Dozens of youth took a different look at sports Tuesday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse — through math and statistics.
Incoming fourth-graders Lincoln Schultz and Cameron Coe roll dice and hustle to solve an equation using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
The students exercised their algebraic skills to play a board game built around real NBA and WNBA player statistics.
Coe said at first he was nervous.
“But going against adults, I felt confident and good,” Coe said.
The pair won their first game of the day.
“I didn’t think I was gonna win if I didn’t have him on my team,” Schultz said.
It was part of the NBA Math Hoops program. The game developed by educational nonprofit Learn Fresh is for grades 4-8 and has different formats including online and a board game.
It arrives as Indiana students continue to struggle with math. Around 27% of public school students in Marion County passed the math portion of the ILEARN exam in 2025.
Incoming seventh grader Jaiah Williams likes basketball and enjoys the game learning about players through math. She said she observed a wide range between players and their three-point and two-point averages.
“I noticed that there was a card with Steph Curry and he had like a high percentage other than a girl, she had like a small, quite a lower percentage in her cards,” Williams said, comparing the famed NBA player to a WNBA player.
More than 90 elementary and middle schools across the state received the game for free through a partnership with Pacers Foundation and Lilly Foundation.
Christel House Academy math teacher Skyler McGregor said the sports connection helps draw students into learning.
“It brings in those numbers and those decimals, which is actually something that kids kind of struggle with, but seeing it and putting it into a real-life perspective allows them to make those real-world connections, and then build on those and continue to learn every day,” McGregor said.
After game time, participants heard from a panel of OneAmerica Financial employees about how STEM plays a role in their careers.
Pacers Foundation Executive Director Erin Bess said the summer program gives kids access to educational programming they might not otherwise have.
“To see all of these kids here genuinely excited to learn math and to play with their friends and maybe meet some new friends, and all in an educational setting, it’s amazing,” said Bess.
And later this month Ananiel Thamsanqa from the Boys & Girls Club of Huntington County will compete in New York in the Global Championship. He will compete against 27 students from around the world in the multiple-day event held during the NBA draft week.
Thamsanqa and his teammate Augi Widmeyer won the regional tournament hosted by the Pacers Foundations and Lilly Foundation in March.
Their coach, Alan Smith, is one of four educators to receive the program's 2026 Outstanding Educator Award.
Contact WFYI All Things Considered newscaster and reporter Samantha Horton at shorton@wfyi.org or on Signal at SamHorton.05
