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A week ago, as he let what had just happened around him soak in, Chase Konieczny proclaimed the last game of his high school basketball career was a storybook ending.
Konieczny had just made the go-ahead putback dunk with less than a minute remaining, helping his South Bend Saint Joseph Huskies beat Crispus Attucks, 56-52, in the IHSAA Class 3A boys basketball state championship game. It was the culmination of a remarkable season and a decorated career for the senior.
More: The dunk that created a 'storybook ending' for South Bend Saint Joseph's Chase Konieczny
More: Chase Konieczny wins Tribune 2024-25 Boys Basketball Player of the Year fan vote
The numbers don’t lie: Chase Konieczny is one of the best high school boys basketball players in South Bend area history. The 2,138 career points are second most in St. Joseph County history. He led the Huskies to consecutive 3A state finals, finishing runner-up in 2024 before winning it all this year. He’s received dozens of accolades and honors locally and statewide.
It felt academic after winning a state title last week that he would be named an Indiana All-Star, one of the highest honors a senior player in this state can receive. It would be a poetic moment, too, given his older siblings, Nicole (2017) and J.R. (2021), were named All-Stars after their respective senior seasons as well.
The Indiana All-Star team was released Friday.
There was no Chase Konieczny on the list.
More: Indiana All-Stars: Here is 2025 boys basketball roster of state's top seniors
How, was the first question of many. Not just South Bend area residents, either. Journalists who cover the game across the state were puzzled by the Konieczny omission.
“That Chase Konieczny isn’t on the team is a bad look for the Indiana all-stars,” Jim Reamer, owner of the Courtside Indiana website, wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Just an awful decision.”
There are All-Star snubs all the time. Picking the All-Star team isn’t just about taking the 12 best players; rather, they’re trying to build a team, which is why the likes of Attucks senior Dezmon Briscoe (6-foot-9) and Blackhawk Christian’s Kellen Pickett (also 6-foot-9) made it over the 6-foot-4 Konieczny.
Konieczny not being on the team, though, feels egregious. If he had just been the “best player on the best team” and the stats weren’t there, you could understand it. That's not the case with Konieczny, though, as illustrated above.
He wasn’t just a scorer. Konieczny averaged nine rebounds, two assists and two steals per game this season. He was an anchor on the Huskies’ hyper-active pressing defense, rarely coming off the floor despite playing at a blistering pace. He was far from being a one-dimensional player.
Konieczny even beat two players that made this year’s team ― Briscoe and Dominque Murphy from East Chicago Central ― in the last two postseason games the Huskies played. Konieczny had better stats across the board than Murphy, both for this season and their respective careers.
To see Konieczny get snubbed in favor of Murphy and Fort Wayne Wayne’s Chase Barnes is where the frustration comes in for most. Both Murphy and Barnes are great players and are worthy of the selection, but when comparing the resumes of them against Konieczny, it seemed like a clear choice who should make the team.
This is now two All-Star snubs for South Bend this season. On the girls’ side, Washington’s Kira Reynolds was not selected after posting a stellar senior year and career. The state’s all-time blocks leader, who averaged a double-double while also adding six blocks and six steals per game this season, was omitted from the team.
More: Indiana All-Stars 2025: Here are your girls basketball top seniors to take on Kentucky
Selections ― or, rather, non-selections ― like this don’t help the “anti-northern Indiana” bias many feel up here. Whether that is real or not is debatable, but fuel gets added to the fire of those who believe it when players like Konieczny and Reynolds are not on the All-Star teams.
This snub doesn’t take away from Konieczny’s “storybook ending." That doesn't mean it's still frustrating.
Follow Austin Hough on X (formerly Twitter) @AustinRHough and on Facebook at "Austin Hough - South Bend Tribune." Hough can be emailed at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: How did Chase Konieczny get left off the Indiana All-Star team?
Continue reading...
Konieczny had just made the go-ahead putback dunk with less than a minute remaining, helping his South Bend Saint Joseph Huskies beat Crispus Attucks, 56-52, in the IHSAA Class 3A boys basketball state championship game. It was the culmination of a remarkable season and a decorated career for the senior.
More: The dunk that created a 'storybook ending' for South Bend Saint Joseph's Chase Konieczny
More: Chase Konieczny wins Tribune 2024-25 Boys Basketball Player of the Year fan vote
The numbers don’t lie: Chase Konieczny is one of the best high school boys basketball players in South Bend area history. The 2,138 career points are second most in St. Joseph County history. He led the Huskies to consecutive 3A state finals, finishing runner-up in 2024 before winning it all this year. He’s received dozens of accolades and honors locally and statewide.
It felt academic after winning a state title last week that he would be named an Indiana All-Star, one of the highest honors a senior player in this state can receive. It would be a poetic moment, too, given his older siblings, Nicole (2017) and J.R. (2021), were named All-Stars after their respective senior seasons as well.
The Indiana All-Star team was released Friday.
There was no Chase Konieczny on the list.
More: Indiana All-Stars: Here is 2025 boys basketball roster of state's top seniors
How, was the first question of many. Not just South Bend area residents, either. Journalists who cover the game across the state were puzzled by the Konieczny omission.
“That Chase Konieczny isn’t on the team is a bad look for the Indiana all-stars,” Jim Reamer, owner of the Courtside Indiana website, wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Just an awful decision.”
There are All-Star snubs all the time. Picking the All-Star team isn’t just about taking the 12 best players; rather, they’re trying to build a team, which is why the likes of Attucks senior Dezmon Briscoe (6-foot-9) and Blackhawk Christian’s Kellen Pickett (also 6-foot-9) made it over the 6-foot-4 Konieczny.
Konieczny not being on the team, though, feels egregious. If he had just been the “best player on the best team” and the stats weren’t there, you could understand it. That's not the case with Konieczny, though, as illustrated above.
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He wasn’t just a scorer. Konieczny averaged nine rebounds, two assists and two steals per game this season. He was an anchor on the Huskies’ hyper-active pressing defense, rarely coming off the floor despite playing at a blistering pace. He was far from being a one-dimensional player.
Konieczny even beat two players that made this year’s team ― Briscoe and Dominque Murphy from East Chicago Central ― in the last two postseason games the Huskies played. Konieczny had better stats across the board than Murphy, both for this season and their respective careers.
To see Konieczny get snubbed in favor of Murphy and Fort Wayne Wayne’s Chase Barnes is where the frustration comes in for most. Both Murphy and Barnes are great players and are worthy of the selection, but when comparing the resumes of them against Konieczny, it seemed like a clear choice who should make the team.
This is now two All-Star snubs for South Bend this season. On the girls’ side, Washington’s Kira Reynolds was not selected after posting a stellar senior year and career. The state’s all-time blocks leader, who averaged a double-double while also adding six blocks and six steals per game this season, was omitted from the team.
More: Indiana All-Stars 2025: Here are your girls basketball top seniors to take on Kentucky
Selections ― or, rather, non-selections ― like this don’t help the “anti-northern Indiana” bias many feel up here. Whether that is real or not is debatable, but fuel gets added to the fire of those who believe it when players like Konieczny and Reynolds are not on the All-Star teams.
This snub doesn’t take away from Konieczny’s “storybook ending." That doesn't mean it's still frustrating.
Follow Austin Hough on X (formerly Twitter) @AustinRHough and on Facebook at "Austin Hough - South Bend Tribune." Hough can be emailed at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: How did Chase Konieczny get left off the Indiana All-Star team?
Continue reading...
