Only in an AAU tournament does an “elite” team lose one of its players to catch a flight.
Warsaw native Marshall Plumlee missed the finals of the seniors-to-be gold division in the Bill Hensley Run-N-Slam Classic on Sunday at Spiece Fieldhouse so he could catch his 5 p.m. flight back to North Carolina, where he plays at a prep school.
Plumlee is the younger brother of Mason and Miles Plumlee, both of whom play for 2010 NCAA national champion Duke.
Despite the absence of the 6-foot-11 Plumlee, his Indiana Elite team beat St. Louis GameFace 44-41 to win the top division of the 192-team national tournament.
Plumlee scored nine points as Indiana Elite got a 76-56 semifinal win over Mean Streets and then headed out of Spiece with his father, Perky, to get to the airport. Plumlee also missed the first game of the three-day tournament because of a flight connection problem.
Such is life on the AAU circuit.
Indiana Elite, regarded as one of the nation’s top AAU programs, still got the team title with Washington’s Cody Zeller scoring 12 points and Muncie Central’s Jeremiah Davis adding eight.
Zeller, the brother of Mr. Basketballs Luke and Tyler, just came off a Class 3A state championship game in which he led the Hatchets to the title with a state finals record 26 rebounds.
“It’s another championship, but that’s about all that they have in common,” Zeller said of the comparison between state and AAU titles.
The 6-10 Zeller has been using the spring and summer AAU season to win some more championships but also work on his individual skills for college recruiters.
“It’s some of the best competition around in the country, and it shows me what I need to work on,” Zeller said. “It is always fun competing against the best teams. It takes some time to get used to what other people are doing (in AAU), but I think we played pretty well as a team this weekend.”
Zeller has been offered scholarships from Butler, Florida, Indiana, Purdue and Iowa.
“I don’t mind it,” Zeller said of the recruiting business. “It is a good problem to have when college coaches are knocking on your door. I will probably narrow it down at the end of the summer and take my visits my senior year.”
The individual and team games are also big for Davis, a highly recruited player as well.
“I have a lot of fun playing with my teammates and playing for Indiana Elite,” Davis said. “I don’t have to do as much because I have great teammates. We shared this victory as a team, and the MVP award went to the whole team.”
Davis, a 6-2 guard, has been offered a scholarship by Indiana, Purdue, Tennessee, Ball State, Cincinnati and Xavier.
“I am not going to narrow it down to a list,” Davis said. “I am just going to pick a school and hopefully make the right decision.”
