ISU women’s basketball signee excited to be in Ames

INDIANAPOLIS — She likely was tired for her first day on campus, but with good reason.

Iowa State women's basketball freshman Madison Wise had a 10 a.m. class Monday. And she was determined to be at that class. If she's lucky, she got about five hours of sleep.

The sleep deprivation will be worthwhile. Wise, a five-star recruit from Greenfield, Ind., had to represent her home state one last time, playing in the annual Indiana-Kentucky All-Star series last weekend.

Kentucky beat Indiana, 75-67, in Indianapolis on Saturday, with Wise scoring nine points. The series moved to Owensboro, Ky., for a Sunday game with Indiana winning, 58-51.

Once that second game was over and Wise parted ways with old friends — three of her AAU teammates were on the Indiana team — her family began the roughly nine-hour car ride from Kentucky to Ames.

'This is such an amazing blessing,' Wise said. 'We all dream of this all our lives, watching the older girls when we were growing up.'

The family hoped to arrive on campus before 5 a.m. Some players would have opted out of playing in the second game of the series. Wise was not going to be one of those players.

'There was no way she was going to miss this Kentucky-Indiana series game,' said Doug Laker, Wise's coach at Greenfield-Central High School. 'She's been dreaming about this her whole life, about playing in this game. Basketball is just really, really important to her.'

Wise was a finalist for Indiana Miss Basketball after scoring 2,109 career points at Greenfield-Central, 25th-most in state history. She's one of just five players in the state with more than 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in her career.

'She's definitely top-20 and she's pushing the top-10 (all-time in the state),' Laker said. 'She just has a unique ability about her. And not just about her basketball playing ability, but also the person.'

There's the talent, evident by her statistics and ability to play all over the court. And then there's her competitiveness. It was early in her career, maybe even her freshman season, when Wise was overcoming the flu. But in practice, she got in line to run a sprint race. And not halfheartedly.

'She dove over the line just to win the race,' Laker said. 'She got floor burns, skinned up. She didn't care.'

Her next words: 'Let's play.'

So, skipping the second game of the Indiana-Kentucky series, never was on the table. The family has attended numerous state tournaments in Indiana and Kentucky, along with the annual Indiana-Kentucky series.

'The opportunity to represent her state in a format like the Indiana-Kentucky all-star game we'd drive to San Diego,' Madison's father, Kent Wise, said. 'She realizes what a neat opportunity this is and also the importance of being on campus on time the next morning.'

It has been a whirlwind few weeks for Wise, visiting Iowa State last weekend for orientation before heading back to Indiana for her high school graduation, and then a week of practices, activities and exhibitions as part of the Indiana All-Star team.

But now, she's going to settle down at her new home in Ames. And safe to say, she's 'really' excited about this next chapter.

'Iowa State has always had a great program, great coaches, great players, and great people,' Wise said. 'I'm really blessed to be able to go out there. I'm really, really really, excited to go out there.'