Highlights

Hoophall Classic 2025 Recap

Once again the Basketball Hall of Fame’s Hoophall Classic brought together the best and the brightest in scholastic hoops – including one Hall of Fame coach and one recruit who is changing the game.

This past January over Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame welcomed the nation’s top high school teams from around the country to the Birthplace of Basketball for the annual Hoophall Classic. This year marked the 23rd anniversary of the winter shootout, and it delivered all of the excitement and energy that we have come to expect from the nation’s top high school event.
 
This year, a living legend arrived in Springfield by way of the Louisiana bayou. Charles Smith, newly-minted member of the Class of 2024, coached his Peabody Warhorses to a hard-fought victory over local powerhouse Springfield Central. This was Coach Smith’s first run in the Classic, and the third appearance by a Hall of Fame coach joining Bob Hurley Sr. and the late Morgan Wootten. The Warhorse style of play echoes those Hurley-led teams that won four national championships: hard-nosed defense, fast-break offense, and team-oriented personality.
 
Another icon among high school coaches, Kevin Boyle, brought his Montverde Academy Eagles to the Birthplace for three games this year. Coach Boyle is a familiar face around these parts having coached powerhouse St. Patrick of New Jersey before heading south to Florida. Boyle counts Joel Embiid, Kyrie Irving, and Cade Cunningham among his many NBA ties, and his current roster may one day add a few more names to that legacy. Boyle knows that when he comes to Springfield, he is giving those in his care more than a shot to test their skills against top-notch competition. The atmosphere is unparalleled. The stage is the biggest. The lights are the brightest. And Coach Boyle feels a real connection to the game’s history when he visits the Hall of Fame or strolls the campus of Springfield College.
 
Today, Hoophall Classic is a rite of passage for the nation’s top recruits. From names you already know – Boozer, Anthony, House – to names you soon will – Dybantsa, Ament, Acuff – the Classic’s lineup reads like a Who’s Who of High School Hoops. A.J. Dybantsa, the nation’s top-ranked recruit in the class of 2025, the young man that is changing the game in ways that were previously unimaginable, stars at Utah Prep, but his love of basketball began here in the Commonwealth, in Brockton, Massachusetts.
 
This year also brought a new twist to the annual dribble derby. In addition to the action at Springfield College, the city hosted the first-ever Hoophall Invitational. This new event featured 64 teams from traditional high schools across the Northeast. The games were played at seven satellite locations across the city. The Invitational, along with the long-running Junior Hoophall Championships, expands the Hall of Fame’s footprint on the game. The entire weekend conveys to young people a real sense of place, and gives meaning to words like roots, invention, origin story, and heritage.
 
Hoophall Classic is more than just basketball. For the third consecutive year, Morgan Stanley returned to deliver educational sessions aimed at familiarizing student-athletes with financial literacy, wealth management, and lifelong fiscal responsibility. In a unique partnership with Springfield College that is now more 20 years in the making, students receive real world experience planning, coordinating, promoting, and operating a first-class sporting event. Martin Luther King Jr. is celebrated all weekend with programming that asks each student-athlete to contemplate and articulate what Dr. King’s Dream means in today’s world.