Five-game Prep Ball Stars Midwest Challenge set for Saturday at Pike

The time between the end of your senior year of high school basketball and the sendoff to college can be a weird transition period.

There are no more AAU games. No more spring workouts to prepare for the following season. No more after school conditioning.

“I had a little stretch there,” Plainfield senior Noah Smith said, “where I took a little break after the season.”

Plainfield’s Noah Smith poses for a photo Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, at Carmel High School.

Soon enough – in a little more than a month - the 6-8 Smith will be off to DePaul to play for coach Chris Holtmann and the Blue Demons. But there are a few opportunities for get back to playing basketball, including at the Prep Ball Stars Midwest Challenge on Saturday at Pike High School.

Smith will play with Team Indiana in the five-game event, which is in its eighth year. There are four boys’ games, starting with Team Michigan vs. Team Wisconsin at 11:30 a.m., followed by Team Indiana vs. Team Illinois at 1 p.m. The girls’ game between Indiana and Illinois will be at 2:30 p.m., followed by the boys’ consolation game at 4 p.m. and the championship at 5:30 p.m.

General admission tickets are $15 for the entire day. There is also a VIP reserved option for $50 with a $7 concession voucher included.

“We want the community to come out,” said event founder and organizer Anthony Leach. “We want eyeballs on the event because it’s a good event. I know it’s my event, but it’s really the community’s event.”

Several Indiana All-Stars are part of the Team Indiana roster, including Smith, along with players like Cathedral’s Keaton Aldridge Jr., Crispus Attucks’ DeZhon Hall, Westfield’s Drew Haffner and Crown Point’s Mason Darrell.

“The thing about this year is that there were probably 15 to 18 players I thought could have made it,” Leach said of the All-Star team. “DeZhon Hall with a 27-point average and his efficiency is going to make it most years. Same with Keaton Aldridge, Drew Haffner and Mason Darrell. They are every bit as good as the kids chosen … it’s just hard to pick 12.”

In the time since ending his high school basketball career at Cathedral with a Class 3A state championship, Aldridge said he has been able to reflect on his experience before leaving for Detroit Mercy in a few weeks.