BENNETT'S MINUTES: All-Stars split with Kentucky; Neese has limited role, but many good life lessons were available

Monday, June 12, 2017
Cooper Neese brings the ball upcourt against Taveion Hollingsworth, Kentucky's Mr. Basketball.
Banner Graphic/JOEY BENNETT

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Cloverdale’s Cooper Neese felt “blessed” when chosen in April as the seventh basketball player from Putnam County to be a member of the prestigious Indiana All-Stars.

Neese played a total of 38 minutes (of a possible 90) in the two-game series over the weekend, in which Indiana split a pair of games with Kentucky. The Indiana squad won 94-89 on Saturday at Indianapolis, then saw its 17-game winning streak come to an end Sunday with a 111-110 loss at the Frankfort Convention Center.

On Saturday, Neese scored two points, grabbed three rebounds and handed out two assists in 16 minutes of action, and added four points, two rebounds, one assist and one steal on Sunday in 22 minutes.

The defeat stopped a 17-game winning streak for the Indiana boys in the longtime series.

“It’s been fun, and a dream come true,” Neese said after Sunday’s game. “It’s been a little bit of a rough week, but it hasn’t been too bad.”

The rough part of the week was one of Neese’s first lessons in the difficult transition from high school to adulthood.

Life Lesson No. 1 – “You don’t always know what is going to happen, especially with things you can’t control.”

Neese signed in November to play collegiately for Butler, as the first member of a seven-player recruiting class rated as one of the best in the nation. Coach Chris Holtmann’s name had come up in connection with some job openings since that time, most notably at Indiana. Every college athlete’s worst nightmare came true for Neese on Friday when Holtmann left Butler to become the head coach at Ohio State.

Such a potential jolt to Neese’s future would be bad at any time, but the rumors of the Holtmann-Ohio State marriage started on Thursday night after the second Indiana All-Stars scrimmage against a team of junior all-stars. Holtmann’s departure became official on Friday afternoon, and Neese did not play with the vigor in the two games against Kentucky that he did in the two exhibitions.

Did that change bother him?

“Maybe a little bit, but I don’t think it’s going to affect a whole lot,” he said.

Cloverdale's Cooper Neese (right) defends against Lukas Berkman of Kentucky in Saturday night's game.
Banner Graphic/JOEY BENNETT

Neese was glad that Holtmann called him and the other signees on Friday to inform them of his decision, and Neese has no issue with the departure.

“He has to do what’s best for his family, and you can’t knock him for that,” Neese said. “There are a lot of really good candidates being mentioned, and I’m sure they’ll hire another good coach.”

Prior to the two games against Kentucky, Neese was coming off a stellar performance on Thursday in which he had 25 points and 10 rebounds, hitting 9 of 16 shots from the field (5 of 6 from 3-point range) and adding four assists and four steals.

Still, I didn’t get a good feeling after that game when Indiana All-Star coach Marty Beasley seemed annoyed with Neese shooting deep 3-pointers, and when asked to evaluate him Beasley told me that he thought Neese “has potential.”

That description can mean many different things, but in this situation I took it to mean that Beasley didn’t think he was good at that time but could be someday.

Life Lesson No. 2“All of us are judged by our superiors, sometimes accurately and fairly and sometimes not. It’s how you deal with those situations that shows strength.”

Despite the tumultuous week that saw players get injured, arrive late, leave early, not show up at all and get suspended, Neese played in mostly short stretches of a few minutes in the games and never really got into a rhythm.

He supported his teammates from the bench, tried to direct people to the right spots on the court and was professional and courteous through the entire week. I know he greatly appreciated the huge crowd of Cloverdale fans who came to the scrimmages and the game in Indianapolis, and he was proud to represent his state – even though I’m sure he wishes he had played more, and played better when he was in the game.

When looking back at this experience in a few years, it may turn out to have been beneficial to Neese in ways he cannot yet appreciate.

Life Lesson No. 3“Change happens, and when it does you have to adjust.”

Other than a few other random all-star games in which he has competed, where players were all given equal time and the coaching didn’t really matter, the Indiana All-Star experience was the first time in a while that Neese has played for a new coach.

During his Cloverdale career, Neese played for Pat and Patrick Rady – who understandably share the same philosophies. Neese also played for the same summer team since eighth grade.

In both situations, the coaches had complete confidence in his ability and knew what to expect from him from year to year.

Under the previous format of the Indiana All-Stars, Neese and the other players had more time to make an impression. The entire experience was two weeks long, until a few years ago, with games only on Saturdays. Players had a full week of practice following the first game to either retain or improve their status for the second game of the series.

Neese obviously now faces another far more important task in earning the trust of the new Butler coach. It could possibly be a current or former assistant who helped recruit him to Butler, which would be a good thing. Or, it could be someone who has never heard of him and the other signees or seen them play before.

Published reports on Sunday indicated that former Butler player LaVall Jordan, now head coach at Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has emerged the top candidate.

In any case, Neese should have learned over the past week the value of making a good impression on a new superior. If he wasn’t already going to be the hardest worker in the Butler freshman class this year, this experience should inspire him to win that title.

Neese planned to take a couple of days off after Sunday’s game, then get back to work to prepare for college. He reports to Butler on June 24, and the team will take an overseas trip to Italy from Aug. 2-12.

When it’s all said and done, aren’t learning life lessons like those the purpose of education and athletics?

Cooper Neese (second from right) waits for the pregame introductions with Indiana All-Star teammates (from left) Jaylen Minnett of Terre Haute South, Jalen Adaway of Logansport and Grant Smith of Connersville.
Banner Graphic/JOEY BENNETT

Future of the series

The Indiana-Kentucky All-Star series dates back to 1940 for the boys and 1976 for the girls.

Obviously, a lot of changes have happened over those decades and those factors have resulted in changes to the series.

The series appears to be on the verge of collapse, however, and the possibility of fixing it seems difficult at best.

The listed attendance for Saturday was 6,466, and the Sunday box score in Kentucky did not list a number. I predict it would have been a three-digit number had anybody counted.

Player availability is a huge issue. For several decades, college freshman athletes reported to their schools in August like the rest of the student population to start training and/or take a summer class or two to lighten their schedules during the traditional school year. Castle’s Jack Nunge played in Saturday’s game at Indianapolis, but left on Sunday for Iowa. Last year, Mr. Basketball Kyle Guy also missed a game to report to school at Virginia.

I’m surprised that a college coach would order one of his recruits to miss a basketball game representing his state, in favor of a few hours of orientation, but it’s not surprising that the players make that decision to go. When you’re getting a college scholarship worth six figures, you jump when they say jump.

Before these changes, though, there was nothing to conflict with the two-week All-Star series in mid-June, and the percentage of players chosen for the two who played in the games was about 100.

Former Indiana University star Randy Wittman, who also coached and played in the NBA, was one exception. He was also a standout baseball player, approximately my age, and I think he had to miss one of the games due to his Ben Davis team playing in the IHSAA semistate or state finals. Totally legit.

Other than infrequent situations like that, however, everybody played. That fact has obviously changed.

Two of the team’s best players had their high school graduation in Fort Wayne on Saturday and did not participate in any of the week’s activities. Each person has to make that decision according to his own priorities, and those guys can’t be faulted for that. (Had Neese been required to make that choice, however, I’m positive he would have made sure the Cloverdale administrators had his correct home address so they could send his diploma in the mail.)

Basically, summer has become a bad time for these games for all of these reasons. There have been whispers that discussions are taking place which would move the series to late April or early May, but even those dates aren’t safe – the new conflict would be proms.

Many people are quick to blame the class state tournament for a decline in interest in Indiana high school basketball, and I’m sure that change plays a small role. The increase of bigtime AAU/travel teams and tournaments also steers some players (usually ones on bad high school teams) to prefer that environment. There are now more “big games” in which to play, which may devalue the All-Star experience for some.

As a result, the all-star series appears to be in jeopardy – but hopefully some changes can be made to keep it going. It’s a tradition definitely worth saving, if it’s possible.

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