State tournament brings back Hoosier basketball memories

INDIANAPOLIS – To many in Indiana, there are four holidays in the calendar year: Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving and the beginning of the Indiana High School Athletic Association’s sectional tournaments for boys basketball.

This is the opinion of Bob Hammel, IU Athletics Hall of Fame inductee and former sportswriter for the Bloomington Herald-Times who covered IU basketball from 1966 to 1996.

The tournament ended after four state champions were crowned in Indianapolis this past weekend.

Hammel covered high school sports in Indianapolis before his tenure in Bloomington, living not only through the newly formed four-class postseason system but also the era when a single state champion was crowned.

The latter is nationally renowned, due largely to the Milan Indians’ run to the state championship in 1954. The improbable event served as the basis for the movie “Hoosiers.”

Bobby Plump’s buzzer-beating shot in the 1954 state championship game, lifting the heavy underdog Indians to a win against Muncie Central, has been enshrined as the figurehead of last-second shots on the hardwood.

The single-class postseason was modified after the 1997 season by dividing schools into separate tournaments based on school enrollment.

Hammel said he thinks Indiana’s early crowning system was a cornerstone for the present.

“The old tournament was key,” Hammel said. “It generated the border-to-border enthusiasm we have today.”

IU coach Tom Crean said the quality of coaches, players and people associated with the game are second to none.

“The passion of the fans leads to the support,” Crean said. “The kids play so hard, and the coaching is top quality.”

Many of Indiana high school’s greatest players took up residency in Bloomington after their high school days were done.

Names forever etched in IU hardwood history such as Kent Benson, Landon Turner, Steve Alford and Calbert Cheaney are only a few of those who left high school ball for Final Four glory at the next level.

Current Buffalo Bills wide receiver and former IU standout James Hardy said high school basketball in Indiana is different than in any other state. Hardy played on Fort Wayne Elmhurst’s runner-up team in 2003 before spending a portion of his athletic career playing for former IU basketball coach Mike Davis.

“Coming out, I always wanted to be successful,” Hardy said. “I still love basketball, still watch it, still play it. Coming down to Conseco Fieldhouse to play was a dream come true.”

Although the format of crowning champions has changed, feelings regarding the game have not.

The late Tony Hinkle, who coached football, baseball and basketball at Butler for almost 50 years, has a quote painted on Conseco Fieldhouse’s wall, encapsulating the state’s obsession: “Basketball is not a craze in Indiana, because a craze is something that lasts temporarily.”

Former IU coach and player Dan Dakich watched from the crowd as future IU player Jordan Hulls and Bloomington South won the Class 4A championship. Nearly speechless after the 69-62 finish in which South cemented a perfect 26-0 record, Dakich simply said, “There is absolutely nothing like Indiana high school basketball. Absolutely nothing.”