When you write a weekly column, sometimes you’re excited to write about the subject of the week and sometimes you dread it.
I wasn’t and am not looking to forward this one at all.
I covered the Indiana-Kentucky All-Star Series high school basketball games at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis Saturday. I sat there in an NBA arena with 6,466 paying customers in attendance and I wondered to myself “how much longer can this continue?”
I remember when this ticket was the hottest ticket around. Families held onto their ticket rights to the all-star series for generations. It was referred to as the World Series of high school basketball. Fans would score tickets to both the games in Indy and Kentucky.
I remember the energy created in 12 different Indiana communities after the announcement that one of their own had been selected to represent our basketball-crazed state against the best the Bluegrass State could throw at us.
Those games were played on consecutive Saturdays, and you knew the games would be at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis and either Freedom Hall in Louisville or Rupp Arena in Lexington.
It was a grudge match between the graduating high school stars of two neighboring states.
Notice, I used the word “was.” That was intentional.
That hot ticket that used to be a family legacy is no longer that. Here is why:
• The spring and summer is so saturated with local and regional all-star games, summer team camps, and a huge assortment of other stuff that hardly anyone pays the attention to the all-star games that they deserve.
Take the junior exhibition last Tuesday, for example. That game was held in New Albany, home of Romeo Langford who is a lock to be Mr. Basketball in 2018. One problem: Langford was in Europe playing in some games for Adidas. Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Not good.
• Colleges are asking more from incoming freshman. Whether it’s a Crossroads League college, a mid-major or one of the elite programs, college coaches are expecting their newbies to be on campus a lot during the summer. They want to get them plugged into their own system, break them of their bad high school habits, get a course or two in before the season starts and keep them under their own surveillance in an effort to keep them from doing stuff like smoking pot (yep, I said it – college kids smoke pot and they probably don’t start there).
• The ‘legendary status’ of an Indiana All-Star selection is limited in its scope today. People in Warsaw, Kosciusko County and the Northern Lakes Conference will never forget Kyle Mangas. But people outside of that geography may not have a clue who he is, and if you told them who he is they would likely respond with “why should I care?” We have become a society of people who only have interest in stuff that directly affects us, and we are pretty tone-deaf to what is going on around us.
• Rivalries are defined as passionate, and there is very little passion in the series anymore. Kentucky, as a whole, could not care less about this series. They quit caring about it 15 years ago, which coincides with the time frame when Indiana fans quit traveling south in large numbers to attend the games in their state. The Hoosier fans’ money dried up, and so did Kentucky’s interest.
• The politics of the roster selections have ruined the whole thing. Whether anyone will admit to it or not, the team is selected based on making sure Indianapolis schools, fans and the local media market is satisfied. In other words, a player will be chosen for the all-star teams who may not be good enough to be an all-star, but they get a spot to pacify the Indy media’s interests in covering the game. Really … seriously… it’s real. Tippecanoe Valley has been the biggest victim of this. How else do you explain how Trey Eaton and Anne Secrest could be left off? Eaton was No. 2 in the state in scoring his senior year, but was left off because … well, no one could say why. And Secrest not being selected is just embarrassing.
I sat next to a good friend who is part of the organization and operation of the game. He claims attendance has risen each of the last nine years, corporate sponsorships mean the game makes money to give to the charities that it supports and the game means a lot to the kids and communities who participate. They’re happy with the state of the series.
To me, it kinda feels like it’s time to end it.
I have a solution.
All-star teams for the boys and girls from Indiana should be named in April, and then in early June host a banquet for them at some swanky banquet hall in Indianapolis to honor them. Sell tickets for it and donate proceeds to the charities you already support.
Let the media and coaches select the teams. It takes the politics and geographical pressure to pick a certain number of guys from a certain region, and means you really get the best 15 players in the state.
The series will continue, but you can add it to the list of things that will never be the same.
