INDIANAPOLIS
<strong>I</strong>UPUI women’s basketball coach Austin Parkinson accidentally referred to his starting point guard as “coach” during a practice earlier this season.
Holly Hoopingarner didn’t mind the slip.
Hoopingarner’s innate knowledge of the game could come in handy one day — possibly as soon as the 2020-21 season with the former Greenwood player seated next to Parkinson on the Jaguars’ bench.
Parkinson, last season’s Horizon League Coach of the Year, hopes his gritty junior playmaker is on board with such a career move.
“We’ve already talked about it. She’ll have a spot on my staff whenever she wants it,” said Parkinson, a former Purdue men’s basketball player who takes a career record of 148-113 into Saturday’s game at Iowa. “Holly watches the game. She thinks the game.
“When we’re outside the locker room, in some locker rooms girls are talking about everything under the sun. She’s talking about the scouting report or reminding kids what they need to be focused on.”
Prior to this season, Hoopingarner had played in 63 games and made two starts, both as a sophomore. She’s now a full-time starter and is second on the team in scoring average (13 ppg) while leading the Jaguars in assists and steals.
She’s coming off a 23-point performance in IUPUI’s 63-61 victory over VCU at the USTA Thanksgiving Classic in San Antonio. The points matched her career high at IUPUI.
Hoopingarner, a four-year starter at Greenwood and the Woodmen’s all-time leading girls scorer with 1,614 points, has always had the ability to manufacture points. She needed to do more to play significant minutes for a Division I team.
Her coach has been impressed with Hoopingarner’s gradual development on the defensive side. Parkinson calls her one of the smartest players he’s coached in his nine seasons at IUPUI.
“We were senior-heavy my freshman and even last year,” Hoopingarner said. “My role has changed a lot and I’ve had to step up to those responsibilities. We lost a real good scorer in Danielle (Lawrence) and a good defender in Jenna (Gunn), so my role as a leader has changed as well.
“Luckily, the past couple years I’ve really gained the trust of my teammates. Your freshman and sophomore years it’s more leading by example. This year it’s a lot more vocal leadership.”
Asked if the latter has been a difficult transition, Hoopingarner assures it hasn’t.
“No. My personality and my family, we’re all vocal,” she said, laughing. “Luckily, in high school I had a lot of experience with that. I had a lot of experience with my AAU team as the point guard. I’ve had a lot of practice being a vocal leader.”
Under Parkinson, IUPUI has qualified for the Women’s NIT five times and is 6-2 this season. The Jaguars have been particularly impressive the last three seasons, with a combined mark of 67-30 (.691).
Eight of the 14 girls on Parkinson’s current roster played their high school basketball in Indiana.
“We take pride in all the little details. Stops on defense, that’s our big thing. It’s not always about who can score the most buckets,” Hoopingarner said. “We do a lot of the things that don’t show up in the box score. That’s one of the key reasons we’re so successful here.”
