Local Sports Headlines: April 8, 2022

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Local-Sports.png

Bloomington North’s JQ Roberts named 2022 Indiana Junior All-Star
Bloomington North’s JQ Roberts has been named a 2022 Indiana Junior All Star. Roberts is the first Cougar to make the Junior All-Stars since Musa Jallow in 2017. Since then, South’s Chance Coyle (2017), Noah Jager and Anthony Leal (2019) and Connor Hickman (2020) have been honored. Leal was the last to make the Core Six. North has not had an Indiana Senior All-Star since Bil Duany in 2004. And it is with that next big step in mind that Roberts decided not to run track again this year, focusing on basketball in the offseason with Indiana Elite 2023.

Roberts (6′ 7″) averaged 14.4 points, 9.1 rebounds, 1.1 steals, and 1.1 assists per game for Bloomington North, which went 24-4 and won a Class 4A regional championship against Franklin. Roberts shot 52.2% from the field and 37.5% (30-for-80) from the 3-point line. Roberts will play June 5th at Bedford North Lawrence against the Kentucky Junior All Stars. He will be part of the red group that includes North Central’s Joey Brown, Park Tudor’s Jermaine Coleman, Metropolitan’s David Meriwether, North Daviess’ Jaylen Mullen, and Carmel’s Sam Orme. The Blue group will play June 8th against the Indiana Senior All Stars a site to be determined they include NorthWood’s Cade Brenner, Culver Academy’s Cooper Farrall, Valparaiso’s Mason Jones, Cathedral’s Jaron Tibbs, Munster’s Brandon Trilli, and Gary 21st Century’s Ashton Williamson.

The Core Group will play in both games they are Xavier Booker of Cathedral, Penn’s Markus Burton, Heritage Christian’s Myles Colvin, Ben Davis’ Zane Doughty, Linton-Stockton’s Joey Hart and Zionsville’s Logan Imes. Chesterton’s Marc Urban will coach the Junior All-Stars and will be assisted by Ben Rhoades of Mt. Vernon. The senior Indiana All-Stars will play the Kentucky All-Stars June 10th in Owensboro, KY, and the following day at Southport Fieldhouse.

Declan McMahon commits to Indiana Football for 2022
Declan McMahon has announced his commitment to the Indiana University Football program for 2022 as preferred walk-on. McMahon is 6-0 192-pound Quarterback and Running Back from Poly Prep Country Day in Brooklyn New York. McMahon visited Bloomington on March 7 and was offered a spot.  McMahon had scholarship offers from East Carolina and Fordham. He had interest from Duke and Rutgers.

McMahon comes from a very famous family. His Grandfather Is World Wrestling Entertainment Chairman Vince McMahon, His Father Shane and Aunt Stephanie and her husband Paul who is known as “The Game Triple H” all worked for the company in various roles in front of and behind the cameras. Grandmother Linda has been involved in the Business and Politics. He is not the the first son of a celebrity to join the IU program.  Quarterback Zander Diamont, son of actor Don Diamont, played for the Hoosiers from 2014-2016.

An opportunity to play football in the Big Ten was too much to pass up for McMahon, who will now join the Hoosiers without a scholarship instead. McMahon joins Indiana’s 2022 class that features 21 signees and is considered to be a top 30 class in the country.

Indiana Men’s Soccer adds transfer Jansen Miller from Xavier
Indiana Men’s Soccer Head Coach Todd Yeagley announced the addition of transfer defender Jansen Miller. A Ballwin, Missouri, native, Miller comes to Bloomington after two seasons at Xavier where he played in 27 matches with 26 starts. He will enter his junior season when IU’s 2022 campaign kicks off this fall.
  
Last season, Miller was one of six Musketeers to start all 17 matches as he led Xavier to five clean sheets. With Miller on the back line, two of Xavier’s notable shutout victories came against Northwestern and Seton Hall. As a freshman, Miller started nine of the 10 matches he appeared in while taking part in three shutouts. In February 2021, Top Drawer Soccer rated him the No. 18 freshman on its top-100 list. On February 15, Miller was named the both the BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week and Freshman of the Week in the same cycle following a clean sheet versus East Tennessee State and a 2-1 overtime defeat to No. 12 Kentucky.
 
In his youth career, Miller played at Saint Louis FC, now SLSG Soccer Club, where he had connections with Indiana teammates Nathan Gabris, Lukas Hummell, Joey Maher, Daniel Munie and Lawson Redmon. Coming out of high school, Top Drawer Soccer ranked Miller as the No. 2 recruit in the Midwest region and No. 38 in his class. Miller joins junior Karsen Henderlong as the second student-athlete to transfer from Xavier to IU this offseason. Henderlong, anticipating his senior season this fall, joined the program in January and has been training with the team since.

Indiana Pacers close out regular season on the road
The Indiana Pacers will finish the 2021-22 Regular Season on the road Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia 1 pm and Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn at 3:30pm on ESPN. The Pacers lost the regular season home finale to Philadelphia 131-122 Tuesday night in Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The Pacers are 25-55 on the season and have lost eight in a row. The Pacers will miss the playoffs for the second straight season which will be the 1st time since 2007–10 that they missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons.

The Pacers are headed for the NBA Draft Lottery this summer which means they should get a top 13 pick in the Draft and help a younger team has been affected by Trades and Injuries this season. The Pacers will finish with a losing record for the second straight season and the worst record since the 1988-89 season going 28-54. From 2016-2020, the Pacers made the playoffs losing in the first round all five seasons. 

For more local news . . .
Check out our archived episodes of What’s Happenin’ and Talkin’ Sports with Nick Jenkinson here