Indiana may not only be a basketball state – it stakes a claim to being “the” basketball state, but North Carolina and Kentucky, as we know, give the Hoosier State a healthy dose of competition.
Basketball Day Indiana is a big deal throughout the state from Evansville to Fort Wayne and from to Gary to Jeffersonville. The fourth annual Basketball Day included the first ever designated host for the occasion – Kokomo. Its Memorial Gymnasium hosted four high school games. It also included a pair of Indiana Pacers home games when they hosted the Toronto Raptors on Friday and the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday.
There’s a lot of huge talent here in Indiana. We are known for being the basketball state, the Hoosiers all around.
–Tamika Catchings, Indiana Fever general manager (Fox Sports Indiana)
Fox Sports Indiana also covered the IHSAA Girls Tournament. More women’s basketball representation occurred that day when rising Indiana Fever star Teaira McCowan and Fever general manager Tamika Catchings sat down with Fox Sports Indiana’s Jeremiah Johnson.
Teaira McCowan: “I most definitely love being a role model. To see girls look at me and then they’re like, ‘I want to be like her, I want to play like her,’ it just encourages me to go harder.”@IndianaFever | #BasketballDayIndiana pic.twitter.com/XCzArVv0oL
— FOX Sports Indiana (@FSIndiana) February 8, 2020
In addition to her words on inspiring young girls, they also talked about the upcoming season. Indiana will play its next few seasons at Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler University due to Bankers Life Fieldhouse undergoing renovations.
The Fever also enter 2020 with a new coach in Marianne Stanley, a former Washington Mystics assistant. Indiana only finished two games outside of the postseason last year and have a chance to contend for one of those eight playoff berths in 2020 with McCowan as part of its young nucleus.
Teaira just brings so much to our game and to our team.
–Tamika Catchings, Indiana Fever general manager (Fox Sports Indiana)
My teammates know they can trust me whenever. Someone drives in the paint that I’ll be there to help them when they get beat. So, I mean it’s great. Still playing defense – I love it.
–Teaira McCowan (Fox Sports Indiana)
Fox Sports Indiana also aired 27 consecutive hours of hoops programming. There was also a recognition of Indiana University’s Bob Knight and Purdue’s Gene Keady, a Basketball Day flag being presented to every Indiana high school hosting a home game and an exhibition game between Kokomo police officers and firefighters at Memorial Gym.
