Preseason No. 1? Loaded Jeffersonville sends a message with 4-0 weekend at Charlie Hughes.

CARMEL — Sherron Wilkerson figured a 3-1 weekend at the annual highlight of the June high school basketball schedule — the Charlie Hughes Shootout — would send a message to the rest of the state Jeffersonville would be a team to be reckoned with this season.

His Red Devils did him one better.

Jeffersonville’s team, followed by Wilkerson, made the long and meandering walk through the hallways of Carmel High School on Saturday evening as a smiling 4-0 team. The Red Devils knocked off Greenfield-Central (71-60) and Fishers (71-66) on Saturday, then beat Lawrence North (79-61) and Carmel (53-48) to complete the weekend sweep.

'I just had to stop and help myself.' Ex-Linton-Stockton coach Joey Hart hired at Cloverdale

That competition is what Wilkerson, the former Jeffersonville star and third-year coach, wanted for his veteran team coming off last year’s 20-8 season and Class 4A semistate appearance. The Red Devils were a one-point loss to Ben Davis in the semistate championship at New Castle from playing for a state title.

“It’s big for our program,” Wilkerson said. “We’re trying to get ourselves to the state level. To do that, you have to come to where people have all the credibility. This is where people have the credibility. Last year we beefed up our offseason schedule to help get these guys ready. Now, I think especially here this weekend, guys are seeing that it’s paying off for us.”

It was not necessarily surprising to see Jeffersonville have a successful weekend. Other than graduated guard Jeremy Rose (7.1 ppg, 2.9 assists), the Red Devils returned almost the entirety of its roster. At the top of that group is a trio that any team in the state will have a difficult time matching in seniors Tre Singleton, Michael Cooper and P.J. Douglas.

In the win over Lawrence North, those three combined for 65 points with the 6-8 Singleton leading the way with 26. Singleton, who averaged 14.2 points and 7.1 rebounds as a junior, has Division I offers from Indiana State, Kent State, Miami (Ohio), Richmond and Valparaiso, among others.

Singleton’s presence inside might be the key to Jeffersonville’s success. But it is followed closely by the guard play of the 6-4 Douglas (13.8 ppg, 5.6 rebounds) and the 6-3 Cooper (16.4 ppg, 4.4 rebounds). Cooper, who shot 41.4% from the 3-point line as a junior, picked up his first Division I offers from Le Moyne and Eastern Illinois following his weekend performance.

“Typically at this level, you have one or two guys who can go get it,” Wilkerson said. “We have three. Really, we have four but (senior guard Shawn Boyd) has been hurt and we’re looking forward to him coming back (he’s been out with a stress fracture). But we have a core group that is really committed to the program values, and I think these kids are starting to reap the rewards from it.”

Jeffersonville is hungry for a winner — players, coaches and fans. The camaraderie and togetherness of the team is evident on and off the court. “We’ve been best friends since like first grade,” Cooper said. “We definitely feel like we have all the pieces. If teams try to take Tre away, we have me and P.J. It’s hard to stop us especially when we come to play defense first. You have to try to score and then stop us.”

There is one person on Jeffersonville’s team who knows what it feels like to win a state championship. That is Wilkerson, who led the tradition-rich program to its only state title in 1993. The Red Devils were a regional champion last year for the first time in 11 seasons and now have a target on their back — especially after the weekend.

“We had seven home games last season,” Wilkerson said. “Unfortunately, there are no tournament games in our home gym. So, you have to get used to playing on the road. That’s the reason we did that. And for us specifically, we got matched up (this weekend) with a lot of the best programs in the state of Indiana. It gave us a litmus test to see where we are. And by all accounts, I thought we represented ourselves really well.”

A 4-0 weekend has a different meaning for each team that accomplished the feat in the 139-team Charlie Hughes Shootout. There might not be a team that appreciated it as much as Jeffersonville.

“It’s hard to get ranked high at Jeffersonville,” Cooper said. “We want to be preseason No. 1. We came in with the idea we wanted to dominate. Beating Fishers, the defending state champ, was a big win for our program and to show we can compete at a state level.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Jeffersonville looks like Indiana's top team at Charlie Hughes Shootout