Don't think Bonefish will agree with you.
From The Indinia Star after the game...
INDIANAPOLIS – Fletcher Loyer of Homestead is nothing like
Westfield’s Braden Smith. Loyer’s taller, for one thing, skinny and 6-4, and moves like a wisp of smoke. Doesn’t show much emotion, either. At this point he’s seen and heard it all. His dad is former Detroit Pistons coach John Loyer, and his older brother is Davidson’s Foster Loyer, the 2018 Michigan Mr. Basketball. The drive is there, but the body language betrays nothing.
Braden Smith of Westfield is nothing like Homestead’s Fletcher Loyer. He’s stronger, for one thing, sinewy and 6-0, and moves like a muscle car. Loyer can disappear into the lane before emerging for an open shot, but you can’t miss Braden Smith. He’s revving and growling and showing every emotion on a face that could pass for Tom Cruise, circa “Risky Business.” On a basketball court, he hides nothing.
They are fire and ice, these two, and they don’t have much in common. Other than these essential facts:
They are the two best shooters in Indiana high school basketball. They will almost surely finish 1-2 in 2022 IndyStar Mr. Basketball voting.
They are both headed to
Purdue.
And on a neutral court on the southside of Indianapolis, they faced off Saturday night.
Thought you might be interested in what that looked like.
Purdue landed both these guys??
Purdue coach Matt Painter has made it a point to recruit a shooter each season, from Dakota Mathias to Ryan Cline to Carsen Edwards to Sasha Stefanovic to Brandon Newman. The Boilermakers get one of these nearly every year.
What’s Purdue going to do with
two?
That’ll be the Big Ten’s problem next season. Right now, it’s our pleasure to walk into a steamy gym on a cold December night and watch Loyer and Smith warming up. Neither one misses much, and Loyer in particular had a stretch where he hit 10 or 12 shots in a row, all 3-pointers, just flicking his wrist and letting genetics and muscle memory take over. Smith misses a few more, but he’s firing 35-footers and throwing up exaggerated floaters toward the rafters before falling into the basket. He’s shooting from deep on the baseline, nearly out of bounds, rainbows over the glass and into the rim.
In their own way, they are special shooters. Who’s better? I have a thought, and when that thought hit me on Saturday night in Southport, it surprised the hell out of me. We’ll get there.
But right now the game has started and Smith is defending Loyer, and he’s all in Loyer’s business. Loyer is running Smith off screens but it’s not easy, because Smith is the strongest, quickest player on the court. Loyer loses Smith on one ball screen, dribbles into a 3-pointer as a second defender charges, and drains it in everyone’s face. No emotion afterward. Just trots back for defense.
Another play, Loyer catches a pass just inside the arc and pump-fakes as Smith flies past. Now Loyer is dribbling once and spinning 360 degrees the other way to lose a second defender, and rises for two points.
Loyer averaged 24.4 points as a junior, his first season at Homestead after transferring from Clarkston, Mich. He’s averaging 26.5 ppg through six games this season – he’s a career 50-40-90 shooter at Homestead, shooting 50% from the floor overall, 42% on 3-pointers and 90% at the line – but he can pass, too. He’s trapped 40 feet from the rim and spots 6-6 senior Andrew Leeper for a dunk. Later, with seconds left in the first quarter, he’s trapped before he can get off the final shot, so he finds Leeper again, this time for a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
On the other end, Smith isn’t being defended by Loyer. Smith’s too quick for that. He’ll be a point guard at Purdue, though at Westfield he has to score a lot, which is no problem. He averaged 22 ppg last season, and is at 21.3 ppg and 4.8 assists this season. A varsity starter since his freshman season, he’s a career 50% shooter from the floor overall, 43% on 3-pointers and 82% from the foul line.
At this moment, Smith is moving hard to his right, gunning that motor like a Mustang, and catching a pass and elevating for a 3-pointer. That’s his second 3-pointer in a matter of moments, and here comes a third: Smith is at the edge of the midcourt logo, facing a defender who’s too smart to cover him so far out, and here’s the mischievous look on Tom Cruise’s face – I mean Braden Smith’s face:
Sometimes you gotta say, “What the (heck).”
He buries it from 35 feet.
Should’ve seen the look on the defender’s face.
Smith is also throwing no-look passes and running a two-on-one fast break, and with a group of young boys from Westfield behind me shouting – “Dunk it!” – Smith is making the easy bounce pass to senior guard Kai Butterworth and pumping his first as Butterworth makes the layup.
Loyer and Smith will be quite the tandem at Purdue. After the game,
a 58-55 victory for Class 4A third-ranked Homestead over No. 10 Westfield – Loyer had 22 points and six assists (2-for-8 on 3-pointers); Smith had 30 points and three assists (7-for-14 on 3-pointers) – Loyer was talking to IndyStar preps guru Kyle Neddenriep about next season at Mackey Arena.
“He’s a great passer,” Loyer said of Smith. “The way he passes the ball is pretty extraordinary, and he showed how well he can shoot it. I think us playing off of each other — we’re both pretty good at driving and kicking — can be pretty spectacular.”
If they’re both in the NBA in four years, don’t think I’ll be surprised.
So there’s pros all over the place in the arena, and I think I’m watching two more on the court in Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith. Loyer needs to add about 15 pounds to play in the Big Ten, but at 6-4 with that shooting stroke and his ability to pass and handle the ball? He’ll have a shot.
Braden Smith is the one whose game caught me off-guard. He wasn’t nearly as highly recruited as Loyer. As Braden was telling our Kyle Neddenriep after the game, “I’m 6-foot on a good day.” And it’s true. But physically he’s ready for the Big Ten right now, and he’s a gifted shooter who can run an offense, and he’s stronger and quicker and more explosive – he finishes above the rim – than I was expecting. I mean,
Purdue was the first high-major school to offer him. What the hell did everyone else think they were watching?
