Local Basketball Talent Taking Part in Showcase Events in Indianapolis

ibca-logoThe Northwest Indiana connection will be strong at the 12th annual IBCA/IHSAA Top 100 Showcase events that will take place July 23 and 24 at Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis.

Staged by the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association with support from the Indiana High School Athletic Association, the Top 100 Showcase events are designed to give exposure to top basketball prospects from across the state to colleges across the state and nation.

Fourteen of the 130 girls high school players participating in their events from 2-8 p.m. on Wednesday, July 23 are from the region. La Porte and Lake Central are the only local teams to send two players as the Slicers will be represented with Nicole Konieczny and Kyleigh Kubik and the Lady Indians will have Lindsay Kusbel and Tara Zlotkowski partiipating. Others representing the region on the court will be Hannah Albrecht (Crown Point), Courtney Bell (Griffith), Heather Burton (Washington Township), Jordan Cole (Munster), Haley Hrosik (Andrean), Riley Popplewell (South Central), Taylor Steele (Highland), Kaitlyn Steers (Portage), Zoe Wilson (Hobart) and Grace Withrow (Valparaiso). The girls' showcase will also have some coaches from Northwest Indiana, including Jack Campbell (Chesterton), Annie Equihua (Crown Point), Chris Seibert (Portage) and Marc Urban (Lake Central).

Of the 123 boys players scheduled to take part in the showcase, ten are from Northwest Indiana. Valparaiso and Crown Point each have a pair of representatives with Connor TenHove and Drew Paul representing the Vikings and Grant Gelon and Nick Jeffirs in the state capital for the Bulldogs. Others from the region will be Joe Bannister (Lake Central), Jordan Collazo (Portage), Drew Hackett (Munster), Bryce Hanaway (Hebron), Chris Palombizio (Chesterton) and Brian Patterson (Lake Station).

The guest speaker for the girls event also has Northwest Indiana ties. Kelly Komara, currently an assistant coach at Purdue University, was the 1998 Indiana Miss Basketball from Lake Central. She later went on to win a national title and be declared a Big Ten First Team selection for Purdue before taking on assistant coaching positions for Valparaiso University, Auburn, Northwestern and the University of Albany.

In 2013, coaches from 88 colleges attended the Showcase events. Among them were coaches from NCAA Division I programs such as Austin Peay, Ball State, Belmont, Butler, Chicago State, Dayton, Eastern Illinois, Evansville, Florida State, Illinois-Chicago, Illinois State, Indiana, Indiana State, Iowa, IPFW, IUPUI, Lipscomb, Maryland, Michigan State, Missouri-Kansas City, UNC-Greensboro, Northern Kentucky, Northwestern, Purdue, SIU-Edwardsville, Tennessee-Martin, Toledo, Valparaiso, Western Michigan, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Wright State. Both boys and girls events are NCAA certified.