Luke Ertel to play final high school games in Indiana All-Star series

Indiana still uses the All-Star series as its final sorting machine, and Luke Ertel is sitting at the top of it. The Mt. Vernon (Fortville) guard, Indiana’s 2026 Mr. Basketball, will close his high school career in a week that runs from the junior opener on May 31 through the senior return game on June 6.

Ertel’s last high school chapter comes with the kind of résumé that makes the All-Star stage feel earned, not ceremonial. He is headed to Purdue after averaging 24.5 points, 9.9 rebounds and 6.6 assists as a senior, carrying Mt. Vernon to a 28-3 record and a Class 4A state championship. He finished with 1,756 points, 659 rebounds, 432 assists and 124 steals, and added Gatorade Indiana Player of the Year, MaxPreps Indiana Player of the Year and Iverson Classic All-American honors to the pile. The family thread matters, too: Ertel follows his brother Michael Ertel, a 2017 All-Star.

The schedule tells its own story about how Indiana wants to showcase its next wave. The week opens with the Indiana Juniors against Kentucky Juniors on Sunday, May 31 at Charlestown High School, then shifts to the fourth annual Futures Games on Monday, June 1 at New Palestine High School. The Junior-Senior All-Star game follows on Wednesday, June 3 at Mt. Vernon, before the senior doubleheader against Kentucky lands Friday, June 5 at Lexington Catholic High School and Saturday, June 6 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Admission for the in-state events is $15 at the door for adults and school-aged students, while pre-school children are free.

The boys’ side has 13 players, and the roster gives the state’s evaluation pipeline a familiar feel. Along with Ertel, the group includes Dane Caldwell, Anthony Fresh, Evan Harrell, Ja’Shawn Ladd, Kai McGrew, Brennan Miller, Brady Scholl, Dikembe Shaw, Nick Shrewsberry, Noah Smith, Baron Walker and Cameron Webster. Shaw’s selection made him the 13th brother-sister All-Star combination in program history, another reminder that Indiana basketball still runs through family names as much as rankings.

The bigger frame is the one that keeps this event relevant every June. This is the 88th year of Indiana boys’ All-Stars and the 51st year of Indiana girls’ All-Stars, with the program dating to 1939 and the boys’ Kentucky series beginning in 1940. Indiana leads that boys’ series 107-46. On the girls’ side, Center Grove’s Gracyn Gilliard, the 2026 Miss Basketball, brings Stanford to the table after a 29-0 championship season in which she averaged 25.6 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 2.7 steals and finished with 1,879 points. With Hoosier Shooting Academy and Energy Systems Group attached as presenting partners, the week still works the way the best Indiana basketball showcases always have: it separates the stars from the merely good and tells the next recruiting cycle exactly where to look.