By GREG MENGELT
Floyd Central entered Saturday’s contest against fourth-ranked Cathedral at 13-2 with big wins over New Albany, Bloomington South, Jeffersonville and Evansville Reitz.
But the 48-46 win over the Irish, who entered the season ranked No. 1 in Indiana, puts the Highlanders on a different level. The level of true state championship contenders. And this year feels like it’s wide open for a team like the ninth-ranked Highlanders.
“We don’t want to look too far ahead,” Floyd coach Todd Sturgeon said. “(The win) says that if we played the postseason in the Knobs, we’d be very competitive. Our goal is to be competitive on a state level and I think we’re doing that. Right now we want to be the best 4A team in Southern Indiana. That’s the No. 1 target.”
The Highlanders are up to No. 9 in the latest single-class Indiana Basketball Coaches Association poll after being ignored by the state-wide media and coaches most of the early part of the seasons. Sturgeon said rankings don’t matter, but he does keep an eye on the algorithm-based Sagarin Ratings, where Floyd is ranked eighth in the state. According to Sagarin, no team in Indiana is more than six points better than the Highlanders so far this season.
“The fact that we’re in the Sagarin top 10 tells me we are able to compete with those teams,” Sturgeon said. “I think there are a lot of good teams. I just don’t know if there’s an elite team.”
Coming into the season, the team considered most elite was Cathedral. The Irish starting lineup boasts four Division I athletes. During the summer, Cathedral (14-5) embarrassed the Highlanders in a summer event. When cancelations created openings on both teams’ schedules for Saturday, Floyd was excited that Cathedral accepted the invitation.
“We did not perform well,” Sturgeon recalled. “They killed us. So this was a game we were excited to get. We were looking for a home game and Cathedral said they’d come down. It was a good atmosphere in spite of the weather. It was a grown man game. Everything was congested. There were not many easy looks at the basket.”
The Highlanders were supposed to play at Silver Creek (7-9) tonight. However, because the Dragons’ girls advanced to Tuesday’s sectional championship, the game has been moved to Wednesday.
On Wednesday morning, Hoosier Hills Hoops will have a preview of Floyd’s game against the 2-time defending Class 3A state champions.
