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BENNETT'S MINUTES: Primed for a great state finals day
For a variety of reasons, I have come to know a lot of people throughout my life.
Factors contributing to that circumstance include the fact that I am old and I have had a varied number of different careers throughout those decades that have brought me into contact with a lot of people.
(My wife, for example, had no trouble believing that I saw 10 different people at a Cincinnati Reds’ game last year who were not just part of the same large group.)
When I am watching a game at home in the rare times we are both there simultaneously, I like to point out what my “Kevin Bacon number” is for that particular game. If you’ve never heard of that trivial notion, it’s a database connecting the popular actor with any other actor — to illustrate the well-known fact that Bacon has been in a lot of movies.
Former Indiana coach Bob Knight was a prominent figure in the basketball movie “Blue Chips.” That fact gives him a “Bacon number” of two, since J.T. Walsh was in “Blue Chips” with Knight and was also in “A Few Good Men” with Bacon.
For me, my Bacon numbers range from zero to as low as one in some cases.
The last two Super Bowl winners? Both are a one. I know Philadelphia Eagles’ assistant coach Trent Miles, a fellow Terre Haute native, from 2018. This year, I know Danny Etling of the New England Patriots (another Hautean) as well as the aunt of former Terre Haute resident Ted Karras Jr., an offensive lineman.
The NBA champion Golden State Warriors? They are a two or a three. I don’t know any of their players, but Kevin Durant used to live in the same neighborhood as a long-time friend who moved to Oklahoma and would shoot baskets in the driveway with his kids. (That’s a two.)
I also know Northview graduate Brady Shoemaker, who played minor-league baseball with Klay Thompson’s younger brother. (That’s a three.)
Lou Williams of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers recently set a league record for most career points scored off the bench. I don’t know him, but I got to meet his high school coach earlier this month and enjoyed listening to him talk about basketball.
You might have heard of that guy — Owen Valley’s Roger Fleetwood (who coached Williams at South Gwinnett High School in Georgia).
This year’s NCAA tourney field is not very strong. I know Bradley assistant coach Drew Adams, and went to his sister’s wedding.
That’s really about it, although North Carolina-Greensboro associate head coach Mike Roberts is a former player whose team was the last one out of the NCAA field.
There are plenty more, but you should get the idea by now.
To mercifully end the longest introduction in journalism history, I am enthusasatically looking forward to this year’s boys’ state finals for my extremely high Bacon number.
Class A: Fort Wayne Blackhawk vs. Barr-Reeve
This game is probably the weakest of the four for me.
A friend of mine who lives in Fort Wayne sent his two sons through school at Blackhawk.
Barr-Reeve coach Josh Thompson spent two seasons working alongside South Putnam coach Greg Dean when both were assistants to Steve Brett at Loogootee. Their shared tenure included a 2005 state runner-up finish.
I do know all three of the officials who will be working this game — Steve Morris and Michael Stoffers of Terre Haute and Greg Hayes of Brazil (who did the Greencastle-Crawfordsville sectional championship game).
Class 2A: Linton-Stockton vs. Andrean
This one is the best of the four.
I have known Linton-Stockton coach Joey Hart for more than 25 years, interviewing him in a college game at Evansville in the early 1990s when he played for Coastal Carolina. I have also come to know assistant coach Noah Hawkins over time, mostly when I followed the Miners through their tournament run four years ago while still writing in Terre Haute.
I went to their sectional tourney at South Knox, their regional victory at Southridge and their loss in the final four to Park Tudor at Southport.
That loaded Park Tudor team included a skinny sophomore named Jaren Jackson Jr., who would later become the No. 4 overall draft choice by the Memphis Grizzlies.
I taught at North Central in Farmersburg with the Miners’ cheerleading coach, and I have known the father of standout player Kip Fougerousse since he was a good athlete at Shakamak.
Fougerousse (a junior) is one of two Linton-Stockton baseball players verbally committed to play for Indiana University, along with sophomore Josh Pyne.
Pyne, incidentally, is a former travel baseball teammate of Greencastle’s Brody Whitaker.
Don’t really know many people from Andrean, although Oakland A’s pitcher Sean Manaea is a former Indiana State standout who is engaged to a former student of mine.
Class 3A: Culver Military vs. Silver Creek
My Culver connections are zero, but I have a pretty good one with Silver Creek.
Matt Renn was an outstanding player for the Dragons in the mid-1990s, and I coached against him in summer AAU for several years.
He made his way to Indiana State and helped Michael Menser lead the Sycamores to back-to-back NCAA tournaments.
Renn now teaches at Terre Haute North and also works as a realtor and on ISU radio broadcasts.
His nephew, 6-6 sophomore Trey Kaufman, is one of the stars for Silver Creek.
Class 4A: Carmel vs. Ben Davis
My Ben Davis connections are also zero, but I have gotten to know the father of Carmel’s Karsten Windlan pretty well over the past year as Tod Windlan has worn out the highways of central Indiana trekking to Greencastle to coach the Tiger Cub girls.
I haven’t met Karsten, but I stood next to him in the lobby at the girls’ county tournament this year when he came to watch his father’s team play.
Windlan picked up a recent scholarship offer from Olney Central College, of all places. (Yeah, I know a few people there, too.)
This will be my second year of attending the tourney in a suite with a long-time fellow basketball fanatic and several budding acquaintances.
Last year was fun, but with so many connections to this year’s event it should be even better.
Bits and pieces
• Longer stories will be coming later, but I did want to mention that North Putnam is looking for two varsity basketball coaches for next year.
Both Jarrod Duff and Collin McCartt resigned after their recently-concluded seasons and will be missed on the sidelines.
Several other coaching changes have been made for Putnam County teams, and a more complete list will be upcoming soon.
• There is no “Feel Good Friday” today, as I try to take a little time off before the spring sports get in full swing.
The popular feature will resume next week, and while I’m still not sure I will be able to generate enough ideas to make it weekly for the long term I am still accepting story ideas.
Please send them to:
• Any young ladies who will graduate in the year 2025 wanting to play for a quality travel basketball team should attend a tryout next month at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center east of Terre Haute (where the ISU cross country course is located).
If my math is correct, these players would be in sixth grade right now.
The program is called the Lady Jammers, and is the first female team offered by a blossoming program with boys’ teams in multiple age groups who play competitively at a national level.
The director of the program is Josh Miley, son of 1979 Indiana State national runnerup team starter Brad Miley.
This program focuses on fundamentals and would be highly recommended for someone who doesn’t want to trek to Indianapolis all the time.
The tryout will be from 7-9 p.m. on April 19 at the center, located at 599 S. Tabortown St..
For more information, contact Miley at (812) 230-3745.