Latest / The Central Indiana Sports Report / Blackford Season Update & Holiday Classic Preview with Head Coach Aaron Daniels (2.129.6)
Transcript
- 0:00[SPEAKER_01]: You are listening to the Blackford Bruins, boys basketball season up day and Central Indiana holiday classic, a preview podcast with Bruins head coach Aaron Daniels and it's only on the Central Indiana Sports Report.
- 0:25[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome Blackford Brewing fans to the Central Indian Sports Report for our Blackford Boys Basketball season update and holiday tournament preview coming up.
- 0:37[SPEAKER_01]: I spoke with Blackford Head Coach Aaron Daniels about his team so far this season.
- 0:44[SPEAKER_01]: And about the inaugural Central Indian Holiday Classic and the benefits of playing in an 18 team holiday tournament.
- 0:54[SPEAKER_01]: Before we get to that one and let you know that on Friday night, we will have a recap of day one of the holiday tournament.
- 1:01[SPEAKER_01]: Of course being played at Frankton, Elwood and Alexandria.
- 1:06[SPEAKER_01]: On Friday and Saturday, we will have scores and highlights from all three locations.
- 1:13[SPEAKER_01]: On Saturday, we will recap the three pool championship games at Frankton.
- 1:18[SPEAKER_01]: Assuming we have local teams playing in all three games.
- 1:21[SPEAKER_01]: and it appears that we will, it would take some serious upsets for that not to happen.
- 1:27[SPEAKER_01]: Please tune in for those podcasts and please do us a huge favor and share this podcast with a Blackford fan in your life.
- 1:36[SPEAKER_01]: Help us spread the word that the Central Indiana Sports Report is talking about what Central Indiana Sports fans are talking about every day.
- 1:43[SPEAKER_01]: And please hit that like button.
- 1:46[SPEAKER_01]: It helps more than you think it would.
- 1:50[SPEAKER_01]: In their second season under Aaron Daniels, Blackford is 6 and 0 for the first time since they went 25 and 5 and won a regional championship in 2021.
- 1:59[SPEAKER_01]: So far their average margin of victory is 19 points per game and they are 2 and 0 in the CIC heading into 2026.
- 2:08[SPEAKER_01]: Softmore Guard, Mari Legga and Senior Forward Mason Kidderman combined for 41 points, 12 rebounds,
- 2:21[SPEAKER_01]: legative course is in all state level player and probably the best player of this tournament.
- 2:28[SPEAKER_01]: The Bruins will play in their pool at Alexander on Friday and the first ever central Indiana holiday classic and their pool includes Crothersville and defending classic champion Clinton Prairie.
- 2:42[SPEAKER_01]: The tournament starts off with a bang for Blackford against the govurs
- 2:49[SPEAKER_01]: But they're two and three this year after losing much of last year's roster.
- 2:56[SPEAKER_01]: The Bruins will then face three and two Crothersville at eight o'clock at Alexandria.
- 3:01[SPEAKER_01]: Crothersville's won three games in a row.
- 3:04[SPEAKER_01]: They won their only sectional championship ever in 2020.
- 3:08[SPEAKER_01]: Pool E features the host Alexandria Tigers and will also compete at Alexandria on Friday.
- 3:17[SPEAKER_01]: There is a stipulation in this tournament that they tried not to make CIC teams play each other in the final round, however, if all four CIC teams in the tournament advanced to Saturday's pool championships, Alexander and Blackford will play each other, otherwise Blackford could play another opponent or Randolph Southern in the other in Saturday's final round at
- 3:46[SPEAKER_01]: That's a decision that'll likely be made on Friday night.
- 3:49[SPEAKER_01]: And again, we will have a recap of day one of the tournament on Friday night.
- 3:56[SPEAKER_01]: And we will certainly know who everybody plays by then.
- 4:00[SPEAKER_01]: Take it's $15 for the entire day Friday.
- 4:02[SPEAKER_01]: With that purchase, you will get a bracelet that'll allow you in the games that Elwood and Franklin as well.
- 4:10[SPEAKER_01]: Take it's our $10 for Saturday and our good for the entire day at Franklin.
- 4:16[SPEAKER_01]: please stay tuned for Blackford Head Coach, and Daniel.
- 4:23[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the Central Indiana Sports Report Blackford Head Coach, Aaron Daniels, who has his Bruins at 6 o'clock coach.
- 4:31[SPEAKER_01]: I know you lost one of the best seniors you guys have had in a long time at Blackford and a couple other pretty good seniors.
- 4:39[SPEAKER_01]: I've even been able to place a well here to start.
- 4:43[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, anytime you lose a thousand points score, it's always going to be hard to replace because we're replacing 17 points again, which is always difficult, but with that being said, we're about back to kids that added double figures for last year, and one, you know, being Marley Legit, who's
- 4:59[SPEAKER_00]: You know, a top 100 kid in the nation, which always makes a huge difference when you have a kid like that.
- 5:04[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's, you know, when you got somebody that can just go get a basket at any moment, that helps a ton.
- 5:10[SPEAKER_00]: And then make some kid in the coverage about 12 points in game last year.
- 5:13[SPEAKER_00]: And so with a kid that had taken a back seat that was ready for it, they were all, we always were missed scoring in different things.
- 5:19[SPEAKER_00]: But it almost that opened some things up in our role players that have been really, really good this year.
- 5:23[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just,
- 5:24[SPEAKER_00]: kind of open the door and it's due to and the defense and the different things that we're trying to do and we're picking it up more and it's just been a really good start to get a force.
- 5:34[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Mari at least 20 points in every game shooting nearly 60 percent from the field.
- 5:40[SPEAKER_01]: You had even higher expectations for him this year, but he certainly lived up to him.
- 5:45[SPEAKER_00]: And he's we get different defenses every night.
- 5:48[SPEAKER_00]: We've we've seen teams go box and one and four guys on him and one down on another kid.
- 5:54[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen five guys try to guard him at a time.
- 5:57[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen every defense that we can so for him to have the games that he's had.
- 6:03[SPEAKER_00]: He's had 28, 29 at times for him to have those kinds of games with the pressure we've seen.
- 6:09[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a test on how good he is because every game we go into, people know about him.
- 6:13[SPEAKER_00]: He's on everyone's radar.
- 6:14[SPEAKER_00]: So he's going to get the best from the other team.
- 6:16[SPEAKER_00]: Almost every single night.
- 6:18[SPEAKER_00]: So for him to perform the way he has, we knew he was really good, but until you really see it in person, man, it's really hard to even explain.
- 6:26[SPEAKER_01]: Well, here's everybody's can't, right?
- 6:29[SPEAKER_00]: That's right.
- 6:30[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
- 6:31[SPEAKER_01]: Blackford is participating in the new Central Indiana holiday classic at L Wood, Franklin, and Alexandria.
- 6:40[SPEAKER_01]: The Bruins are in pool F at Alexandria and you get to start off with the state champion.
- 6:46[SPEAKER_01]: Isn't that fun?
- 6:47[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
- 6:48[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we saw the girl came out and, you know, you picked Clinton period.
- 6:52[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's ready to go right at noon.
- 6:54[SPEAKER_00]: The first day, you're going to get a really, really well coach team a team with experience that's not going to be intimidated.
- 7:00[SPEAKER_00]: So we're excited for the challenge.
- 7:01[SPEAKER_00]: And then like you said, we think we have a really good brand of basketball.
- 7:04[SPEAKER_00]: So we're excited for its many teams that are going to be there at different things to see us and be able to show off what we have.
- 7:11[SPEAKER_01]: Clearly, Clinton Prairie's not the same team it was last year, but
- 7:16[SPEAKER_01]: with some guys on the team and knows how to win and a coach who knows how to win.
- 7:21[SPEAKER_00]: watch the water they've found.
- 7:22[SPEAKER_00]: They're extremely well coached and they run a system that you don't see every day.
- 7:26[SPEAKER_00]: Their zone is really good.
- 7:27[SPEAKER_00]: The pressure is really good and they're really good at it.
- 7:30[SPEAKER_00]: And so you've got to play your best for going to basketball to compete with them.
- 7:33[SPEAKER_00]: And so they're going to give you best their best effort every single night.
- 7:36[SPEAKER_00]: Ah, and that you know, like you said, they've got kids that have been around.
- 7:41[SPEAKER_00]: They run in different things.
- 7:42[SPEAKER_00]: And so they know how to win.
- 7:43[SPEAKER_00]: They know how to win those close games.
- 7:45[SPEAKER_00]: And they know how to compete.
- 7:46[SPEAKER_00]: They know
- 7:46[SPEAKER_00]: you know, they've been in a semi state.
- 7:47[SPEAKER_00]: They've played two games of the day.
- 7:49[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they're ready for this kind of atmosphere.
- 7:51[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I'm sure we're going to get their best effort and we're really looking forward to it.
- 7:57[SPEAKER_01]: Also, in your pool on Friday, the last game of the night is against Crothersville, uh, team from the south, um, not a program that's really known for its basketball, but it seems like they have a pretty good team this year.
- 8:12[SPEAKER_00]: But Satina plays extreme in fast, they play quick.
- 8:16[SPEAKER_00]: They do some things that is hard to prepare for, they get the ball out really quick.
- 8:20[SPEAKER_00]: They push it hard and transition.
- 8:22[SPEAKER_00]: And that's going to be our second game of the day after we're sitting around for a couple hours afterwards.
- 8:26[SPEAKER_00]: So that's going to do a really, really tough challenge for us and team that shoots a ton of threes.
- 8:31[SPEAKER_00]: They get the ball out super fast.
- 8:33[SPEAKER_00]: They push it down the court.
- 8:35[SPEAKER_00]: It's really a nightmare scenario when it comes to a second day and a tournament or second game and a tournament.
- 8:40[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but that'll be a great challenge for us.
- 8:41[SPEAKER_00]: And then it's something that we're looking forward to.
- 8:45[SPEAKER_01]: And winning that tournament would winning your pool on Friday.
- 8:49[SPEAKER_01]: Would put you in a championship game scenario on Saturday, 9 and 8.
- 8:55[SPEAKER_01]: What was it about this tournament in particular coach that you wanted to participate?
- 9:00[SPEAKER_00]: Well, there's a couple of things that I really like, and it's the people that run the tournament.
- 9:04[SPEAKER_00]: So you've got quality people that know what they're doing or don't put on a great tournament.
- 9:10[SPEAKER_00]: That's number one.
- 9:11[SPEAKER_00]: Then the second part of it is, if you think you're going to make a tournament run, which we would love to do, if you want to put it yourself in scenarios that are going to be similar to that kind of run.
- 9:19[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to play a content Prairie who's a team with a ton of talent that's been there that's done that.
- 9:24[SPEAKER_00]: then you go to turn around.
- 9:25[SPEAKER_00]: So if you were going to play in a semi-state type atmosphere, you don't play two games in a day, then you're going to turn around and you have that kind of championship kind of feel on a game on Saturday night, if you can win.
- 9:36[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's going to be those kinds of things.
- 9:38[SPEAKER_00]: And then the exposure with more we retreat is much exposure as we can in different tournaments and things.
- 9:44[SPEAKER_00]: with that many teams coming and not many fans around there's going to be a ton of atmosphere, which we love, we travel pretty well with our fan crew.
- 9:52[SPEAKER_00]: So we're just looking forward to it.
- 9:54[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's going to be a really well-run tournament.
- 9:55[SPEAKER_00]: The people that are put in it all in a fantastic brim and skyrocket and Coach Bravestin and Coach Carroll out of the indoor class people with class programs.
- 10:06[SPEAKER_00]: And so we just we love everything that they do.
- 10:09[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I can't wait.
- 10:10[SPEAKER_01]: It's an opportunity to see 18 different teams for $25 over two days.
- 10:16[SPEAKER_01]: That's why these tournaments are so great.
- 10:19[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
- 10:19[SPEAKER_00]: And as a fan, you're going to get to see some quality teams.
- 10:22[SPEAKER_00]: If you're a fan of the CIC, you're going to get to see a lot of quality CIC teams.
- 10:26[SPEAKER_00]: And you're going to get to C teams that say they've done play teams that you don't normally get to see up in Clinton Prairie and Cruddleville.
- 10:32[SPEAKER_00]: For example, there's a lot of people, I'm sure most of our fans don't even know where either of those schools are located.
- 10:37[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm sure if you need that in the street and for us, it's a chance to play somebody outside of your area.
- 10:41[SPEAKER_00]: So that, that we love.
- 10:45[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks so much to Coach Daniels and to you for listening.
- 10:48[SPEAKER_01]: Please do as a huge favor share of this podcast with a Blackford fan in your life.
- 10:54[SPEAKER_01]: Help us spread the word that the Central Indian Support Group for is talking about what the Central Indian sports fans are talking about.
- 11:02[SPEAKER_01]: How often produces Susie?
- 11:05[SPEAKER_00]: Every single day.
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- 11:52[SPEAKER_01]: For support, I'd like to invite you to meet me and I will see you soon.