The first live period of the AAU season is officially wrapped up and the city of Indianapolis was the place to be this past weekend. With multiple AAU events happening in the area, the first live period weekend was highlighted by the loaded Nike EYBL Session 3 event, which took place in Westfield and had a huge Indiana basketball presence.
Over the three days here in the Indianapolis area, Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson and assistant coaches Kenya Hunter and Yasir Rosemond were attendance checking all of the players that are currently on the radar of of the Hoosiers. If the Indiana basketball staff being in attendance was not enough, celebrity athletes like LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, John Wall, Lance Stephenson, and even Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson made stops at the Pacers Athletic Center to check out the action.
HoosierIllustrated.com was also at EYBL Session 3 all three days to take in the key Indiana basketball targets such as Jalen Haralson, Meleek Thomas, Trey McKenney, Kiyan Anthony, and many others that showed what they can do over the weekend during the first live evaluation period of the AAU season.
Below is my full notebook with some key takeaways from EYBL Session 3.
Next Superstar: Meleek Thomas
I was impressed with so many players over the weekend, not even including the Indiana basketball targets that I was there to focus on. The good thing, however, is the player that I may have been the most impressed with is 2025 five-star combo guard Meleek Thomas, who is on the radar of the Hoosiers.
Thomas, a 6-foot-4 combo guard that runs with New Heights Lightening 17U, was easily a top five prospect in the gym all three days this weekend. In four games, the high-touted prospects averaged 17.5 points and did multiple things on the floor so well.
There were a lot of areas of his game that I enjoyed watching of his but I think my favorite was the versatility he brought on the floor. He is one of the best guards that I have seen that can play both on and off the ball at a high level. He makes incredibly sharp passes to his teammates while also being a player that uses his length to create shots for himself. Really at his best working off ball screens where he can use a quick step to the basket or get a dribble pull up going.
He is a very vocal player from a leadership standpoint. He always was communicating with his teammates on both ends, especially on the defensive end where he showed to be a willing defender.
Multiple high-major programs paid close attention to him, including Indiana basketball, who is hoping to get an official visit here soon from Thomas. There is going to be a ton of schools that remain active in his recruitment.
Thomas is a program changer.
You can watch his full highlights on our YouTube page here.
The Indiana basketball recruitment of Kiyan Anthony is picking up
2025 four-star guard Kiyan Anthony is a player that Hoosier Nation needs to keep an eye on moving forward.
It should be well-known but this point in time that Kiyan is the son of future NBA Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony, who of course has a great ties to Mike Woodson during Woodson’s time as head coach of the New York Knicks.
Kiyan Anthony was always going to be on the radar of Mike Woodson no matter what, but things really seemed to pick up some steam over the weekend. In one of the games that I watched of his on Saturday, Indiana basketball was three-deep with Woodson, Hunter, and Rosemond to watch the four-star prospect.
There is a ton of potential in Kiyan Anthony from I saw. At 6-foot-5, Anthony is one of the bigger guards I watched and really liked how explosive he can be on the ball. He is shooting guard that plays really consistent when on the ball and has a pretty high IQ and is able to take his defender one-on-one pretty well. Really does a great job of drawing in contact and getting to the line.
He has some underrated athleticism, as well, but the jumper still needs some more work to it. He averaged 22.3 points in four games this weekend. We also got to see a pretty cool matching of Kiyan Anthony going up against the son of LeBron James, Bryce James, with the Team Melo and Strive For Greatness matchup on Sunday. Both LeBron and Carmelo were in attendance that game too.
All signs still point to Kiyan taking an official visit to Indiana basketball in the near future. Just from the relationship of Woodson and Carmelo alone, I would shocked if that visit did not happen in the near future.
You can watch his full highlights on our YouTube page here.
Jalen Haralson balls out in front of all coaches
Jalen Haralson is still a top priority for this Indiana basketball team, as he probably is for multiple schools that are recruiting him. Even though Haralson recently cut his list to his final 9 schools, which includes Indiana basketball, I felt as though there were still some schools that watched him that wanted to get more involved.
There was not a game this weekend that you did not see a host of schools watching Indy Heat 17U to check out the five-star guard. You had his final nine schools such with Indiana basketball, Purdue, Duke, Kansas, Auburn, Notre Dame, Michigan State, Gonzaga, Missouri, however there were also other schools such as Kentucky that were watching him as well.
In front all that watched Haralson, the talented guard really balled out. According to the stats provided by EYBL, Haralson averaged an outstanding 26.6 point, 7.6 rebounds, and 2.6 assists over the weekend. He even had a game Saturday evening which saw him score 37 points, on 11-of-14 shooting while also adding 7 rebounds and 3 assists in Indy Heat’s win over Vegas Elite.
What makes Haralson such a great player is that he is one of the more unselfish players you will at his position. He can play the two guard but even given his 6-foot-6 height, he is an incredible floor general but can also take over a game if need be, with the proof being the numbers he put up.
Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson and assistant coaches Yasir Rosemond and Kenya Hunter all saw Jalen Haralson multiple times over the weekend. The Hoosiers sit in a pretty good spot as any team right now and should be player in this recruitment until the very end.
You can watch his full highlights here.
Top Backcourt: Darius Acuff and Trey McKenney
When two legit five-star players are running your backcourt of your AAU team, it is very rare that you going to find a duo thats better. Well, I can for a fact say that I did not find a better backcourt than the one made up of Darius Acuff and Trey McKenney.
Both of these highly talented five-star guards make the backcourt of The Family 17U and both happen to be two target fro Mike Woodson and Indiana basketball.
To simply how good of backcourt Acuff and McKenney are, there is practice nothing that either man can’t do. They literally can do it all on the floor.
While Acuff is the more ball dominant of the two, they play so well off of one-another. Acuff will be the player that will get the offense going while McKenney will use his bruising strength to play at the defense. Both of them can shoot the ball really well and make plays around the rim.
In the games I watched of The Family this weekend, you even often times saw some pick-and-pop action with both Acuff and McKeeney which was really dangerous for the other teams. Combined, the duo averaged 45.8 points in four games foe The Family.
It will be interesting moving forward how the relationship of Indiana basketball and the two develops moving as the AAU season continues. McKenney has visited Indiana multiple times in the past while Acuff is still looking to set up a visit soon.
Could you imagine if Indiana basketball landed both of them? It likely won’t happen, but that would be a game changer.
You can watch his full highlights of both of them on our YouTube page here.
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