Indiana
Best Indiana Men’s Basketball Players Of The 2020s So Far: No. 11 Xavier Johnson
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana point guard Xavier Johnson is ranked 11th in our countdown of the best Indiana players of the 2020s so far. But if you take the production out of it, Johnson might be at the top of the list of players who embody what Indiana basketball has been all about in the 2020s.
Why? Sometimes Johnson was great. Sometimes Johnson was not so great.
Johnson was on the court for quite a bit of it. He had three event-filled seasons with the Hoosiers from 2021-24. He featured prominently in one NCAA Tournament season, was hurt for another, and then was part of the reason the Hoosiers fell short of expectations in the 2024 season.
Johnson arrived at Indiana as a seasoned veteran. He had played three seasons at Pittsburgh and started all but two games of his 84 with the Panthers. What Mike Woodson wanted was an experienced point guard to run his offense and to provide a dynamic presence on the floor.
At times, that’s exactly what Woodson got. Asked to be more of a distributor than a scorer as he was at Pitt, Johnson’s scoring average declined from 14.2 points in his final season at Pitt to 12.1 in his first season with the Hoosiers.
Johnson’s assist average also dropped from 5.7 to 5.1 per game, but he seemed to get better as he went along in his first Indiana season. That was born out in his hot streak to end the 2022 campaign.
In the final five games of the regular season and in three Big Ten Tournament games, Johnson averaged 18.1 points, 6.8 assists and made 45.2% of his 3-point shots.
Johnson fell off to 10.5 points per game in the NCAA Tournament games against Wyoming and Saint Mary’s, but excitement was high that Johnson could replicate that kind of production in the 2022-23 season and lead Indiana to the top of the Big Ten.
That’s not how it played out for either Johnson or the Hoosiers.
Indiana started 7-0 and reached a high-water mark of a No. 10 ranking before it all started to unravel.
When Indiana faced top-level competition, it struggled. Indiana lost 89-75 against No. 10 Arizona in Las Vegas and one week later at Kansas, it fell apart for both Indiana and Johnson.
Indiana lost 84-62 at Allen Fieldhouse, but Johnson came out of it the worst. He broke his right foot when it was stepped on it in a scramble for a loose ball, and he did not play again that season.
Indiana made the tournament without Johnson, but Woodson had built much of the team identity based on Johnson’s skill set, so the Hoosiers fell short of expectations as far as Big Ten contention was concerned.
Johnson got a waiver from the NCAA to play another season, but 2023 was also a star-crossed, injury-plagued season. Johnson missed seven games in December with another foot injury and six more in February with an elbow injury.
Johnson never got into rhythm. He had his worst Indiana season as he averaged 7.6 points and 2.8 assists. Indiana was depending on Johnson to lead the way for a team that was inexperienced elsewhere on the floor, but that was not to be. Indiana finished 19-14, and it was the beginning of the end for Woodson as head coach.
Johnson continues to pursue his basketball dream. He played for three G League teams in the 2024-25 season. In 25 total games, he averaged 2.6 points.
Johnson did better at Indiana, but in many ways, his ups and downs were symbolic of what Indiana went through as a program for much of the 2020s.
Previous men’s basketball top 16 players of the 2020s
No. 12 – Justin Smith
No. 13 – Rob Phinisee
No. 14 – Luke Goode
No. 15 – Devonte Green
No. 16 – Anthony Leal
INDIANAPOLIS — Sophie Cunningham wants to emphasize she’s perfectly happy with the Indiana Fever. She just wishes she could be locked down longer.
Cunningham, who signed a one-year, $665,000 deal with the Indiana Fever for 2026, said on her podcast, “Show Me Something,” on Tuesday night that she was frustrated with the free agency process in the condensed offseason.
She shook her head vehemently when her co-host West Wilson asked if the contract was better than she thought it would be, then said in part, “It’s tough because I came off an injury … I’m not even going to lie to you, that’s a little, kind of, frustrating.”
Fans on social media largely took that as she did not get interest from other teams, she didn’t want to return to the Fever, or she was unhappy with the salary she got.
She shut those thoughts down on social media Monday night, then expounded on her frustrations with local media at Fever training camp on Tuesday morning.
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“I think Twitter kind of blew up last night about a comment I made on my podcast. But that wasn’t what I meant at all,” Cunningham said. “I think if you listen to the full clip, you really understand that I just wanted to be somewhere for more than one year. I’m almost 30 years old. I want to have a home. I want to get established. And I would love to get established in a place like Indiana.”
The Fever prioritized as much financial flexibility as possible this offseason because of the new EPIC clause, which allows both Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark to renegotiate their fourth-year salaries up to the max with an extension. Boston’s salary was bumped to $1 million in 2025, and she will make the supermax from 2027-29. Clark is eligible to negotiate up to the max in 2027, and both Clark and Boston could be making the supermax starting in 2028.
Only Lexie Hull and Monique Billings got major multi-year deals with the Fever out of free agency. Hull signed for $765,000 in 2026 and $803,250 in 2027, per Her Hoop Stats, while Billings got $800,000 for both 2026 and 2027. Damiris Dantas is the only other player that got a multi-year deal out of free agency, but that was for the minimum cap hit of $277,500.
Kelsey Mitchell signed a one-year, $1.4 million supermax, Cunningham returned on a one-year deal, and Myisha Hines-Allen and Tyasha Harris each signed one-year deals.
Cunningham added that she got multi-year offers from other teams, but chose to stay with Indiana on a one-year deal.
She wanted to return to Indiana, she said, because of friendships she created with her teammates and the potential they showed, even after six separate season-ending injuries on the roster. She is also closer to her hometown of Columbia, Missouri.
“When you find a group of girls who really make you fall in love with basketball games and you enjoy it, you enjoy them, not only on the court, but off the court, like, you want to hold on to that,” Cunningham said. “ … it was never about the money, it was just about the years, because I wanted to be with them. And God forbid a girl loves her teammates, you know what I mean?”
Cunningham is also coming off a major knee injury after she tore her MCL in August 2025. She was ruled out for the rest of the 2025 season and got surgery in Indianapolis, then had a six-month rehab process before she was cleared in February.
Since then, she has been ramping back up as much as possible, including playing one-on-one, three-on-three, plyometrics, and everything she does to get ready for a regular season.
Still, she said, she’ll need to actually play to get back into full basketball shape.
“Basketball shape is just different,” Cunningham said. “You can run as many suicides as you want, you can get your butt kicked however you want, but until you’re out here playing, you’re never fully going to be in game shape until you’re playing games.”
Chloe Peterson is the Indiana Fever beat reporter for IndyStar. Reach her at chloe.peterson@indystar.com or follow her on X at @chloepeterson67. Get IndyStar’s Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Caitlin Clark Fever newsletter. Subscribe to IndyStar TV: Fever for in-depth analysis, behind-the-scenes coverage and more.
CLOVERDALE, Ind. (WKRC) – Authorities in Indiana found a semi trailer loaded up with hundreds of pounds of suspected cocaine.
According to a statement issued by the Indiana State Police (ISP), 27-year-old Harmandeep Singh of Bakersfield, California was taken into custody after nearly 400 pounds of suspected cocaine were reportedly found in the trailer of a commercial truck.
Per the statement, an ISP trooper seized the suspected cocaine during a traffic stop on Interstate 70 in Putnam County, authorities said.
The stop occurred Tuesday morning near the 37-mile marker, just east of Cloverdale, after a commercial motor vehicle was observed exceeding the posted speed limit.
Police said Singh displayed several indicators of possible criminal activity during the encounter. After obtaining consent to search the vehicle, troopers discovered multiple duffel bags and cardboard boxes in the trailer containing approximately 392 pounds (178 kilograms) of suspected cocaine.
Authorities estimated the street value of the drugs at about $9 million.
Singh was taken into custody and taken to the Putnam County Jail, where he is being held on a $30,000 cash bond.
He faces the following preliminary charges, per the post:
- Possession of a narcotic drug
Formal charges will be determined by the Putnam County prosecutor.
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Indiana State Police said drug interdiction remains a priority, with troopers focusing on major highways to disrupt the flow of illegal narcotics into the state.
For many Hoosiers living in rural Indiana, accessing health care can mean driving 30 minutes or even an hour to see a doctor or reach the nearest hospital. As workforce shortages and financial pressures challenge rural hospitals across the country, ensuring access to care close to home has become one of the most important health-care issues facing our state.
About one in four Indiana residents live in a rural community, yet access to health-care services in many of these communities continues to shrink. Across the nation, rural hospitals and clinics report extremely thin operating margins and often say workforce shortages and rising costs make it difficult to sustain services such as primary care, maternity care and behavioral health.
When rural communities struggle to maintain health-care access, the impact doesn’t stay confined to small towns. It ripples across the entire health-care system, contributing to increases in chronic conditions, reduced preventative care for children, and worsening outcomes for the sickest patients.
Communities such as Greater Lafayette serve as a regional hub for care, with hospitals like IU Health Arnett caring for patients from surrounding counties across north-central and west-central Indiana. That role is something we are proud to fulfill. But when rural residents must travel long distances for care that should be available closer to home, it places increasing pressure on emergency departments, specialty clinics and inpatient services at larger regional hospitals.
In many cases, what might have been a routine appointment, preventive screening or early diagnosis in a local clinic becomes far more serious by the time a patient reaches a larger hospital. A missed screening can escalate into a medical emergency.
That reality makes strengthening rural health care more important than ever — not just for rural communities, but for the health of the entire state.
One of the most important steps we can take is investing in the next generation of health-care professionals who will care for these communities.
At IU Health, we are working directly with local schools and community partners to help build that workforce pipeline. Across the region, IU Health has partnered with the Greater Lafayette Career Academy and area school districts to introduce students to health-care careers earlier and provide hands-on learning opportunities that bring those careers to life.
Through these programs, students explore health-care pathways and earn certifications such as certified nursing assistant, medical assistant or emergency medical technician while still in high school. Many participate in job shadowing opportunities, clinical experiences and mentorship programs, giving them valuable exposure to the field before they graduate. In fact, since the first cohort in 2023, IU Health has extended job offers to more than 70 students.
The goal is simple but powerful: help students see that meaningful careers in health care exist in their own communities and create pathways that allow them to stay and serve those communities.
For rural health care, this approach is critical. Students who train and develop personal mentorship connections locally are far more likely to remain in the region after completing their education. By helping young people build skills and connections early, we can create a sustainable workforce that strengthens health-care access in both rural communities and regional centers, including Greater Lafayette.
Since launching the $200 million Community Impact Investment Fund in 2018, IU Health has invested more than $40 million in community grants supporting workforce development, education and school-based programs that build Indiana’s health-care talent pipeline. This includes funding for the Indiana Latino Institute, which placed Latino students in health-care internships, supported career pathways, and provided medical interpreter training and college coaching to communities across the state.
Our goal is to make Indiana one of the healthiest states in the nation, and this is one way we work toward that in partnership with our communities.
But workforce development is only part of the solution.
Strengthening rural health care will also require continued collaboration between health-care providers, educators, community leaders and policymakers. Expanding telehealth access, supporting rural hospitals and investing in primary care and behavioral health services are all critical steps toward ensuring patients can receive care close to home.
Greater Lafayette will always play an important role as a regional health-care center, providing specialized care and advanced services for patients across a broad region. But the long-term health of Indiana’s health-care system depends on maintaining strong local access points for care in rural communities.
When rural clinics and hospitals can provide preventive care, manage chronic conditions and connect patients with the services they need early, the entire system works better.
Patients receive care sooner, communities stay healthier and larger hospitals can focus on the complex cases they are designed to treat.
Healthy rural communities do not just benefit the towns where they are. They strengthen Indiana’s entire health-care system by ensuring that every Hoosier — no matter where they live — has access to the care and resources they need to live healthier lives.
When rural health care succeeds, all of Indiana benefits.
Gary Henriott is a lifelong resident of Lafayette and the retired CEO and Chairman of Henriott Group. He is the chair of the IU Health West Region board of directors and the Wabash Heartland Innovation Network, and president of Lafayette’s Board of Public Works and Safety.
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