today as concern for the development of players still runs much deeper in Indiana compared to the national average.
Maya Epps in action at the Indiana All-Star Futures Game in June. Photo Courtesy of Pat McKee | Indiana Basketball Coaches Association.
The Playoff System
Hoosier State girls’ basketball starts play in early November allowing 22 regular-season contests with no in-season tournaments or 20 regular season games plus one in-season tournament of any number of games [usually three or four] held within a seven-day span.
Post-season play for the girls starts at the end of January or beginning of February depending on calendar. Every IHSAA-member school (391 entered this year with a few not participating) is eligible to get a start fresh (regardless of regular-season results) in its class (1A to 4A) in the postseason. This is in contrast to a number of other states where losses are punished as to playoff seeding or even qualification. There is no round as in some states where both winner and loser advance to another stage (perhaps to meet again). In the Indiana postseason, it strictly is win or go home.
Sectionals First
In the current system (second year), postseason play starts with “the sectional round” (16 sectionals in each class with competition at one pre-designated site, typically on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday [weather permitting]). The sectionals are geographically based, and it is possible that schools may play each other twice in the regular season and meet a third time in the sectional (just ask nationally ranked Lawrence Central, which beat local rival Lawrence North twice in the regular season only to suffer a season-ending loss to Lawrence North in the sectional). To win a sectional, a school must win at least two or possibly three games to advance.
Next come …
The Regionals
At this stage, there are two games at one site (not necessarily of the same class) played on the following Saturday (at a pre-determined and usually neutral site). A blind draw determines which sectional winners from a group of four sectionals in this round (in Class 4A, Sectionals 1-4 and 5-8 are “north” and Sectionals 5-8 and 9-12 are “south).
The following Saturday is called …
The Semi-State (another blind draw of north vs. north and south vs. south determines pairings)
At each site, there are two semifinal games in the late morning and early afternoon. Then, later that same day, the Semi-State final is held in the evening. There are two semi-states per class (one “North” and one “South”) with a total of eight semi-state sites. Once again, it is “lose and go home” with winners advancing to Gainbridge Fieldhouse (home of the NBA Pacers and WNBA Fever) in downtown Indianapolis for the four-class State Finals on the following Saturday (March 1 this year).
My “Tour” on Saturday, February 15, 2025
I began the journey (conducted from my laptop in South Georgia) starting in late morning and ended just before 9 p.m.
Step 1 was to contact Pat McKee, Director of Special Projects for the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association. A former girls’ basketball coach at Columbus North, he guided CNHS to the Indiana Class 4A state championship in 2015 and for more than a decade has served as the media liaison for Indiana Basketball Coaches Association, distributing weekly polls, weekly Player of the Week information and IBCA end-of-season awards for boys and girls.
Pat gave me a rundown of various games with a brief description of teams involved in each contest. As the games were for this round were free live-streams (at least the ones I wanted to see), it was really overload and I had to pick and choose as I am more of a “game-at-a-time” evaluator. I know some evaluators who can watch and analyze multiple games at once. Sadly, not me!
The games started at 1 p.m. EST and ran concurrently all over the state with the last games starting at 7 p.m. EST. There were two games (at times the same class) and generally at neutral, pre-determined sites. All told, I took at least a peak at six games. Most of the gyms appeared quite crowded. It surprised me that at least one game I watched (and a few others as well) had competing (multiple) live-streams with announcers favoring one of the two sides. How rare for any high school event!
My goal was to watch the more publicized larger schools and try to fit in action from the smaller classes as possible. I list the local start time of each game and for those not from Indiana, a bit about the location of the school if the name does not give it away.
The list of available live-streams can be found by searching the IHSAA Champions Network online. Early rounds tend to be free with a nominal charge in the latter stages of the playoffs. The games discussed below were from free live-streams.
1 p.m.
4A Lawrence North (on the northeast side of Indianapolis) 60-54 Pendleton Heights (a town-based school about 20 miles northeast of metro Indianapolis)
As this was a battle from start to finish, I watched pretty much the entire game – which was a contrast in styles. Lawrence North (the favorite) put out the defending 4A state champion and local rival Lawrence Central in the sectional final (difficult to beat a good team three times). LN is small but athletic and plays hard. It is known for its balanced scoring. Pendleton Heights is a more structure-oriented team relying on a senior wing Kaycie Warfel (16 points) and 6-3 sophomore post Adah Hupfer (17 points), a player with Division I upside. Pendleton led for three quarters (44-41) as LN struggled to keep its key players on the court battling foul trouble. The fourth quarter was a different story as LN got things going, outscoring its opponent 19-10 led by junior guard Ke’Adriah Butler (20 points, six rebounds, 6-of-13 FGs). Lawrence North may not have a major D-I player but likely has multiple prospects below that level.
4 p.m.
4A Pike 61-50 Franklin Central
After a lunch break (us old-timers do have to eat), I focused on a battle of two Indianapolis-based schools. Pike (from the northwest side) is similar to Lawrence North (a team they split with during the regular season) in that they are athletic and somewhat balanced. Unlike the contest above, Pike was in control start to finish and I left this game at half with Pike leading 32-17 (won by 11). The opponent, Franklin Central, is from the southeast side. Similar to the first game, the top prospect (6-2 sophomore forward Payton DuVall) appeared to be on the losing team. DuVall (finished with 24 points) is light on her feet with a body of a major Division I small forward but a game currently mostly in the lower key.
4 p.m.
3A Evansville Central 65-58 Corydon Central (in southern Indiana, just west of Louisville near the Ohio River)
I watched only the latter stages of this very competitive game. What I remember most was an Evansville Central player having two chances to win the game with essentially no time left and missing both foul shots resulting in overtime. That can stay with a player for a long time, but fortunately, her team won the overtime. Evansville Central was led by 6-1 junior forward Southern Indiana commit Maddy Shirley with 33 points (11-18 FGs, 1-1 3s, 10-11 FT) plus 12 rebounds, one assist and three blocks.
5 p.m.
4A Warsaw (in northern Indiana, about 40 miles northwest of Fort Wayne) 53-43 South Bend Washington (very near Notre Dame)
This was another game I got to late, but unlike the others, the live-stream had an annoying disconnect between the video and audio. Also, the camera angles were worse than other contests I viewed. Joining the game in progress between two teams with one loss each, Warsaw was ahead with the lead fluctuating between just over 10 points to single digits but never below one possession. Whenever SBW made a run, it was answered. Going in, SBW would be considered the more talented team and to their credit, they sought out out-of-state opposition. However, on this evening, Warsaw seemed to have the better team linkage and moved on to Semi-State. Junior wing Joslyn Bricker (19 points, 12 rebounds) and senior Brooke Winchester (16 points, 10 rebounds, Ball State signee) led Warsaw. Senior guard Ryiah Wilson (21 points, Winthrop commit), senior Monique Mitchell (eight points, Akron commit) and senior Kira Reynolds (six points, Purdue commit) paced SBW.
5 p.m.
4A McCutcheon (in Lafayette near Purdue University) 45-41 Fort Wayne Snider
This was a game that I got to very late and only saw a few minutes of action. Snider was one of the favorites last year and lost key players to graduation. No one likes to lose, but they did well given that they were being led by a freshman rather than a senior (Jordyn Poole, now at Purdue). Two young players caught my eye in my brief viewing. McCutcheon is led by 6-1 sophomore guard Lillie Graves (19.3 ppg), who is considered one of the best in Indiana’s 2027 class. Snider is led by 5-11 freshman strongly built wing Janaya Cooper, who is averaging a team-leading 14.7 ppg. D-I programs should be monitoring both of these players!
7 p.m.
4A Hamilton Southeastern (just northeast of Indianapolis, due north of Lawrence North) 65-48 Homestead (southwestern Fort Wayne)
This was expected to be one of the feature games of the day with nationally ranked 25-0 Hamilton Southeastern facing 24-2 Homestead (considered one of Indiana’s better young teams with limited senior impact). As it turned out, this one was kind of over early as Southeastern shot the ball very well out of the gate and went up 26-13 after one quarter and 40-22 at halftime. It kind of came down to two future majors for Southeastern (Indiana commit Maya Makalusky – 24 points; junior Kennedy Holman – 24 points) to one for Homestead (junior Myah Epps [very recent Louisville commit] – 18 points). Leading by 19 going into the fourth quarter, Southeastern went into a delay game (Indiana like most of the nation has no shot clock). Although Southeastern turned the ball over a bit with stall-ball, Homestead never threatened. Senior Makalusky may be one of the leaders for this year’s prestigious Indiana Miss Basketball award (only seniors eligible), but in this contest, Holman may have deserved first star as she scored as many points, had to run the offense and is the team’s primary ball handler.
KK Holman of Hamilton SE in action from the Indiana Futures Game in June. Photo Courtesy of Pat McKee | Indiana Basketball Coaches Association.
Summary of pluses and minuses of Indiana high school girls’ basketball
Pluses:
A playoff system which does not discourage taking on good competition during the regular season as everyone starts fresh in the postseason. Old-time “lose-and-go-home” system makes every game count to the max.
Huge fan support with media involvement at the high school level; both items are significantly greater compared to most of the nation.
The IHSAA recognizes past stars and championship teams even back decades. In too many states, the history of the sport is quickly forgotten. Note: I live in Georgia and am currently being treated (never expected this to happen) by a former Miss Georgia Basketball from several decades back. She says she is rarely recognized for this accomplishment. In Indiana, she would still be a celebrity!
Significantly better-than-average fundamentals instilled into its players than one finds in so much of the USA.
Minuses:
No shot clock. Interestingly, I have not heard of one state that has adopted it in the last decade that is campaigning to get rid of it. The clock just makes for a better game.
No out-of-state travel is allowed beyond 300 miles from the state line. Thus, the big events around Christmas run in warmer climates are out of bounds. Teams from anywhere now may come to Indiana to play and Indiana teams may play anyone so long as the game is played with 300 miles of the state line. Until recently, the 300-mile barrier was for inbound teams (or neutral-site games) as well. The arguments given blocking travel include: out-of-state play detracts from the state series/championship; distant travel is only for bigger schools. Both are totally false!
Unwillingness (like most states) to allow Chipotle National participation in April. This is a free trip for the lucky schools and for most kids, an experience that is long remembered. This April, Hamilton Southeastern (mentioned above) is the host school and it will be an unfortunate irony that they or another Indiana-based school cannot play if invited.