IndyStar spotlights 10 standouts from Indiana underclass showcase

The IBCA/IHSAA Underclass Showcase is not a glorified summer run. It is a mid-June sorting table for Indiana basketball, where 252 prospects across the boys’ and girls’ events, including 120 boys, get one session to separate themselves in front of college eyes during the NCAA scholastic viewing period. Friday’s boys event at Ben Davis High School ran from 11:30 a.m. to about 4:45 p.m., cost $5 at the door, and carried a little more gravity because 67 coaches from 58 colleges were there in 2025, proof that this stop still matters for recruiting buzz and statewide standing.

Jayden Comer

Comer walked into the showcase as the kind of guard coaches can file under “watch again.” The Jay County 2027 guard had already made 61 three-pointers at a 39.6 percent clip as a junior, and that is the sort of number that travels beyond a hot gym because it says his value is built on repeatable spacing, not a one-night heater. In a setting where staffs are comparing prospects side by side, Comer used the event to remind everybody that an under-the-radar shooter can become an instant roster fit.

James Hughes

Hughes needed the showcase for a different reason: visibility. The Batesville 2027 guard, listed at 6-foot-5, had missed spring action because of an injury, so Ben Davis was as much about re-establishing momentum as it was about adding another good workout to the ledger. He already owns the kind of production that changes conversations, with a junior line that included 19.5 points per game and a district stretch where he averaged 32 over two games, so the showcase mattered because it showed the strong season was not a one-off.

Caleb Coolman

Coolman is the cleanest example of why this event is bigger than a box score. The Penn 2028 guard stands 6-foot-4 and has already posted a stat line that looks like a grown varsity engine, averaging 19.9 points, 9.4 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 2.4 steals per game. That kind of all-court production tells college staffs he is not just a scorer, he is a possession manager, and the showcase gave him a chance to prove the numbers hold up when the pace gets sharper and the crowd gets more evaluative.

Will Davison

Davison showed why 2028 wings get hot fast when the profile and the production start matching. The New Palestine guard is listed at 6-foot-5, and the recruiting chatter around him has already been building around his scoring versatility and breakout trajectory, with one scouting note calling him one of the class’ breakout players and another pointing to a 35-point outburst for his high school team. At Ben Davis, the big takeaway was not just that he can score, but that he looks like the kind of size-shoot-create wing that can rise quickly once college staffs start spending more live-period time on him.

Elijah King

King is the kind of point guard who makes a showcase session look like a varsity playoff game. The South Bend St. Joseph 2027 floor general is a 6-foot-2 guard who has posted 19.1 points, 4.8 assists and 2.3 steals per game over 26 games, which is the profile of a lead guard who can create offense and take it away on the other end. That matters in a live period because staffs are not just asking whether he can score, they are asking whether he can control tempo against better athletes, and King has already shown enough to make that a real question worth asking.

Jaece Vogt

Vogt’s appeal is rooted in modern two-way value. The West Lafayette 2028 guard is listed at 6-foot-5, and his own player profile says he wants defensive intensity to lead to efficient offense, a mindset that fits the way college coaches now hunt for wings who can defend first and still stretch the floor. He is not a loud-stat prospect so much as a trust prospect, the kind of younger player whose stock rises when people see the defensive effort, the shooting touch and the willingness to do the little things that win possessions.

Zavier Laney

Laney already had a defensive reputation before the showcase, and that is exactly why his ceiling keeps getting louder. The Center Grove 2027 guard is listed at 6-foot-4 in Prep Hoops and 6-foot-3 in MaxPreps, and MaxPreps notes he was the varsity Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore, which tells you the floor is real before the offense even catches up. In a gym full of underclassmen trying to make noise, Laney’s value was in showing that a high-end defender with size is often the easiest player to project upward.

Mason Trammell

Trammell is the kind of guard whose game can sneak up on people until the numbers and the film force a correction. The Yorktown 2027 guard is listed at 6-foot-2 and has been described as a skilled offensive off guard with pace and scoring touch, while Yorktown already had him on its 2026 All-Hoosier Heritage Conference team. That matters because the showcase is where a steady local scorer can show whether his creation and shot-making translate against a deeper pool of prospects, not just against familiar conference opponents.

Teagan Leonard

Leonard’s résumé already reads like a statewide alarm bell for a sophomore. The North Vermillion 2028 guard was the leading freshman scorer in Indiana last season at 20.5 points per game, added 3.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.8 steals, and knocked down 48.4 percent of his three-pointers, which is how a young guard starts getting taken seriously beyond his own class. Showcase settings matter for players like Leonard because the question is no longer whether he can score at small-school scale, but whether that production keeps its edge when the gym gets packed with college staffs and more athletic defenders.

Jaykob Troutwine

Troutwine looks like a player whose trajectory is moving faster than his class tag. The Hagerstown 2028 guard is listed at 6-foot-2 and, according to his recruiting profile, averaged 19.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game over 18 games as a sophomore, while another scouting note called him a guard who has really come into his own after a strong freshman season. That is why the showcase mattered: it gave him a bigger stage for a scoring and playmaking profile that is already mature enough to draw attention, and if Indiana staffs were looking for underclassmen who are starting to look varsity-proof, Troutwine fit the bill.