Class 3A flips the usual offseason script. Normally, the team that just lost the state championship game is the one picking up the pieces. This year, it’s the champion doing the rebuilding. This Indiana Class 3A basketball preseason preview 2026-27 starts with a simple fact: Cathedral won the title in March, but New Haven kept its best player.
Cathedral Won the Trophy — and Lost Its Top Two Scorers
Cathedral beat New Haven 71-61 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in March to win the program’s third state title and first since 2022. The Fighting Irish got there behind senior Julien Smith, who scored a game-high 21 points in the championship, and senior Keaton Aldridge, who finished with a 17-point, 11-rebound, six-assist double-double. Both have graduated.
What Cathedral does return is real. Junior forward Owen Peterson had 11 points and 10 rebounds in the title game, and junior guard Skylar Rodgers added 12 points, five steals, and three rebounds off the bench in that same win. Freshman Jayden Kennedy — who tipped in a first-quarter putback in the championship game — gives coach Jason Delaney’s program an early building block for future seasons as well. It’s a real core. It’s just not a championship-tested one yet.
New Haven Returns the Best Player in the Class
New Haven’s run to its first-ever regional and semi-state titles was carried by junior guard Tarvar Baskerville, who averaged 16.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 2.5 steals across the season and earned All-Defensive Team honors along the way. Baskerville is back for his senior year, along with fellow junior Lavell Ledbetter, who chipped in 8.2 points per game and delivered the go-ahead layup that won the Logansport Semi-State.
New Haven loses senior forward DaMarcus Wright, the Trester Award winner from the championship game, and senior guard Jadrien Ezell, who averaged 10.8 points. But keeping Baskerville — a legitimate two-way engine who played his best in the biggest games — gives head coach B. Appleton’s program a real case as the preseason favorite in Class 3A.
Other Contenders to Track
Silver Creek pushed Cathedral in the semistate before falling 73-68, giving the Dragons a data point worth watching heading into next season. Princeton Community, ranked No. 2 in the final Indiana USA Today Network Class 3A poll, returns junior forward Braylon Pippins from a roster that reached the sectional championship level. Columbia City, which took New Haven to the brink in a razor-thin 59-55 semi-state loss, also returns pieces from a team that already proved it belongs in that conversation.
Why New Haven Enters This Indiana Class 3A Basketball Preseason Preview 2026-27 as the Team to Beat
Preseason favorites in Class 3A rarely come from the runner-up spot, but the roster math here is straightforward. New Haven returns its leading scorer, its most efficient two-way piece, and the player who delivered the biggest shot of its season. Cathedral, despite winning it all, is replacing the two players who combined for 38 points in the championship game.
That doesn’t make Cathedral a non-factor — Delaney’s program has now won three state titles and reached at least the semi-state level with regularity, and Owen Peterson’s title-game double-double suggests the cupboard isn’t bare. But for the first time in recent memory, the defending Class 3A champion enters the following season as the team with more questions than the team it beat. That’s the headline of this year’s Indiana Class 3A basketball preseason preview 2026-27: the runner-up looks more settled than the champion.
What New Haven’s Breakthrough Run Means Going Forward
New Haven’s trip to the championship game wasn’t a fluke built on a soft bracket. The Bulldogs won the program’s first-ever regional title by beating No. 9 West Lafayette 64-49, then had to get past rival Columbia City twice in the same postseason — including a 59-55 win in the Logansport Semi-State that came down to Baskerville’s late go-ahead layup. Head coach B. Appleton’s team embraced an underdog identity all postseason, with senior guard Jadrien Ezell noting afterward that being doubted only made the group hungrier. That kind of postseason experience — winning two close games against a team that knew them well, then taking a veteran Cathedral program to the final horn — is exactly the sort of foundation that turns a surprise run into a sustained contender. Losing Ezell and DaMarcus Wright will sting, but New Haven now knows what a deep tournament run actually requires, and it returns the two players most responsible for getting there.
Cathedral’s Program Pedigree Still Matters
It’s worth remembering that Cathedral isn’t rebuilding from nothing. The Fighting Irish have now won three state championships under the current program identity, reaching the semi-state level or better with a consistency few Class 3A or Class 4A programs can match — the same coaching staff also won a Class 4A title in 2022 before the program dropped to 3A. Jason Delaney’s teams are built around full-court pressure and depth, a system that tends to travel well even through significant roster turnover, since it depends less on one or two go-to scorers and more on a full rotation buying into tempo and defense. Owen Peterson’s double-double in the biggest game of his career and Skylar Rodgers’ five-steal bench performance both happened under that same pressure system, suggesting the pieces already understand what the program asks of them. That’s a very different rebuilding situation than a team replacing both its stars and its identity at the same time.
Early Storylines for the Season Ahead
Beyond the top two teams, this Indiana Class 3A basketball preseason preview 2026-27 will be shaped by how the middle of the class shakes out. Silver Creek’s near-upset of Cathedral in the semistate suggests the Dragons return with real postseason confidence. Princeton Community enters the year with lingering questions about its own postseason eligibility history that are worth tracking as the season approaches, alongside genuine on-court talent in forward Braylon Pippins. And with New Haven and Columbia City both clearly capable of beating each other on a given night, the Northeast Conference could produce one of the more competitive league races in the state outside of Indianapolis. None of it will be settled in July — but the shape of the race is already more interesting than a typical “defending champ reloads” storyline.
