INDIANAPOLIS - The 100th annual IHSAA boys basketball tournament was filled with good teams, but some really great players.
In all, seven players playing in state title games are getting big-time looks from Division-I programs.Bowman Academy sophomore DeJuan Marrero, Park Tudor sophomore Kevin Ferrell, Washington junior Cody Zeller, Gary Wallace junior Branden Lawson, Warsaw junior Nic Moore and North Central senior Terone Johnson, as well as sophomore D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera all proved their worth.
College coaches from all over, including Matt Painter (Purdue), Tom Crean (Indiana), Billy Taylor (Ball State), Tubby Smith (Minnesota), Bruce Weber (Illinois) and Roy Williams (North Carolina) were on hand to take in the talent.
In the day's opening game, Marrero led his top-ranked Bowman Academy Eagles to a 74-52 victory over Barr-Reeve with 17 points, 11 rebounds, four steals and three blocked shots.
Those kind of stats justify his offers from Indiana, Purdue, Tennessee, Xavier, Cincinnati and Louisville, according to rivals.com
Barr-Reeve senior Christian Duncheon commented that his team has has faced some tough players this season, including Zeller, and the 6-foot-5, 200-pound Marrero is near the top of the list.
"I don't know if he was the most talented, but he was definitely the most athletic," Duncheon said. "You would think you had him defended, but then he'd use that spin move."
In the Class 2A game between Park Tudor and Wheeler, the smallest man on the court had the biggest impact, even though it came in a loss.
Losing 41-38, Park Tudor's 5-10, 160-pound Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell scored 20 points to go with five rebounds, four assists and three steals in front of Painter, Weber and Taylor.
Along with having offers from Purdue and Illinois, Butler and Indiana have also offered Ferrell, who averaged 23 points a game this year.
"Yogi Ferrell is an unbelievable player," Wheeler coach Mike Jones said about Ferrell, who scored more than half of his team's points. "We knew he was going to score."
The first game of the night session opened with the 3A contest between Washington and Gary Wallace, with Zeller taking the court for Washington and Dawson for Wallace.
Zeller's 22-point, 26-rebound effort helped push his Washington Hatchets to a 65-62 victory.
Playing in front of Williams, Cody captured the third state championship title in his family, following Luke Zeller (2005) and Tyler Zeller (2008). Luke went on to play at Notre Dame, while Tyler will be a junior at North Carolina next season.
The 6-9, 195-pound Cody may join his brother at North Carolina, but he's also received offers from Indiana, Florida, Butler, Iowa, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Purdue.
"Cody didn't shoot the ball very well, but he did a lot of the other things very well for us," Washington coach Gene Miller said of Zeller's 4-for-15 shooting night. "Twenty-six rebounds is super."
The 26 boards set a new 3A record in a state title game, and was three short of Brad Milley's 29-rebound mark, set in 1976.
On the other side of the ball, Dawson came off the bench to score 22 points and haul in 11 rebounds.
"Branden's going to be back next year," Wallace coach Renaldo Thomas said. "And after that, I hope there won't be any more Zellers."
With the Zellers out of the way, the 6-6, 200-pound Dawson will have an easier path to a state title, as his talent is obvious with scholarship offers from Georgetown, Indiana, Michigan State, Minnesota, Purdue and UCLA.
The 4A championship game between North Central (Indianapolis) and Warsaw also featured three Division-I players, including Warsaw's 5-9, 170-pound Moore.
Getting more and more looks as the postseason has rolled around, Moore scored 28 points and dished out four assists in a 95-74 loss.
Moore's effort came in just three quarters, as four fouls in the third quarter left him on the bench after fouling out.
"I thought Nic played really well," Warsaw coach Doug Ogle said. "I just wish he hadn't fouled out."
Even fouling out, Moore came just one point shy of tying Greg Oden's 29-point effort in 2005, and tied East Chicago's E'Twaun Moore and Marion's Zach Randolph for second-most points scored in a 4A title game.
"At any point in time in the game, where we could make him not as effective, so we could get an 8-0 run, 6-0 run, that would be good for us," North Central coach Doug Mitchell said about Moore. "You know, eventually, he's going to get back into it, which he did in the second half. My goodness, he's a really good player. Defensively, we try to break you down, but he's breaking this press all by himself. We've guarded with three people, maybe four by the end of the first quarter. Eventually, you hope he wears down."
Moore's been offered by IPFW, Ohio, Evansville, St. Bonaventure and Valparaiso, but has had Butler, Louisville and Indiana looking at him during the tournament run.
For North Central, the 6-2, 200-pound Johnson is already signed with Purdue and his coach thinks he should be adding 2009-2010 Indiana Mr. Basketball to his résumé.
"Terone is Mr. Basketball in my opinion," Mitchell said. "Terone's been on a runner-up team and led his team to a state championship. He's a captain, a team leader and has averaged over 20 points a game for two or three years. He's been Marion County Player of the Year, in the heart of toughest basketball, arguably, in the state of Indiana if not the country."
Johnson made his claim for Mr. Basketball by scoring 26 points on 10-of-18 shooting.
On top of having a future Boiler on his team, Mitchell also has Smith-Rivera, who's getting big-time looks, including offers from Indiana, Purdue, Tennessee, Xavier, Cincinnati and Louisville.
In the victory, the 6-4, 220-pound Smith Rivera had 16 points on 6-for-10 shooting and also six rebounds, two assists and two steals.
