Pike tops IndyStar’s way-too-early Fab 15 for Central Indiana boys basketball

Pike started the offseason where every program wants to be, at No. 1 in a way-too-early Fab 15 that landed just days after the 116th annual IHSAA boys state finals wrapped at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on March 28. The ranking had a built-in warning label from the start: the transfer portal could still rewrite the Central Indiana pecking order before the next ball was tipped.

That uncertainty is exactly why Pike drew so much attention. The Red Devils were still projected at the top even after graduation took T.J. Davis, Ian Macon, Brennan Dokes and Muna Newman-Nwodika off the board. Their presence on Pike’s March 25 roster page showed how quickly the picture could shift if key pieces return, and why the discussion around the program has already moved from last winter’s results to what the roster will look like by November.

The numbers behind Pike’s season only sharpened the debate. One team page listed the Red Devils at 22-6 with a No. 3 ranking in Indiana 4A, while another showed a 23-4 mark and noted the season ended with a 57-54 loss to Mt. Vernon in the Southport Regional on March 14. That kind of split snapshot captures the reality of modern high school basketball in Indiana: the résumé matters, but so does how much of it comes back intact.

Pike’s early placement also says something broader about Central Indiana’s balance of power. The IHSAA tournament pairings were announced on February 22, sectionals began March 3, and the full state tournament ran through March 28. Less than two weeks after the final buzzer at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the conversation had already turned from trophies to roster math, eligibility and transfer buzz. That is where next season’s sectional races will be decided, long before the first official tip of 2026-27.

For now, Pike sits at the center of that uncertainty because the names still attached to the roster matter. Jahari Miller and Isaiah Hill give the Red Devils the kind of recognizable core that keeps a program in the title mix, while the status of the rest of the returning group will determine whether Pike is merely the favorite on paper or the team that actually reshapes Central Indiana’s path to another March run.