Pairings drawn for 2023 Wabash Valley Classic
Nov. 28—Terre Haute South and athletic director Ed Jarvis were the hosts Tuesday for the annual First Financial Wabash Valley Classic luncheon to draw pairings for the four-day high school basketball tournament that begins Dec. 26.
And there's already been a suggestion of a change of site — for one game.
The first ping-pong balls drawn at the bank's conference center were those of Sullivan and Robinson, which therefore will meet in the first game of the tournament at 10 a.m. the day after Christmas.
That's 9 a.m. in Illinois.
"At least it's at South this year," Robinson coach Mack Thompson noted. "That's 15 or 20 minutes closer for us [than Terre Haute North, the other alternating host school]."
Sullivan coach Jeff Moore, who has seen a few Classics — all of them, to be precise — had a suggestion.
"We could play at Hutsonville," said Moore, choosing a gym halfway between the two schools and quite a bit closer to Robinson.
That's not going to happen, unfortunately for the Robinson players. Thompson indicated, in fact, that he'll probably start scheduling some 7 a.m. practices for the Maroons to condition them to playing early in the day.
The Sullivan-Robinson matchup figures to be a good one, and certainly not the only good one.
The rest of a loaded top half of the bracket includes South against West Vigo at 11:30, Linton and Bloomfield at 1 p.m. and Northview vs. Parke Heritage at 2:30.
It will be the first Classic experience for coach Matt Britton of Linton; he's one of two coaches who will be on the sidelines at the Classic for the first time, but Marshall's Logan Eitel at least has plenty of experience playing in (and winning) the tournament.
"It's exciting, a great event," Britton said Tuesday. "The kids are looking forward to playing in it."
Eitel's Lions will be playing Casey — for the second of at least three times this winter — in the 4 p.m. game that begins the bottom half of the bracket, with Shakamak facing Edgewood at 5:30, Greencastle meeting Terre Haute North at 7 and Cloverdale and South Vermillion providing the climax for the first day.
North coach Todd Woelfle was one ping-pong ball away from getting a Jim Jones draw — the legendary former Patriot coach was famous for drawing the 8:30 p.m. game, allowing his team's to practice in the morning — and now it may become a Vince Marietta draw. South Vermillion plays in the 8:30 game for the second year in a row.
—Zinger — There have been a lot of distinguished speakers who have shared wisdom at the Classic luncheon in the past (and possibly one who didn't), but until Tuesday and Jesse McClung, there hadn't been one who prompted spontaneous laughter from a sportswriter in attendance.
The first-year men's coach at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods covered the bases that are often covered in a short talk and twice asked coaches in attendance to send him players. His background includes a high school playing career under legendary coach Jack Keefer.
But, he said in going over his background, he grew up in Marion, where he and a big kid from the other side of town (Zach Randolph) played on AAU teams together as they were growing up.
"When I got to high school," McClung added, "for some reason I wound up playing for Lawrence North. I guess there are people in Terre Haute who have heard of that."
