Indiana basketball legends Sherron Wilkerson and Pat Graham used to go to war together as teammates on the court. On Saturday, they'll go to battle on opposite ends of the hardwood as the teams they coach will square off in the IHSAA 4A Regional. Wilkerson is the Head Coach at Jefferson High School, while Graham is an assistant coach at Evansville Harrison. The two teams will look to advance in the Indiana High School Tournament as they play at the Southridge Memorial Gym at 4 PM.
The former Hoosier teammates joined Indiana Sports Beat Radio for the second time this season to preview their upcoming rematch, and of course, to chat about their beloved Indiana Hoosiers and the state of the program. The first topic was naturally about the Liam McNeeley news from yesterday. Pat Graham had the feeling of "what if this happens" when it came to McNeeley three weeks ago.
"The way the season was going and you've just got one recruit.. I just had a feeling," said Graham. "You know, Sherron came to IU with a number of guys, and I came with seven. That kid doesn't have any ties to Indiana. Sherron and I lived in this state. Todd Leary, Mat Nover, and Calbert.. Indiana was most likely going to be a big part of our lives after basketball. That probably wasn't the case for Liam."
Wilkerson added: "There's no loyalty today. There's not much loyalty to a state, a program, or to coaches. When Coach Knight was there, it was like 85% players from Indiana. Things are different now. I'll throw Matt Painter's name in there. Those guys know what it takes on the recruiting grind."
Pat Graham then said some things a lot of Hoosier fans have been thinking for a while: "Coach Knight could basically pick who he wanted to come play for him. Because of the portal and NIL, everyone is on the same level playing field now. It's not how it used to be. So you have to adapt to that. Fans don't want to admit it, but the dynamics have changed. That's obvious. We can't do things the way Bob Knight did it. Those days are over. It shouldn't be forgotten, but it's over."
As for their match-up on Saturday, this will be the second time these two teams have squared off this season. Jefferson defeated Evansville Harrison 49-46 in a low scoring battle back in December. For the season, Wilkerson's Red Devils are 18-7, while Graham's Warriors are 20-4. The coaches are looking forward to playing at Southport.
"The gym is absolutely amazing," said Wilkerson. "My first opportunity being in the gym to see it, it has an Indiana nostalgia to it. I feel like I'm in the movie 'Hoosiers'. It's a wonderful feeling, and really hard to put it into words. I'm sure they're (Evansville Harrison) going to have a lot of fans being their 6th man and giving them energy. We hope to have the same kind of support."
Big game. Nice gym. And a big opportunity for each team to advance.
"This will all be 'coach talk' because neither of us want to give anything away," said Graham. "The first time we played, our big guy fouled out, who's a hell of a player, and their big guy fouled out, who's a hell of a player. They played well and we didn't play very well."
Both teams have elements of a motion offense to their game, which has typically resulted in higher scoring totals than their previous match-up.
"I came from a high school that averaged 94 points in 32 minutes," said Wilkerson. "So when I got to college, I figured we'd score over 100 points in 40 minutes. It was a bit of a learning curve. Coach Knight would say- 'if you can run a motion offense, you can run any offense out there.' Watching Harrison play, those guys run a lot of the same actions we run. It attributes to the fact that the fundamentals of the game never change. Coach Knight was so far ahead of everybody else."
Pat Graham added: "It's a hell of a lot easier to prepare for a team that just runs set after set. All you have to do is stop the first initial pass and it throws the whole offense out of whack. I think that Jeffersonville and Harrison are very similar in that, we're going to take what the defense gives you. They have a style and we have a style, and it's about trying to play the best basketball tomorrow. Hopefully they miss a few more shots than we do. I learned a type of motion (in high school), and thank God I had it, because when I went to IU, it was a shock. It's a little bit of a culture shock for kids, I'll tell ya that."
Check out the entire conversation and more from Friday's episode-
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