The 2024-25 UIndy basketball season is kicking off a new era for the men’s and women’s teams with both debuting new head coaches.
The women’s and men’s basketball teams open their seasons with a double-header on Nov. 8 at 5 and 7:30 p.m., respectively.
UIndy Men’s Basketball Head Coach Scott Heady was hired in April and started recruiting immediately. According to Heady, the team has 10 new players — three freshmen and seven transfers — and an entirely new coaching staff. Because of his late start, Heady said he built this year’s team mostly from the transfer portal. When he was hired, the team only had four returning players and an empty staff.
Heady was previously the head coach for men’s basketball at Marian University for seven years. During his transition to UIndy, he brought two players with him. One is a freshman who followed Heady to UIndy and the other is senior, Brody Whitaker, who Heady said averaged about 20 points per game last season at Marian. Heady said one of his goals for the UIndy men’s basketball program is to compete for conference and national titles year after year.
“From a standpoint of goals,” Heady said, “There is no question that we want to be contenders for GLVC and for our Division 2 championships every year. That is a program that we need to be; that has to be the goal.”
As far as long term goals, Heady said he wants to focus on the team building an identity. He wants the team to maintain consistency, to build a championship culture and to win.
“We want to be great defensively,” Heady said. “We want to win the possession battle and we want to play fast, but we also want to play smart. On the offensive end, we want to be a team that is balanced and very aggressive. We want to play in attack mode all the time and feel that we are dictating the tempo of the game.”
Heady said the players to watch out for this season are Whitaker and UIndy returners Zac Szul and Dylan Ingram. He said transfer Pierce Thomas, who played at Butler University and Eastern Kentucky University, could also be a name to watch for.
UIndy Women’s Basketball Head Coach Jama Sharp was hired in May, after coaching for five years at Stetson University in Florida, and started recruiting upon her arrival. Graduate and transfer student Amyrah Sapenter said there are three returning players this season.
Sharp said she is excited to bring women’s basketball to the forefront and to see the team can grow this season and to build the program.
“The biggest goal is getting us back to a winning season, a winning record and competing in our conference tournament,” Sharp said. “I want us to compete on the national level. There are a lot of sports at UIndy that already have that, and I think women’s basketball has fallen behind.”
Sapenter said she is excited to experience what this conference holds. She attended Northeastern University as an undergraduate and played on its basketball team for three and a half years before graduating. Sapenter had three different coaches throughout her time at Northeastern, which she said helped her navigate which school and team she was going to transfer to.
“When I spoke with Coach Sharp on the phone her enthusiasm really stood out to me and I could tell immediately that she genuinely cared about what she was looking for in her players and her program,” Sapenter said.
Sapenter said it is a non-negotiable for the team to make it to the tournament. On top of that, she said she wants UIndy to be one of the top four best defensive teams in the GLVC.
“It is definitely a process, having so many new pieces, new coaches and lots of new people, but I feel like we have the potential to be great,” Sapenter said. “I am really excited to see how that comes to fruition.”
