Published on January 21, 2026 10:44 am
Last Updated on January 21, 2026 2:06 pm
#9 NEOGA INDIANS
Coach: Andrew Snow
Record at Seeding: 2-14, 1-5 NTC
by DUSTIN WHITE
The term “growing pains” didn’t just come from nowhere. When your regular rotation has no seniors and precious little previous varsity experience to build upon, sometimes things are going to look a little rough no matter what growth is taking place game-to-game and week-to-week.
That’s the scenario faced by eighth-year Neoga High School boys basketball coach Andrew Snow, and his Indians’ won/loss record heading into the 90th Annual National Trail Conference Tournament illustrates the pains as effectively as any words might.
“We have a very young team this season,” said Snow, whose squad was seeded ninth. “For a lot of these guys, this is their first season of varsity basketball. We have two wins at this point in the season with several close losses, but we are taking steps in the right direction.”
Those two victories were recent ones in back-to-back outings against Windsor/Stew-Stras and Martinsville, sandwiched between gut-wrenching losses to Shelbyville (overtime) and Cowden-Herrick/Beecher City (buzzer beater). What-ifs don’t get you seeded any higher, but Neoga was a couple different bounces away from securing a four-game win streak to open 2026 after a winless – but not altogether disappointing – showing at the tough Monticello Holiday Hoopla tournament.
“We competed well up there and probably played some of our best offense,” said Snow. “We learned a lot about ourselves while in that tournament.
“Scoring the basketball consistently has been our struggle and something we have worked on daily.”
Brayden Ray, a junior with as much varsity experience as anybody returning, leads Neoga with 11.4 points per game. The problem for the Indians, to which Snow alluded, is that Ray’s typical output makes up more than a quarter of their 43.4 per contest.
For that number to come up, fellow junior Kaden Bryant will need to continue making strides; he averages 8.7 per game overall, but that average balloons to 13.5 if your sample begins at the Monticello tourney. Sophomore Grady Haarman saw a lot of varsity minutes during his frosh campaign while junior Malik Coy missed most of his sophomore season recovering from a horrific ATV wreck and recently strung together three straight double-figure games.
Another recent bright spot and sign of a more optimistic future is freshman Trenton Ballinger, who scored 42 of his 59 points this season in Neoga’s four contests heading into seeding.
As the No. 9 seed, Neoga rematches with No. 8 CHBC in a play-in game a couple weeks removed from the loss at the buzzer in Beecher City. No. 1 Cumberland awaits that winner. Nothing will be easy for the Indians, but growing never is.
“This is the best 1A conference in the state and it’s not even close,” summarized Snow just before the seedings were announced. “There are great coaches in this league, which creates disciplined teams that are hard to beat every single night.”