Conseco provides new challenges (03/23/06)

At each succeeding level the tournament gets a little bit more difficult.

The fans get louder. The venues get bigger. The competition gets better.

The state tournament takes that idea to a whole new level.

Jay County coach Craig Teagle said he expects there to be 12,000 more fans in attendance for the Class 3A and 4A championship games at Conseco Fieldhouse than there were at Saturday’s semi-state at Lafayette Jefferson.

“It’ll be one of those games that the first two or three times up and down the floor you’re going to be breathing harder than typical because your energy level is going to be so much higher. You’ll just have to make sure you get your second wind and you get your bearings.”

Another challenge for teams playing in the title games at Conseco is the new look. The shooting background at an NBA arena — Conseco’s capacity is 18, 345 — is much different than in any high school gym.

Spaces behind the basket and throughout the arena are more cavernous and can throw shooters out of their comfort zone.

“There’ll be more room, a bigger area behind the basket,” said senior Randy Evans, who is second on the team with 44 3-pointers this year. “I think we’ll get used to the atmosphere.

“At Lafayette as soon as we got there I think maybe we all struggled a little bit shooting, but once we just kept practicing and going through everything I think we got it down.”

It would seem so.

Assistant coach Chris Krieg told a story after that semi-state win about Evans warming up. With junior Spencer Hummer feeding him pass after pass, he nailed 30 3-pointers in a row.

He hit all of his triples as the Patriots topped Plymouth, and the team shot 19-of-29 (66 percent).

Playing in large venues is nothing new to the Trojans.

Their Chrysler Fieldhouse is the largest high school gym in the world, with seating for more than 9,000 fans. They play in the North Central Conference, which includes three of the 10 largest high school gyms in the world — Anderson’s Wigwam (8,996), Richmond (8,100) and Marion (7,560). Others in the conference are Muncie Central (6,547), Logansport (5,875), Huntington North (5,500), Kokomo (5,200).

“After you’ve been through all this tournament play and all the crowds and all the noise, I don’t know that it helps you at all,” said New Castle coach Steve Bennett of playing in the mammoth NCC arenas. “I think all that stuff is a little bit over-rated. It only hurts you if somebody dwells on it.”

Jay County played at Muncie Central and Connersville (5,847) this season, and semi-state host Lafayette Jefferson has a capacity of 7,200. JCHS ranks 43rd in the state as it seats 4,470 fans.

Senior Tyler Rigby, the only Patriot with more 3-pointers than Evans this year with 51, said he’s trying to think of Conseco as being much like Ball State’s Worthen Arena. The team plays in the BSU summer league with many of those games in Worthen.

“I know (Conseco is) bigger than that, but I’m going to try to compare it to that and see what happens when I get in there,” Rigby said. “Everything just seems smaller because everything around you is so big. You’ve just got to try to adjust.”[[In-content Ad]]