(2026) - Vaughn Karvala to INDIANA

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

CIA Bella Vista surged in the second half to pull away from LuHi. Four players scored in double figures, led by Miles Sadler with 17. IU commit Vaughn Karvala added 11 and went 3-for-3 from three. 

 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

 Bella Vista vs IMG Academy today at 4:00 ET on League Ready YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/@League_Ready

[Demo]

Off to check out Karvala at the Quincy Showcase in beautiful(heavy, heavy sarcasm) Quincy, Il. Plays tonight agains Iowa United(Arafan Diane) and tomorrow night against Wasatch Academy(Junior County). Should match up a fair bit with County. That’ll be fun. Downside of these freaking winter showcase events: We’re supposed to have a bunch of snow, something in the 6-10” range, where I live starting Saturday morning and through the day. So I have to punt on the Saturday games, which is a really good 6 game slate. Not that hanging out in a hotel in Quincy for a couple of extra days wouldn’t be super sweet. 

Side note: Iowa United is coached by Indiana mega-legend Keith Smart. If I see him for a free moment will probably be forced to ask how it feels to now be sharing the pedestal for the greatest moment in IU sports history with Fernando Mendoza. 

[Uspshoosier]

https://247sports.com/season/2026-basketball/RecruitRankings/?InstitutionGroup=HighSchool

Ranked 50th in new update 

[Demo]

Some thoughts on Karvala after getting to see him up close for a couple of days. Makes a total of 6 games of his I’ve gotten to watch, 3 from HS last year, 1 travel ball game he played against Ethan Taylor last spring and the 2 EYBL scholastic games the last 2 days. This may go on for a while, but he is a really interesting prospect to me:

1) Physically, he is about as prototype a wing as it gets. He’s legitimately 6’7”, which I’d wondered about and while his frame is pretty narrow, he’s probably 185ish, I think he can probably get to 200-205 and that’ll play. He’s not long, but probably slightly plus, +2 or so maybe. Athletically, he’s top shelf. He can really run. He has easy movement and change of direction. And the vertical explosion is something. Probably pushing legit 40”. There was a play where they threw him an alley oop that only Wemby could have caught but Karvala’s fingertips were slightly above the top of the square and his head was at the rim. That was a woah moment. 

2) We’ve run through his game before, and there wasn’t a lot I hadn’t seen. He’s a streaky shooter with some funk in his stroke that needs cleaning up that isn’t happening now. Makes his release a hair slow which with his twitch shouldn’t happen, The handle needs to tighten up notably. Right now at the HM level he’d be strictly a 3 bounce straight line driver. Not sure if that will get better or not. The defensive tools are great if he develops the mentality of a stopper. Not sure if he’s got that, but it’ll play. He’s miles better than a kid like Dorn. 

3) The between the ears is gonna be the thing here. For a kid who has a legit NBA toolkit, Karvala’s confidence is a clean slate from game to game. If he makes a couple of early plays he revs up and he really pops. But if he doesn’t he becomes pretty content with just blending into the game. He’s not an alpha or instinctively a killer like Moody is. He needs a PG who understands the need to get him out of the box strong and his current PG is a shot hunting machine and doing him no good at all. And he’s just a bit of a different kid. During halftime warmups of a game they were losing yesterday he was singing along to Enter Sandman, which was playing overhead. Would think Cig would have ripped his head off. But he competed between the lines. He’s not uncompetitive, just…different.

Summary: Karvala is crazy high variance, way more so than Moody or Branham. His range of outcome is anywhere from a 2 year guy who plays in The League to a 1 year and transfer out who doesn’t work out and damned near anything in between is reasonably possible. I’m down with taking the swing here because he’s gifted in a way that doesn’t grow on trees and he seems like a good kid, but anyone who watches him and confidently predicts an outcome is nuts. 

Fwiw

[Stuhoo]

So he’s got Troy Williams skills, Logan Duncomb head space, and Adam Morrison hair.

That’s a lot to digest.

[Demo]

29 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

So he’s got Troy Williams skills, Logan Duncomb head space, and Adam Morrison hair.

That’s a lot to digest.

See, 20 words pretty well covered it. Side note on the hair: it always looks perfectly the same. It flops around as he’s playing and then lands exactly like that. 

[HoosierHoopster]

On 1/24/2026 at 1:23 PM, Demo said:

Some thoughts on Karvala after getting to see him up close for a couple of days. Makes a total of 6 games of his I’ve gotten to watch, 3 from HS last year, 1 travel ball game he played against Ethan Taylor last spring and the 2 EYBL scholastic games the last 2 days. This may go on for a while, but he is a really interesting prospect to me:

1) Physically, he is about as prototype a wing as it gets. He’s legitimately 6’7”, which I’d wondered about and while his frame is pretty narrow, he’s probably 185ish, I think he can probably get to 200-205 and that’ll play. He’s not long, but probably slightly plus, +2 or so maybe. Athletically, he’s top shelf. He can really run. He has easy movement and change of direction. And the vertical explosion is something. Probably pushing legit 40”. There was a play where they threw him an alley oop that only Wemby could have caught but Karvala’s fingertips were slightly above the top of the square and his head was at the rim. That was a woah moment. 

2) We’ve run through his game before, and there wasn’t a lot I hadn’t seen. He’s a streaky shooter with some funk in his stroke that needs cleaning up that isn’t happening now. Makes his release a hair slow which with his twitch shouldn’t happen, The handle needs to tighten up notably. Right now at the HM level he’d be strictly a 3 bounce straight line driver. Not sure if that will get better or not. The defensive tools are great if he develops the mentality of a stopper. Not sure if he’s got that, but it’ll play. He’s miles better than a kid like Dorn. 

3) The between the ears is gonna be the thing here. For a kid who has a legit NBA toolkit, Karvala’s confidence is a clean slate from game to game. If he makes a couple of early plays he revs up and he really pops. But if he doesn’t he becomes pretty content with just blending into the game. He’s not an alpha or instinctively a killer like Moody is. He needs a PG who understands the need to get him out of the box strong and his current PG is a shot hunting machine and doing him no good at all. And he’s just a bit of a different kid. During halftime warmups of a game they were losing yesterday re was singing along to Enter Sandman, which was playing overhead. Would think Cig would have ripped his head off. But he competed between the lines. He’s not uncompetitive, just…different.

Summary: Karvala is crazy high variance, way more so than Moody or Branham. His range of outcome is anywhere from a 2 year guy who plays in The League to a 1 year and transfer out who doesn’t work out and damned near anything in between is reasonably possible. I’m down with taking the swing here because he’s gifted in a way that doesn’t grow on trees and he seems like a good kid, but anyone who watches him and confidently predicts an outcome is nuts. 

Fwiw

Great review, thx for posting it. Though maybe you could've spent more time on the important stuff, like the hair.

[Uspshoosier]

 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

6:30 tonight.  Christ School vs Bull City Prep

https://sportsengineplay.com/Local-Live/Christ-School-321943/Christ-School-Boys-Varsity-Basketball/game/Christ-School-vs-Bull-City-Prep-Senior-Night-2026-02-09?video_id=6983bfe3414c61900cf9a45d

[Demo]

2 minutes ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

6:30 tonight.  Christ School vs Bull City Prep

https://sportsengineplay.com/Local-Live/Christ-School-321943/Christ-School-Boys-Varsity-Basketball/game/Christ-School-vs-Bull-City-Prep-Senior-Night-2026-02-09?video_id=6983bfe3414c61900cf9a45d

Wrong thread there, Big Guy.

See, I’m not the only perpetrator on that one. Just the worst.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

This has been a test of the Old Fart screw up system.  You  may now return to your usual afternoon whatevers.

 

Good help is really hard to find these days.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

EYBL Scholastic Conference Tournament got underway earlier today.  Rough morning for Karvala.  I believe they play Montverde Academy tomorrow.

[WayneFleekHoosier]

Moody has the best chance imo.  But im not expecting much of anything from our freshman recruits in year 1.   Hopefully they are the patient type. 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Bella Vista vs Montverde Academy today at noon.

https://www.youtube.com/@thegrindsession/streams

[Demo]

Watched this game this morning. Best all around game Karvala’s played this year that I’ve seen. Also had a couple of blocks and steals and was really active and engaged on both ends. Nice little thing to see: He’s not the most physical kid, but he got banged around a lot and just played though it pretty unaffected. Will play in the championship game at noon eastern time against what certainly looks at the moment like AZ Compass. 
Side note and completely evidence-free speculation: The best player in this game for Spire imo was pretty clearly ‘26 wing Aiden Derkack. Had a nice game and competed his a$$ off even when it started to get away from them. Currently a Providence commit and had an IU offer from the current staff. Depending what happens with the HC situation at Providence that situation could possibly come back around. 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Glad to hear Karvala played today and played well.  In yesterday's game early in the 3rd , he took a hard shot to the face and went straight down.  Nothing malicious or intentional, it just happened but for a minute or 2, I don't think he could have told you where he was or what day of the week it was.  He did not play the rest of yesterday's game.

[Demo]

2 minutes ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

Glad to hear Karvala played today and played well.  In yesterday's game early in the 3rd , he took a hard shot to the face and went straight down.  Nothing malicious or intentional, it just happened but for a minute or 2, I don't think he could have told you where he was or what day of the week it was.  He did not play the rest of yesterday's game.

Spire banged him around a lot this one. Their scouting report was pretty clearly that he tends to shy from contact a little, which is true, but in this one he played through everything. Encouraging