Five southeastern Indiana players compete in Indiana All-Star Classic

Five southeastern Indiana players took their games to Anderson University for the 18th annual Indiana All-Star Boys and Girls Basketball Classic, a four-game summer showcase built to put underclass prospects in front of college coaches. South Dearborn, Batesville, South Ripley and East Central were all represented, giving the region a multi-school presence on one of Indiana’s most visible offseason stages.

The classic was split into junior and future divisions, and the boys side alone drew 65 underclass players, including 33 juniors and 32 freshmen and sophomores. That setup matters because it is not a normal summer scrimmage. The structure is designed to let prospects from across the state match up against their own age groups, with the Futures Games pairing current freshmen and sophomores in a North-South format and the junior games featuring the state’s top rising seniors. For southeastern Indiana, that made the weekend less about exhibition minutes and more about a direct comparison against elite statewide competition.

The games were staged inside Anderson University’s Kardatzke Wellness Center, a 132,000-square-foot facility the school described as a $17.4 million project that connects to O.C. Lewis Gymnasium and Bennett Natatorium. The building has the scale of a college showcase venue, and that setting fits the purpose of the event. Coaches, scouts and families were able to see players from the same region work through a format that rewards pace, skill and composure in a true high-school environment.

The classic also sits inside a long-running statewide tradition. Indiana boys’ All-Stars are in their 88th year, the girls’ program is in its 51st, and the Futures Games are in their fourth year in 2026. That backdrop gives the event extra weight for southeastern Indiana programs that are trying to prove they can keep sending players into the state conversation, not just for one summer but on a yearly basis.

Batesville junior James Hughes entered that spotlight already decorated, with Indiana Basketball Coaches Association underclass large-school all-state honors in hand. With Hughes and the other four southeastern Indiana players in the mix, the region showed it had more than one program capable of putting talent on the same floor with the best underclass players in Indiana.