Volume. 3 Issue 2 e-mail: INDBASKETBALNEWS@aol.com Oct., 1999

Jared Jeffries chooses Indiana University after committing to visiting USC, Iowa, Duke, Florida State, Notre Dame and neighbor Indiana. Jeffries has chosen Indiana. Attending Duke’s midnight madness via a charter jet was certainly an impressionable experience while his parents even drove the 12 hours to also visit Duke. After the visit Mrs. Jeffries told IBN that Jared was staying with his late October announcement. When asked if she wanted him to stay home at Indiana she replied, "That is not true, that is Jared’s decision." The 6’9"big fella handled his recruiting in the most mature manner of any teenager in years.

6’8" Josh Grant---Taylor High School has chosen Division One Winthrop in South Carolina. No senior in Indiana has more potential than Josh and we expect him to be incredibly talented by his sophomore season.

6’4" Braden Bushman of Mississinewa High School has chosen to be part of the Indiana contingent that attempts to revitalize the underachieving Wright State. Bushman joins former Indiana preps John Watkins, (Dekalb), Venard Hollins (Ft. Wayne) and Marcus May (North Central) at the Midwest Collegiate Conference Men’s Basketball program.

Laporte-s 5’11" combo Steve Drabyn has chosen Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee over IUPUI. Rarely have we seen a more perfect fit as the treyball specialist is perfect for the screening motion offense. Belmont plays in the rising Mid-Con conference.

6’8" Lefty Corey Seegers of Columbus North has taken his power forward game to Kyle Macy’s Morehead State University program in Kentucky. (Remember Dick Flick?) Indiana legend Macy out witted a dozen mid majors for Seeger’s services.

6’5" versatile (SF) Michael Bennett of Brebeuf High School (Indpls.) has chosen to stay close to home and suit up for Ray McCallum’s Ball State Cardinals.

6’7" Tyray Pearson, Hammond High School and sophomore at Kankakee Jr. College has officially announced to join 6’4"Shane Power at Iowa State. Pearson and Power are perfect slashers for the transition oriented Iowa State.

The most interesting commitment to date has been 6’4" John Hamilton’s (Greenfield) announcement for Weber State University. Spurning offers from Big Ten Purdue, Illinois State, Miami (Ohio) and interest from Louisville, Ohio State, Temple and Notre Dame. Jump shooting Johnny has taken his pure treyball to the Utah school that upset North Carolina in NCAA’S last March. Weber’s Indiana connections run deep as head coach Joe Cravens and assist. Kirk Earlywine and John Stroia all are Hoosierland hoop products. Recently hired Stroia of Munster, Indiana is the former exiled Youngstown State head coach . Earlywine of Mt. Vernon actually played for John Hamilton Sr. and then learned his college craft under Rick Majerus. Unbelievably the up and coming Weber State program some 2,000 miles from Indiana will start four Indiana residents next season--6’0" Jermaine Boyette, Hammond, 6’4" John Hamilton, Greenfield, 6’9" Pat Danley, Gary Westside and 6’4" Chris Woods of East Chicago.

6’4" shooter John Standeford, Monrovia has decided to take his All State Football skill to Big Ten Purdue. John was considering many mid major hoop offers until he visited Purdue’s football game with Notre Dame. That incredibly exciting experience at Ross Ade Stadium would sway any hard working prep to join Joe Tiller’s program. IBN looks forward to following John’s final season of prep hoops.

6’8" Adam Mark of Bremen visited his final three choices of Belmont, Elon and Campbell with-Belmont emerging the victor for Adam’s services. With physical development we expect him to have a "TJ Lux" type NCAA division one career.

6’3" Jovan Witherspoon-Ft. Wayne Bishop Luers, Big East Pittsburgh has now joined Toledo and Bowling Green in offering both football and Hoops.

6’9" Ross Mcgregor, Ft. Wayne North-offers: Indiana, Purdue Ft. Wayne and Akron.

6’9" Ronald Dokes, offers: Ball State, Central Michigan, So. Illinois and Ohio Univ. -decision Nov. 10th

6’3"Chris Wiggins-Warsaw, offers: Univ. of Chicago, Lafayette and Yale, decision in March. He desires big school.

6’6" Matt Backs, Marion--he will decide in early Nov. between Central Florida, Univ. of Indpls., Youngstown State and Elon.

6’7" Aaron Thomas, Northridge--Bucknell and Robert Morris lead but late decision includes Colgate, Central Florida and Dartmouth.

6’6" Brandon Webb, Knox-deep shooter has St. Joe offer, Oregon State, widespread LM

6’0"David Hanger-North Newton-the combo who drained a state record 57 in one game has Evansville, Indiana State and Notre Dame with St. Josephs as D2 favorite.

6’2" Mickey Mcgill, Rossville, athletic small schooler will decide Nov. 10th between Winthrop and Univ. of Indianapolis

6’8"John Gergely, Speedway--has offer from Indiana, Purdue Ft. Wayne and interest from Colgate, Yale, Dartmouth and Harvard.

6’6" Scott Fisher, Bloomington South--Rhodes scholar type "fish"seeks Donald Trump economics major and has visited Columbia, Cornell, Brown and also likes Yale and University of Chicago.

6’4" Ricky Gooden, Michigan City, SF Rim Rattler likes South Illinois and Ill. State with Bethel and Depauw.

6’3" Sean Gillespie, Arlington, Indianapolis, best player tells us only St. Josephs and Paris Juco show interest. He is determined to qualify academically. IUPUI and Ashland also covet Sean.

6’11" 230 lb. Josh Wittgren-Union Dugger--Indiana’s most intriguing prospect has strong interest from Indiana, Illinois and Wright State. He states his core GPA ;is 3.0 and that his doctor believes Josh will grow to 7ft.5.

6’0" 190lb. combo Terry Collins, Ft. Wayne Snider,Bowling Green and Dayton lead, Collins must raise grades.

6’2" Lathaniel Staten, Andrean-Bowling Green has "cooled down on late" but he has offers from Tenn. Tech, Charleston, New Hampshire, Lewis.

6’7" Traver Griffin-Pendleton Heights-If qualifies academically, he has Bowling Green and Western Michigan offers with Indiana State interest.

6’0"Bryant Northern-Jeffersonville,--partial qualifier academically at this time. He has offers from Murray State, Morehead State, Ball State, Ind. State and Clemson.

5’10"Jon Owens--Indianapolis Brebeuf--3.34GPA, 1020 SAT. Desires Div. One. Offers from: No. Colorado, West Florida, Depauw, Hanover, Wabash, Rose Hulman.

6’4" SF Brad Gulick, Dekalb--needs core work-wants S.W.Mo. State

6’5" SFBlake English-Evansville North--favors Indiana Purdue Ft. Wayne but likes Depauw, Wabash, Hanover.

6’4"2G Jeremy Smith,Ft. Wayne North-3.0GPA, 1200 SAT, will miss 5 games as finishing ACL rehab.

6’4" Antonio Lisenbee,Ben Davis--Due to personal reasons he will join team in January.

Not long ago October was the time when Indiana high school basketball fans began debating about which team would most likely be contending for the State Championship in March. With practice beginning on October 15 and non football schools starting to play in November, the season seemed just around the corner long before the hardwood forests performed their annual duty of coloring the landscape. The crown jewel of the season of course was the state tournament. Today all of this appears as a faded memory. Practices begin November 1st, the start of the season has been kicked by the pigskin heads into December, and the magnificence of March-mayhem has been relegated to class cookie cutter status by the Indiana High School Athletic Association. Saddest of all, fewer and fewer fans can be found spinning their forecasts for the upcoming year. Lets face it--Indiana prep hoops is in a state of decline.Under the leadership of former commissioner Gene Cato the current decade began with 80,000 fans attending the traditional four-team, three game single class finals in March of 1990. Last season a crowd of only 29,000 witnessed the eight team four game state finals directed by present commissioner Bob Gardner and his cookie cutter multi class creation. In dollars and cents, conservative estimates suggest the new format has already cost the IHSAA over one million dollars. Never again will a Hoosier small school be allowed to defy all odds and defeat a big city power in the state finals. Sadly Miracle Milan’s Coach Marvin Wood recently died at age 71. The architect of Hoosier Hysteria, Coach Wood utilized the "cat and mouse" four corners and trapping defenses before Dean Smith and John Wooden "hung their hats" on those strategies. Bone cancer killed coach Wood but multi class basketball saddened him. Marvin Wood was Indiana Basketball.

6’8" Sr. Zach Randolph--Marion 6’8 Sr. Ronaald Dokes--South Bend Riley

6’9" Sr. Jared Jeffries-Bloomington 6’7"Jr. Sean Kline-Huntington North

6’8" Sr. Brett Buscher-Chesterton 6’2" Sr. Andre Owens-Perry Meridian

6’0" Jr. Chris Thomas-Pike (Indpls.) 6’6" Sr. Myron Hodge-Evansville Bosse

5’10" Sr. Brody Boyd-Union Dugger 6’4" Sr. Shane Power-Andrean

6’6" Sr. Matt Backs-Marion 6’6" Sr. Brandon Webb-Knox

6’8" Sr. Corey Seegers-Columbus North 6’2" Sr. Gerry Hall-Muncie South

6’4" Sr. John Hamilton-Greenfield Central 6’4" Sr. John Standeford-Monrovia

6’0" Sr. David Hanger-North Newton 6’1" Sr. Terry Collins-Ft. Wayne Snider

6’3" Sr. Jovan Witherspoon-Ft.Wayne Bishop 6’5" Jr. Dennis Coutee-Jeffersonville

5’10" Steve Drabyn-Laporte 6’7" Sr. Aaron Thomas-Northridge

6’3" Sr. Chris Wiggins-Warsaw 6’1" Sr. Derek Yoder-Westview

6’7" Jr. Andre Patterson-Ft. Wayne Con. 6’8" Sr. Adam Mark-Bremen

6’8" So. Sean May-Bloomington North 6’2" Sr. Aaron Brothers-Evansville Memorial

6’7" So. Tyler Best-Laf. Cen. Catholic 6’5" Sr. Blake English-Evansville North

5’10" Sr. Austin Parkinson-Northwestern

The business of Indiana Basketball News is primarily to report on the talents of hoosierlands top prospects.We hope to identify and describe all scholarship worthy athletes to our nationwide clientele of colleges and Universities. We base our team rankings on experience, talent, depth, coaching, quickness and size. Hoop spin doctors can prognosticate why their local team is top 25. We expect outstanding seasons from IBN’s Top 25!!

Indian Creek High School enjoyed their first winning season (15-7) in eleven years this past season under the direction of first year coach Dan Carmony Sr. A four starter at Manchester College, Dan was team captain as a Jr . and Sr. Coaching highlight was his 1998 Morristown team ranked #1 in State that won school’s only regional championship. Dan’s career record is 49-18. With wife Doris, Dan is the proud parent of Dan Jr. Weston, Keegan and Stedman.

Shaun Busick has assisted at Warsw, Lebanon and Kankakee before starting his head coaching career at Argos High School in 1992. Later he coached North Knox to a #5 clan 2A state ranking and conference title. Last season at Belmont, Coach Busick finished with a 14-8 record and New Haven sectional championship.

The IHSAA quickly cleared top-sophomore Russell Trudeau’s transfer to Lafayette Central Catholic from South Newton. This ruling was in spite of huge central Indiana protest. In contrast, the IHSAA worked overtime to rule for Jason Carter and then against Jason. They stripped Jason of their eligibility gift once they learned he did not attend summer school as promised. What he did was travel two weeks in July playing AAU with the Gary running rebel tutoring program team. YES! Believe it or not -- a supposed program for academics would actually persuade the academic deficient Jason Carter to skip school for hoops!