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'One of best weeks of my life.' Putting a bow on Indiana All-Stars, 2025 graduating class

Indianapolis Star

32 minutes ago

Indianapolis Star

'One of best weeks of my life.' Putting a bow on Indiana All-Stars, 2025 graduating class

The completion of the Indiana All-Stars series against Kentucky is always a little emotional, maybe more for the parents than the players. Literally a day later for many of the All-Stars, they check in at their colleges and officially close the door on their high school experience. Lives change. Parents say goodbye, knowing it will never quite be the same as it was those first 18 years — no matter how far away their sons or daughters are going away to college. I was reminded of that fact Saturday after the Indiana All-Stars' team defeated Kentucky 105-92 to sweep the boys from the Bluegrass state for the 19th time in the past 26 years of the series that dates to 1940 (not counting the cancelled year of 2020). There were plenty of hugs and smiles and then … poof … they were gone. Time marches on. Maybe I'm a little more emotional and connected to this 2025 class because I have a graduate of my own in this class. It feels like I have been watching and covering players like Braylon Mullins, Mark Zackery IV, Dezmon Briscoe, Azavier Robinson, Julius Gizzi, Justin Kirby and Brady Koehler for a long time. It will be fun to see what they accomplish at the next level in college and beyond. For Mullins, Greenfield-Central's first IndyStar Mr. Basketball, it is off to UConn, where he will get caught up quickly with the rest of the incoming recruits, who are already on campus. He will move in Monday and get to work — really get to work — Tuesday. 'I've just been going through watching the film and watching what I need to so I can get caught up to speed,' said Mullins, who finished with 20 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and two steals to earn MVP honors in Saturday's game. 'It's way different than I expected. I'm going to be in the best shape of my life by week two. But I'm excited for it. It's an experience I can't take for granted.' Ben Davis' Zackery, this year's Mr. Football, played his best game of the week for the All-Stars on Saturday, going for 10 points (2-for-4 from the 3-point line) with six assists and five rebounds. The crazy thing about Zackery is how little basketball he's played in the past several months after getting surgery on his thumb from a football injury and missing almost the entire season. I know his future is in football at Notre Dame, but I will always wonder what he might have been if he played just basketball. His quickness and wing-span alone would put him at an elite level. There were a few times this weekend when he just hit the accelerate button and Kentucky could not stay in front of him. 'He's one of the smartest people on the floor,' Mullins said of Zackery. 'You won't see anybody quicker, faster or smarter. He does a lot of things good for our team. He's a very unselfish player. I can believe he's really good at basketball on top of that, a really good football player. He would do really well on both sports if he wanted to do that.' I thought it was cool Zackery and Lawrence North grad Azavier Robinson, named the Wooden-MCL Citizenship award winner, were roommates. Imagine putting those two in the same backcourt together, especially on defense. Though Zackery called it his 'last basketball game ever,' All-Stars coach Marc Urban of Chesterton said he was more than happy to have him on the team. 'He's one of the most elite people I've ever been around,' Urban said. 'Being able to observe him from our first practice, through this whole week, the way he carries himself and how hard he goes, he is elite. He's super dialed in, super focused, super mature. He led us in a lot of ways. He just stayed focused throughout and was fun to be around. I feel very lucky to be around him for this week.' I think that is a pretty typical feeling after the All-Stars experience. There will always be a few outliers (often related to playing time) or behavior issues during the week. But Urban said the experience was even more fulfilling than he imagined. 'Honestly, it's been one of the best weeks of my life,' Urban said. '(All-Stars director Mike Broughton) and my assistants (Steve Cox, Chris Hawkins and Jason Speer) were really fun to be around. It was super fun. It was hard, it was challenging, but it was very rewarding. I feel very lucky and very blessed to have the opportunity to do it.' ∎ It was odd to leave Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Saturday night knowing I would be back in four days to help cover Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers. There were reminders, though, including the 'Finals' logo and backdrop already in the press conference room. Basketball in June is better than Christmas. ∎ How good is 6-8 Tre Singleton going to be at Northwestern? The Jeffersonville star and Class 4A state champion had 14 points and four rebounds in Friday's 98-89 win at Kentucky, going up against 7-1 Kentucky Mr. Basketball Malachi Moreno. In Saturday's win, Singleton had 12 points on 6-for-8 shooting and six rebounds in just 15 minutes. I think Singleton and fellow Jeffersonville teammate and Indiana All-Star Michael Cooper (Wright State) are going to be really good players at the next level. Cooper was 8-for-13 from the 3-point line in the two games combined. ∎ Attendance for Saturday's game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse was announced at 5,411. The competition took a hit by Moreno's absence in the return game. Kentucky's team had some good players, but not enough to play 40 minutes head-to-head with Indiana without Moreno. ∎ Mt. Vernon point guard Luke Ertel continues to ascend. Nothing he did for the Junior All-Stars during the week will change that thought. The Purdue recruit backed up his 36-point game on Sunday against the Kentucky Junior All-Stars with 35 points, nine rebounds and four assists in the win over the Indiana All-Stars on Wednesday. Another Matt Painter recruiting victory. ∎ Fishers' Justin Kirby is ridiculously athletic. Alley-oops from Brady Koehler on back-to-back possessions in the second half — the second on a bounce pass — were big highlights from Saturday's win. Kirby finished with 11 points and four rebounds after going for nine points and four rebounds in the win at Kentucky on Friday. 'It was like a college experience,' Kirby said of All-Stars week. 'The way you do things, the way you carry yourself throughout the week. It's a lot. It's a lot of three- and four-hour practices you have to go through, but you have to get ready for that for next year in college. I think it was good for me to have that experience.' Kirby's next few years will be interesting. He is going to Miami of Ohio for his freshman year as a player who has improved dramatically as an outside shooter during high school (he shot 41% from the 3-point line as a senior). Kirby will not be overmatched athletically at the next level. 'I'm just going to outwork everyone and work as hard as I can,' Kirby said. 'I'm going to be the best teammate. I'm not going to complain or say or do anything bad. I'm going to be who I am and see what I can do.' Kirby said All-Stars week was something he 'will remember my entire life.' ∎ The Indiana girls were swept by Kentucky but managed to play in one of the wildest All-Stars games I can remember on Saturday. Rich Torres, who covered the game for us, and I were flipping through the program to try to find the lowest scoring games with the score 53-48 Indiana going into the fourth quarter. After the fourth quarter and two overtimes, Kentucky's 106-103 victory was the highest-scoring game in series history, eclipsing Indiana's 100-97 victory in 1994. Kentucky Miss Basketball ZaKiyah Johnson (LSU) set a new single-game scoring record with 34 points and the two-game total with 62. ∎ Things you find out in All-Stars program compiled by Pat McKee: Julius Gizzi's favorite song is 'Hunger Strike' by Temple of the Dog. There is hope for our future. Maybe even better: Chase Barnes' and Azavier Robinson's favorite movie is 'Above the Rim.' Great soundtrack, too. ∎ I'll miss covering this group of seniors, even beyond the All-Stars. Good luck, class of 2025.

Doyel: After pulling rabbit from Game 1 hat, Tyrese Haliburton disappeared much of Game 2

Indianapolis Star

an hour ago

Indianapolis Star

Doyel: After pulling rabbit from Game 1 hat, Tyrese Haliburton disappeared much of Game 2

OKLAHOMA CITY – This is the Tyrese Haliburton experience: Sometimes, most of the time, he pulls a rabbit out of a hat. But sometimes, other times, he makes himself disappear. Don't try to understand it, because he doesn't. If he did, you think this would happen? Those first three-plus quarters of the Indiana Pacers' 123-107 loss to Oklahoma City in Game 2 of the 2025 NBA Finals? 'I have to do a better job of figuring out where I can be better,' the Pacers All-Star guard said after the Thunder evened the series at 1-1, with the NBA Finals shifting to Gainbridge Fieldhouse this week for Game 3 and Game 4. Through those first 39 minutes Sunday, Haliburton was all but invisible: five points, three rebounds, five assists, five turnovers. The Thunder led 98-76, and this game was over. Yes, even against the Pacers, who have made the impossible look routine during these playoffs — winning a combination of four games, one in each series, that as a parlay would've had odds of 1 in 17 billion. In those four wins, late-game comebacks against the Bucks, Cavaliers, Knicks and then Thunder in Game 1 on Thursday, Haliburton hit the key shot: game-winners against Milwaukee, Cleveland and Oklahoma City, and a buzzer-beater to force overtime at New York. That's the magic of Haliburton, the way he makes the hardest shots look easy, over and over. In shots to tie the score or take the lead in the final five seconds of these 2025 NBA playoffs, the rest of the league is a combined 3-for-16. Haliburton is 4-for-4. Magical. And it keeps happening. Counting the regular season, in the game's final two minutes on shots to tie or take the lead, Haliburton is 13-for-15. These aren't free throws, but contested field goals against NBA defenses desperate to stop him. And he's 13-for-15? Abracadabra! But every so often, and if there's a trend, it's this — it happens after one of his special games — Haliburton disappears. Poof. But this game Sunday night, Game 2 of these NBA Finals, this was different than the disappearances that have come before. And there haven't been that many disappearances by Haliburton. It's fair to note that. It's also fair to note that, as the unquestioned star of this team, he can't afford to disappear … ever. And most NBA stars don't disappear. Put it like this: After Game 2, when OKC's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 points for his 13th game with at least 30 points in these playoffs — the most since Giannis Antetokounmpo had 13 such games in 2021 – Pacers coach Rick Carlisle noted SGA's metronomic consistency. 'Shai,' Carlisle said, 'you can mark down 34 points before they even get on the plane.' Haliburton, you can't do that. There was Game 2 in the Eastern Conference semifinals against Cleveland, when he had four points and five assists after his buzzer-beater in Game 1. And there was Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals against New York, when he had eight points, two rebounds and six assists after his 32-12-and-15 masterpiece of a triple-double in Game 4. Then came Sunday night in OKC, when Haliburton followed his latest game-winner from Game 1 by fizzling for the first 39 minutes as Game 2 got so far away, not even the Pacers could come back. With about 5½ minutes left, Carlisle waved the surrender flag by sending rookie Johnny Furphy to the scorer's table to replace Haliburton. But as I said, this was different from Haliburton's handful of disappearances that came before. Because after the 39-minute mark, with the Pacers down 22, with the game over, Haliburton went from fizzling to sizzling. You can say it doesn't matter, but did you see what OKC coach Mark Daigneault did? Seemed to matter to him. It starts for Haliburton with a baseline floater with 9:30 left. The Pacers are within 20. What does it matter, right? For most of 39 minutes, the Thunder have assigned NBA All-Defensive team ace Luguentz Dort to Haliburton. Dort is a menace, a tenacious physical marvel who goes 6-4, 220 pounds with the quick feet of someone much smaller. And Dort is following Haliburton for most of 94 feet, just getting in his face, his space, being physical and daring officials to blow their whistle on a night the tweets go mostly silent. Twenty-seven seconds later, Haliburton dribbles Dort into a 17-footer. It goes down, and now Haliburton has found something. Next time down he has the ball, hunting the rim, getting a screen and going to the basket for a dunk. Then he dribbles into a 30-footer, a 3-pointer. He has now made four straight shots and scored nine consecutive points for the Pacers, all in about 90 seconds, but the Pacers still trail by 19 — they can't stop anybody — and when Haliburton misses a 3-pointer it appears as if the spell is over. Here comes Furphy, walking to the scorer's table. Only now, it's about to get silly. Pacers guard T.J. McConnell is driving the baseline, like he does, and looking for a teammate, as he does, and spotting Haliburton behind him. McConnell throws it that way and Haliburton chases down the ball in the corner before launching a running 3-pointer as he heads out of bounds. The shot falls. In about an hour, long after Paycom Center has emptied out, Haliburton will sit down with reporters and talk about some things, mainly how poorly he played, but he dropped in this fascinating little nugget about those 12 points he scored in about five minutes of the fourth quarter. 'When you're down by so much,' he was saying, 'you can choose to just take the game for (the blowout) it is and just be done — or try to continue to learn different things.' Haliburton was learning, and Daigneault was watching. He sees what's happening. This game has been over for some time, but he's already planning for Game 3. He sees Haliburton heating up, getting that confidence that comes when he's having one of those magical nights, and he wants no part of this. Daigneault calls timeout, just to stop the clock. Just so Furphy can come in, and Haliburton can go out. Still think that sizzling stretch, in a blowout loss, doesn't matter? Not so sure. Carlisle wasn't having any discussion about Tyrese Haliburton's first 39 minutes. That's when the game got away from the Pacers, but is that why? Someone asks Carlisle about Haliburton, who 'struggled to get engaged.' Carlisle doesn't want to hear it. 'There's a lot more to the game than just scoring,' he said. 'Everybody's got to do more. It starts with the best players. It starts with, you know, Tyrese and Pascal (Siakam, 15 points) and Myles (Turner, 16 points), and then it goes from there. 'People shouldn't just look at (Haliburton's) points and assists and judge how he played, or judge how any of our guys played just on that. That's just not — that's not how our team is built. I mean, we are an ecosystem that has to function together. We've got to score enough points to win the game, but who gets them and how they get them, not important.' Was he speaking 100% truth, or was Carlisle sending a message to Haliburton — not your fault — as he, like Daigneault earlier in the evening, was looking ahead to Game 3 on Wednesday night? Only Carlisle knows, but everyone was acknowledging this: The Pacers, for the second consecutive game, didn't come out with enough force, attitude, disposition, care — buzzwords for effort, but don't say that word, people get offended! The Pacers trailed by double figures (25-15) in the first quarter of Game 1, and were down 57-45 at halftime, and the same thing basically happened in Game 2: They trailed by double figures early in the second quarter (33-23), and then the game got ugly. The Thunder led 52-29 before halftime, and the Pacers never got closer than 13. 'Another bad first half,' Carlisle said, and no need to wonder if this was 100% truth or message-sending, because it was both. 'Obviously it was a big problem.' Haliburton was ineffective in the first half on both nights. Game 1: Six points, three assists, three turnovers. Game 2: Three points, three assists, two turnovers. 'I think I've had two really poor first halves,' Haliburton said after Game 2. 'I just have to figure out how to be better earlier in games.' Haliburton's game-winner in Game 1 overshadowed a game where he had 14 points and six assists, well below his season averages of 18.6 ppg and 9.2 apg, and his hot fourth quarter in Game 2 allowed him to finish with 17 points on a night where, as I said, it was more fizzle than sizzle: 17 points, three rebounds, six assists and five turnovers, tied for his most through 18 playoff games. 'I had some really dumb turnovers tonight,' Haliburton said. 'They're kind of showing like a soft blitz, sometimes a full blitz. They're giving me different looks.' It can be confusing, especially against a physical and aggressive menace like Lu Dort, but Haliburton seemed to figure something out there in the fourth quarter. It could bode well for the Pacers, who come back to Downtown Indianapolis having stolen homecourt advantage from the heavily favored Thunder thanks to that Game 1 victory. If Haliburton figured something out, and it carries over to Game 3, maybe we get this: Abracadabra! If not, if the poor starts carry over, if the Thunder's overall defensive domination continues, we could get this: Poof. Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Threads, or on BlueSky and Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar, or at Subscribe to the free weekly Doyel on Demand newsletter.

Indianapolis Star

an hour ago

Indianapolis Star

Doyel: After pulling rabbit from Game 1 hat, Tyrese Haliburton disappeared much of Game 2

OKLAHOMA CITY – This is the Tyrese Haliburton experience: Sometimes, most of the time, he pulls a rabbit out of a hat. But sometimes, other times, he makes himself disappear. Don't try to understand it, because he doesn't. If he did, you think this would happen? Those first three-plus quarters of the Indiana Pacers' 123-107 loss to Oklahoma City in Game 2 of the 2025 NBA Finals? 'I have to do a better job of figuring out where I can be better,' the Pacers All-Star guard said after the Thunder evened the series at 1-1, with the NBA Finals shifting to Gainbridge Fieldhouse this week for Game 3 and Game 4. Through those first 39 minutes Sunday, Haliburton was all but invisible: five points, three rebounds, five assists, five turnovers. The Thunder led 98-76, and this game was over. Yes, even against the Pacers, who have made the impossible look routine during these playoffs — winning a combination of four games, one in each series, that as a parlay would've had odds of 1 in 17 billion. In those four wins, late-game comebacks against the Bucks, Cavaliers, Knicks and then Thunder in Game 1 on Thursday, Haliburton hit the key shot: game-winners against Milwaukee, Cleveland and Oklahoma City, and a buzzer-beater to force overtime at New York. That's the magic of Haliburton, the way he makes the hardest shots look easy, over and over. In shots to tie the score or take the lead in the final five seconds of these 2025 NBA playoffs, the rest of the league is a combined 3-for-16. Haliburton is 4-for-4. Magical. And it keeps happening. Counting the regular season, in the game's final two minutes on shots to tie or take the lead, Haliburton is 13-for-15. These aren't free throws, but contested field goals against NBA defenses desperate to stop him. And he's 13-for-15? Abracadabra! But every so often, and if there's a trend, it's this — it happens after one of his special games — Haliburton disappears. Poof. But this game Sunday night, Game 2 of these NBA Finals, this was different than the disappearances that have come before. And there haven't been that many disappearances by Haliburton. It's fair to note that. It's also fair to note that, as the unquestioned star of this team, he can't afford to disappear … ever. And most NBA stars don't disappear. Put it like this: After Game 2, when OKC's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 points for his 13th game with at least 30 points in these playoffs — the most since Giannis Antetokounmpo had 13 such games in 2021 – Pacers coach Rick Carlisle noted SGA's metronomic consistency. 'Shai,' Carlisle said, 'you can mark down 34 points before they even get on the plane.' Haliburton, you can't do that. There was Game 2 in the Eastern Conference semifinals against Cleveland, when he had four points and five assists after his buzzer-beater in Game 1. And there was Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals against New York, when he had eight points, two rebounds and six assists after his 32-12-and-15 masterpiece of a triple-double in Game 4. Then came Sunday night in OKC, when Haliburton followed his latest game-winner from Game 1 by fizzling for the first 39 minutes as Game 2 got so far away, not even the Pacers could come back. With about 5½ minutes left, Carlisle waved the surrender flag by sending rookie Johnny Furphy to the scorer's table to replace Haliburton. But as I said, this was different from Haliburton's handful of disappearances that came before. Because after the 39-minute mark, with the Pacers down 22, with the game over, Haliburton went from fizzling to sizzling. You can say it doesn't matter, but did you see what OKC coach Mark Daigneault did? Seemed to matter to him. It starts for Haliburton with a baseline floater with 9:30 left. The Pacers are within 20. What does it matter, right? For most of 39 minutes, the Thunder have assigned NBA All-Defensive team ace Luguentz Dort to Haliburton. Dort is a menace, a tenacious physical marvel who goes 6-4, 220 pounds with the quick feet of someone much smaller. And Dort is following Haliburton for most of 94 feet, just getting in his face, his space, being physical and daring officials to blow their whistle on a night the tweets go mostly silent. Twenty-seven seconds later, Haliburton dribbles Dort into a 17-footer. It goes down, and now Haliburton has found something. Next time down he has the ball, hunting the rim, getting a screen and going to the basket for a dunk. Then he dribbles into a 30-footer, a 3-pointer. He has now made four straight shots and scored nine consecutive points for the Pacers, all in about 90 seconds, but the Pacers still trail by 19 — they can't stop anybody — and when Haliburton misses a 3-pointer it appears as if the spell is over. Here comes Furphy, walking to the scorer's table. Only now, it's about to get silly. Pacers guard T.J. McConnell is driving the baseline, like he does, and looking for a teammate, as he does, and spotting Haliburton behind him. McConnell throws it that way and Haliburton chases down the ball in the corner before launching a running 3-pointer as he heads out of bounds. The shot falls. In about an hour, long after Paycom Center has emptied out, Haliburton will sit down with reporters and talk about some things, mainly how poorly he played, but he dropped in this fascinating little nugget about those 12 points he scored in about five minutes of the fourth quarter. 'When you're down by so much,' he was saying, 'you can choose to just take the game for (the blowout) it is and just be done — or try to continue to learn different things.' Haliburton was learning, and Daigneault was watching. He sees what's happening. This game has been over for some time, but he's already planning for Game 3. He sees Haliburton heating up, getting that confidence that comes when he's having one of those magical nights, and he wants no part of this. Daigneault calls timeout, just to stop the clock. Just so Furphy can come in, and Haliburton can go out. Still think that sizzling stretch, in a blowout loss, doesn't matter? Not so sure. Carlisle wasn't having any discussion about Tyrese Haliburton's first 39 minutes. That's when the game got away from the Pacers, but is that why? Someone asks Carlisle about Haliburton, who 'struggled to get engaged.' Carlisle doesn't want to hear it. 'There's a lot more to the game than just scoring,' he said. 'Everybody's got to do more. It starts with the best players. It starts with, you know, Tyrese and Pascal (Siakam, 15 points) and Myles (Turner, 16 points), and then it goes from there. 'People shouldn't just look at (Haliburton's) points and assists and judge how he played, or judge how any of our guys played just on that. That's just not — that's not how our team is built. I mean, we are an ecosystem that has to function together. We've got to score enough points to win the game, but who gets them and how they get them, not important.' Was he speaking 100% truth, or was Carlisle sending a message to Haliburton — not your fault — as he, like Daigneault earlier in the evening, was looking ahead to Game 3 on Wednesday night? Only Carlisle knows, but everyone was acknowledging this: The Pacers, for the second consecutive game, didn't come out with enough force, attitude, disposition, care — buzzwords for effort, but don't say that word, people get offended! The Pacers trailed by double figures (25-15) in the first quarter of Game 1, and were down 57-45 at halftime, and the same thing basically happened in Game 2: They trailed by double figures early in the second quarter (33-23), and then the game got ugly. The Thunder led 52-29 before halftime, and the Pacers never got closer than 13. 'Another bad first half,' Carlisle said, and no need to wonder if this was 100% truth or message-sending, because it was both. 'Obviously it was a big problem.' Haliburton was ineffective in the first half on both nights. Game 1: Six points, three assists, three turnovers. Game 2: Three points, three assists, two turnovers. 'I think I've had two really poor first halves,' Haliburton said after Game 2. 'I just have to figure out how to be better earlier in games.' Haliburton's game-winner in Game 1 overshadowed a game where he had 14 points and six assists, well below his season averages of 18.6 ppg and 9.2 apg, and his hot fourth quarter in Game 2 allowed him to finish with 17 points on a night where, as I said, it was more fizzle than sizzle: 17 points, three rebounds, six assists and five turnovers, tied for his most through 18 playoff games. 'I had some really dumb turnovers tonight,' Haliburton said. 'They're kind of showing like a soft blitz, sometimes a full blitz. They're giving me different looks.' It can be confusing, especially against a physical and aggressive menace like Lu Dort, but Haliburton seemed to figure something out there in the fourth quarter. It could bode well for the Pacers, who come back to Downtown Indianapolis having stolen homecourt advantage from the heavily favored Thunder thanks to that Game 1 victory. If Haliburton figured something out, and it carries over to Game 3, maybe we get this: Abracadabra! If not, if the poor starts carry over, if the Thunder's overall defensive domination continues, we could get this: Poof. Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Threads, or on BlueSky and Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar, or at Subscribe to the free weekly Doyel on Demand newsletter.

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'One of best weeks of my life.' Putting a bow on Indiana All-Stars, 2025 graduating class

Doyel: After pulling rabbit from Game 1 hat, Tyrese Haliburton disappeared much of Game 2

Doyel: After pulling rabbit from Game 1 hat, Tyrese Haliburton disappeared much of Game 2

NASCAR adds an optional caution flag in latest effort to make its All-Star Race interesting

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'One of best weeks of my life.' Putting a bow on Indiana All-Stars, 2025 graduating class

Doyel: After pulling rabbit from Game 1 hat, Tyrese Haliburton disappeared much of Game 2

Doyel: After pulling rabbit from Game 1 hat, Tyrese Haliburton disappeared much of Game 2

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