By RICHIE HALL
sports@readthereporter.com
Anyone who watched the Fishers boys basketball team last season could tell that the Tigers were a work in progress.
The talent was there, but Fishers was also a relatively young team. The Tigers played in a couple summer tournaments during June, and coach Garrett Winegar took some time to talk with the Reporter about his young and definitely improving team.
“It’s just learning how hard you have to play and how intense and focused you have to be every possession, both on offense and on defense,” said Winegar. “It took us a whole to learn that. We lost 12 games last year. Nine of them were one-possession games in the last three minutes. It’s one play here or there. It’s one defensive stop. And I think these guys are really starting to buy into what it takes to win.”
Of course, Fishers has a high-level player that it can build its team around: Jalen Haralson, a varsity starter since a freshman. Haralson will be entering his junior year this season, after a remarkable sophomore season where he averaged 23.4 points per game and led the Tigers in all but one statistical category. He also had 7.7 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.1 steals per game.
Haralson has been getting national notice for a while now, and was one of the 18 finalists for the 2023 USA Men’s U16 National Team, this after a three-day training camp in Colorado Springs, Colo. Haralson later participated in the NIKE Elite One Hundred camp in St. Louis, where basketball writer Adam Finkelstein named him the “best long-term prospect in the field.”
Haralson has several college offers, including to Arizona, TCU, Gonzaga, Louisiana State and Cincinnati. Because he was off in national events, and Winegar said other players were traveling as well, the team waited until everyone was back together to play summer tournaments.
“I think he’s the best player in the country,” said Winegar. “I don’t care about rankings. I think he’s the best player in the country in his class.”
Fishers wrapped up its summer season at the Charlie Hughes Shooutout, going 4-0 at the tournament. The Tigers won all of their games easily, beating Plainfield 79-48, Chesterton 76-41, Crown Point 77-58 and Jeffersonville 86-52.
Haralson gets quite a bit of attention, but there are other returning players for Fishers who are solid contributors. Taden Metzger, a senior-to-be, was the second-leading scorer with 10.2 points per game. Another incoming senior, Keenan Garner, averaged 7.9 points and 6.1 rebounds, and played well in key moments of games last season. JonAnthony Hall, an incoming junior, added 6.8 points and 4.8 rebounds, and led in blocks with 0.8 per game. A three-sport athlete, Hall is coming off a great track and field season, where he finished fourth in the state in the long jump.
Winegar said Metzger is “really improving on the defensive end of the floor. He’s always been able to shoot it, but really guarding better. JonAnthony now has a year of varsity experience, just really bringing us toughness and rebounding and defense on the point of the ball. I think this summer, he’s just been really good guarding the ball. And then Keenan. He’s really, really developing into, to me, a legit college prospect with what he’s bringing.”
And those are only top four. Other returning players include incoming junior Millen McCartney and incoming seniors Bryson Seymour and Parker Perdue.
“I really believe we’re the deepest team,” said Winegar. “I think some guys should get more minutes. We just have a lot of guys right now, so I’m trying to figure that piece out. I think the good thing about this group is they all like each other and they’re supportive of each other.”