My Favorite Basketball Photos Of 2024

2024 was a year when I seemed to focus more on the college side of baseball than high school. I don’t really have a high school to make photos at so it always seems weird to walk into a gym with no real goal. I love high school basketball though, and one goal this coming year is to make more photos of some of the high school action around the area. On the college side I was able to see some great things. I saw Caitlyn Clark sell out Mackey Arena. I saw the Purdue women’s team sell out Mackey Arena a couple of times. I saw the Purdue men’s team clinch the Big Ten title at home. I also was able to see them come home after getting to the final four for the first time since 1980. Below are some of my favorite photos from this past year.

Zach Edey turned Mackey into a madhouse with a three pointer against Indiana. I was fairly wide for the play, and that resulted in one of my favorite photos of the year.

My favorite photo of the year might be this shot of the Big Ten trophy. The year before I was not on the floor making photos. For years I was in the stands on assignment when Purdue won the trophy, and then I found myself shutout in 2023. I made my mind up to do whatever it took to get back on the court, and I was very happy to finally get to make this photo.

In early January I covered the Harrison game at West Side for the local paper. I have been covering games in this gym for over a decade now. It is always fun to get back in there. Here I had some fun late in the game going a little wide to show the gym off. Of course right when I go wide a block happens, but I kind of like how this turned out.

It is weird being in Mackey knowing that most of the fans are there for the other team. Caitlyn Clark was that player though that brought people in from all over. I had some fun during the day making photos of her and the fans that she brought into the stadium. This is one of my favorites from that night.

I love the Raider introductions. They have spotlights, but they are human controlled so you are always getting something different. Sometimes these pregame routines can become all the same, but this one kind of changes every game.

During the year I had a goal of showing all of the ways that Zach Edey would get manhandled with no fouls called. Here he takes a Rocky type hit to the face with no foul called. This one photo shows a lot of what he went through to become the two time national player of the year.

#2 Alabama came to Mackey this past fall, and Purdue took care of business. It was a fun night with a great crowd. The dunk by TKR was one of the highlights of the night. Here is my remote photo and the photo I made handheld.

Mackey looking really good packed before the women’s game between Purdue and Iowa.

These photos are a lot of fun to make. The camera on the ground capturing the athlete coming at me. With the full stands in the background the photos looks even better. This year if the Purdue women’s team has another blackout game we will be able to see the new road scripts which should be fun.

Myles Colvin here throwing it down in the second half of a game. I moved to a spot that was empty in the second half and this photo made me glad that I did.

For the Harrison blackout game this year I thought that I would have some fun. I was not there for anyone so I made a new black and white preset, and I made photos throughout the night with that preset in mind. I really like how the photos turned out. I want to try that again this year when they do it all again if I am available.

The pink out game is one of my favorites during they year. The jerseys pop against the background, and the photos always seem to look better.

This year Notre Dame finally came back to Mackey Arena. For years these were amazing games between the two schools. I hope that the rivalry can continue, and that the teams can both get back to a championship level.

It was really fun getting to see Zach Edey play. He really changed things for Purdue when he was here. I tried to have some fun with the lights and a softening filter here to get the light to grow around him.

This year I covered senior night for West Side for the team. It was a fun game with a lot of good photos. I really liked this pregame photo with the large flag that the team rolls out for the anthem.

My spring basketball season ended with this job with Vermont as they came to Mackey to play in the WNIT. They beat the Boilers to move on to the next round. It was a fun game to photograph with plenty of emotion.

Lance Jones was so much fun to watch play. From the first time I saw him during a practice he was full of emotion and energy. That makes for great photos. Here he tries to get an opponent to miss a free throw so the crowd would get free chicken. It worked and he could not have been more excited.

Anything different in this gym is good. I have photographed a ton of games in here so I am always trying to find a new angle. Here I was able to make a fun photo during pregame intros. These are always hit or miss because you never know what hand will block the face of the player. This one worked out, and I like how it turned out.

We will end this post with a fun photo after Purdue clinched a Final Four berth. There was a huge crowd at the airport, and the players really enjoyed celebrating with the fans. This was a party that was a long time coming. It was awesome to be a part of it, and I hope that I can do it again sometime.

This was a very successful basketball season for me. I kind of started to change what I cover, but what I was able to get to was always good basketball. This will be a hard list to top next year.