When Columbus North girls basketball coach Pat McKee and his 13 Indiana All-Stars convene this morning at Ben Davis High School, they will have a common goal.
Beat Kentucky.
The Indiana squad will play girls-boys doubleheaders against their Bluegrass counterparts Friday at Bellarmine University in Louisville and Saturday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. They also will play the Indiana Junior All-Stars Wednesday at New Albany High School.
“If you don’t beat the Juniors, but you learn about your team and then you beat Kentucky, that’s what’s important,” McKee said. “Unlike a lot of All-Star Games, winning matters something in this one.”
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McKee held a mini-camp for the team May 19-20 at Heritage Christian. They had four practices in the two days that weekend.
At least 12 of the players were there for all four sessions, and all 13 were present for the final session.
“Getting that many kids together to make it work, that was pretty good,” McKee said. “Most All-Star teams don’t get that kind of attendance for a camp like that. There was some really good play and some things that I and the other two coaches thought we should have done better. They’re talented kids, and we want to give them the freedom to create, and hopefully, it works.”
All 13 of the Indiana All-Stars have signed with Division I colleges. They will be led by Amy Dilk, this year’s Miss Basketball from Carmel.
McKee said Dilk, a Michigan recruit, is one of about eight of his girls who can play point guard.
“Most of them have an affinity to want to score first, but a whole bunch of them want to handle the ball and be lead guards,” McKee said. “We’ll be kind of interchangeable on the perimeter. What we don’t know is what the real good rotations are yet. We scrimmaged, but we were juggling lineups, and it’s hard to tell, especially when you’re playing yourself.”
McKee’s team will have its hands full Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. The Indiana Junior All-Stars it will play on Wednesday has some talent.
Like the Indiana team, all 13 of the Kentucky All-Stars have committed to Division I Programs. Three are headed to national power Louisville, while one is going to Kentucky and one to Indiana University.
“I’ve been told by some national people that Kentucky has four to six really good players this year,” McKee said.
Because of his role with the All-Stars, Monday was the only day McKee will be at North’s summer basketball camp. Assistant coaches Brett White and Alan Vickrey will lead the camp the rest of the week, with help with 2011 Indiana All-Star Courtney Larson, recent Wisconsin-Milwaukee graduate Kelsey Cunningham, current Southern Indiana player Imani Guy and the five recently graduated seniors from this year’s Bull Dogs team.
McKee said it’s because of the work of those players and others during his eight-year tenure at North that he had the opportunity to lead the All-Stars this week.
“Really, it’s a program honor,” McKee said. “The reason this happened is because of the team success of Columbus North, and that’s because of our players. We’ve been blessed with some really good players who played hard and got things done.”
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The Indiana All-Stars schedule for this week:
Wednesday
Indiana All-Stars vs. Indiana Junior All-Stars at New Albany High School, 6 p.m. (girls) and 8 p.m. (boys). Tickets are $6.
Friday
Indiana All-Stars vs. Kentucky All-Stars at Bellarmine University, Louisville, 6 p.m. (girls) and 8 p.m. (boys). Tickets are $15.
Saturday
Indiana All-Stars vs. Kentucky All-Stars at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, 5 p.m. (girls), 8 p.m. (boys). Tickets are $100, $22, $18 and $7.
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