Welcome to Indiana Basketball.

If you know the movie Hoosiers, you know that line. Welcome to Indiana Basketball.

Yesterday I texted those words along with this picture…

to a cousin in Mississippi.  He was impressed with the attendance.

Each time I watch the movie Hoosiers and hear that line spoken by Gene Hackman playing the character of Hickory Huskers head basketball coach Norman Dale, I see a different gym in my mind.

I was fortunate enough to shoot a few hoops as a youngster in this gym which was located in Brownstown, Indiana.  The locker room in the Hickory Gym is a dead ringer for the one we dressed in for pee-wee football here. I am fortunate, again I say it, to have been there.

Fast forward about 47 years.  

Yesterday, as I walked into the Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the home of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers, the first person I saw there was an old friend named Jon Robison.  I had the pleasure of meeting his wife and his son.  Jon too shot hoops in the ‘old gym’.  He shot many more than I did there. I saw Jon play for Brownstown Central many years ago.

Inside the Indianapolis arena, the current Brownstown Central Braves High School Boys Varsity Basketball Team was nearing their turn on the floor to play against the Wapahani Raiders for the Indiana Class 2A Championship.

I had my popcorn ready.

At the behest of my dear friend Adam Disque, I joined him and his family to watch the action.  Action that proved to be history in the making.  Brownstown Central defeated Wapahani 55-36.

The tale of this game for me was that Brownstown played the first half clean as a whistle.  Wapahani did not go to the charity stripe one single time in the first half.  That is rare at any level of basketball.  This is a true sign of a well-disciplined BC team.

Part two of the tale is that, and excuse my language, in the first half Wapahani couldn’t hit a cow in the ass with a bass fiddle.  With 2:13 left in the 2nd quarter, Wapahani’s shooting percentage was 21.1% to Brownstown Central’s 55.6%.  We need not look at much more.  The halftime score was 31-14 in favor of the BC Braves.

This was the first time I had seen this BC team in action this season.  I don’t get around to basketball games like I do football games.  Seeing this team in action, and I wanted to all year, was worth it.  One thing I jotted down in my notebook at halftime was about a pass that I saw BC senior Jack Benter throw across the court to a teammate in the opposite corner that turned into a three pointer, my apologies to the shooter.  That was the best pass I have seen at a high school game since I was announcing courtside at Medora when a kid named Brody Boyd came to town playing for Dugger.  Boyd threw a bounce pass in front of me that was so quick, fast, and accurate that I still smile when I think about it.  So impressed, that whenever I step foot into a high school gym to watch a game, I think about that pass each time I do so.

Wapahani came out in the second half like a team that wished it could start the game over again.  The Raiders outscored the Braves 14-7 in the third quarter.  At the end of 3 quarters, Wapahani was shooting 35% and the Braves fell to 42%.  That was that.

And that pass I was spoke of earlier?  Well, sorry Brody.  In the 4th quarter, Jack Benter was seemingly trapped on the block and had nowhere to go.  I was waiting for a Meatball Cockerham double-pump under bridge technique.  No need.  Benter spotted his teammate, sophomore Micah Sheffer, in the FAR corner from Benter’s precarious position.  Jack Benter proceeded to engage in a behind the back pass that took one solid bounce before it landed perfectly into the hands of Sheffer. Like the sophomore quarterback he is with good sense, Sheffer threw in a three pointer that put the icing on the cake of a pass and shot that will be talked about in and around Indiana High School Basketball long after my granddaughter is talking about me in the past tense.  The play was that good and I was there to see it.

Benter finished with 25 points.  Chace Coomer threw in 13.  Micah Sheffer scored 10, and Parker Hehman, who averaged 11.6 a game on the season, played the role of teammate extraordinary by tossing out 8 of the team’s 13 assists.  I am not going to list all the players here.  Don’t think I don’t appreciate you.  I haven’t officially been a Brownstown Central Brave since before the Miracle on Ice.  But for 1 hour and 24 minutes, surrounded by old friends and guys I was in a huddle with once upon a time myself, I was a Brave again for the first time in a very long time.  In truth, that feeling wore off by the time I was in my car riding away while the team was on the floor getting medals and a nice trophy.  I didn’t stick around for ceremony.  I was fortunate to receive what I did; I ran before something could ruin it.

Let me close with saying congratulations to Coach Dave Benter and the rest of his coaching staff, two of whom I worked with at Medora many years ago.  Marty Young and Michael Leitzman are both good guys.  And congratulations to assistant coach Kevin Gwin for being recognized, during the game at that, with a plaque acknowledging Kevin as the IHSAA Champion Educator for Brownstown Central.  Another victory!

Congratulations BCHS.  I enjoyed it.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson