July 14, 2009

Josh Katzowitz
Special to Rivals High

David Wood grew up in Indianapolis, and most years he'd try to find a ticket for the Indiana-Kentucky All-Star basketball series. If the teams played at Hinkle Fieldhouse or at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, tickets weren't always easy to come by. Freedom Hall in Louisville? Rupp Arena in Lexington? Yes, the fans would pack those places as well.

The series, featuring the best boys and girls players from Kentucky facing their Indiana counterparts in two games (one in each state), was an important part of Wood's childhood. When the West Lafayette High boys' basketball coach was named the Indiana team coach this year, he felt a chill shoot up his spine.

"It was a huge thrill," Wood said. "I had talked about it years before as a goal of mine. It's the biggest compliment I've received as a coach. I think it's the highest compliment a coach in Indiana can get. It was everything I hoped for and more."

Too bad not many fans were there to watch.

In the first meeting of the series on June 13, less than 6,000 fans traveled to Conseco Fieldhouse to watch the states' top boys' and girls' basketball players. The next day, at a tiny gym on the Bellarmine University campus in Louisville, about 1,500 fans showed up to take in the tilt.

The attendance numbers tell Wood this: As much as the Indiana-Kentucky All-Star series used to mean to the basketball fans of both states, the games are losing their luster and their relevancy. And to a guy who's been a fan of the games most of his life, it's not easy to take.

"The world is different now," said Wood, who watched as both the Indiana boys and girls teams swept Kentucky this season. "With AAU basketball, these guys have many, many chances to play against other great players from other states. There are so many ways to spend your entertainment dollar."

The fact this series has been around for 70 years seems to mean very little these days. Not when there's so much else happening in a basketball fan's life.

"I don't think high school kids are as interested in following things," said Mike Pegram, who covers Indiana prep basketball for Rivals on peegs.com. "High school basketball is down in both states. The interest level has declined. It has its pockets of interest, but kids nowadays have Internet and cable TV and other things."

And many other ways to watch top-notch high school players. Now, a high school fan doesn't have to watch players in person to know their strengths and weaknesses, how well they handle the basketball, whether their shooting form has any major flaws and how well they move in the lane. They can watch videos on the Internet from the comfort of their home.

They don't have to drive to downtown Indianapolis, pay for parking and a ticket, and then fight traffic on the way home to watch the best the states have to offer.

"A lot of these kids aren't as much of a mystery because of the Internet," Pegram said. "It used to be some fans' first chance to get a look at a player. Now, some of the hardcore fans might not have to go after watching them play on TV and watching highlight videos online all year."

Another hindrance perhaps is the fact that Indiana has been so dominant in this series in recent years. The Indiana boys' squad has beaten Kentucky in 19 of their past 22 meetings, and the Hoosier State's girls have won 10 of the last 13 games.

Or it could just be the fans themselves.

Pegram could see it during the regular season when he covered a contest between North Central and Lawrence North. Both were top-five powerhouses, and Pegram expected to walk into a sold-out gym. It was not, though, and it shocked him.

"It's not the players or the game or the series that has changed," Scotty Davenport, the Bellarmine coach who has coached in the All-Star series, told the Louisville Courier-Journal. "It's the fans of the state of Kentucky, and now I've seen where the crowds are down in Indiana."

Which leads to this question: Is the series, seven decades strong, in danger of dying?

"It will continue on for the next couple years, but I do think it has a questionable future," Pegram said. "To see that small crowd at Bellarmine, it can't last like this. They weren't bad teams for drawing purposes, but I knew the games weren't going to be that competitive. I almost felt like I was there because I had to be covering it."

The series' future also worries someone who has so many fond memories of its past. Wood doesn't want to watch the series dissolve into nonexistence.

"That's a possibility if we can't get a little more fan interest," he said. "But it's going to be a huge undertaking."

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