How is Evansville's all-time leading scorer five years later? Catching up with Mekhi Lairy

OXFORD, Ohio — While the Evansville Purple Aces looked rampant in the first half, the Miami RedHawks stayed afloat Monday night because of one player. Facing his hometown school, the importance of the season opener wasn’t lost on Bosse High School graduate Mekhi Lairy.

His constant assists and drives to the basket caused the Aces problems and kept the RedHawks alive, with many of his helpers going to center Anderson Mirambeaux.

“It’s always nice playing against the hometown team,” Lairy said. “Playing my hometown team for my last first game of college basketball is surreal.”

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Despite Lairy’s 11 points and five assists, UE beat the RedHawks 78-74, and Miami started its first season under coach Travis Steele with a losing record. Lairy, the all-time Evansville city high school career scorer, is a crucial piece of the starting lineup. After deciding to stay in Oxford for his fifth and final year of eligibility, Lairy is a leader on the team, acting as a bridge between the coaching staff.

“I’ve been around college basketball for five years now, so I’ve seen a lot, been through a lot,” Lairy said. “I take those past experiences and things I’ve been through and pass them onto the younger guys and mold them into being ready for college basketball.”

Lairy made his way to midcourt at the now-empty Millett Hall after Monday's opener. Long after the final buzzer sounded, Aces coach and fellow Evansville native David Ragland met him, put his arm around him and talked for several minutes.

“It’s great to see anyone from your hometown do well. I’m proud of him for what he’s done since he’s been here, what he did when he was at Bosse,” Ragland said. “Just to see him continue to do well is important. Everyone that comes from Evansville, after I got done, I’ve rooted for them. Doesn’t matter what school they come from or what school they go to or if we’re playing against them, and Mekhi is no different.”

Lairy’s road to this point has been long. Looking at the current picture, it can be easy to forget the difficult times that led him to this point.

Lairy is seeing proof that “all of my hard work is paying off”

Bosse coach Shane Burkhart remembers being disappointed despite the history he witnessed. The Bulldogs, who were playing against Vincennes Lincoln, seemed too focused on getting Lairy to break the all-time high school city scoring record. Except Lairy evidently was not thinking about that.

He only wanted to win.

“I truly believe we lost because he didn’t really care about getting the record and everybody on our team wanted to make sure he got the record,” Burkhart said. “We played terrible that night.”

Lairy broke the record against the Alices, yet Bosse lost in a tight contest. There was no celebrating in the locker room, only disappointment.

“He was mad and the team wasn’t very happy. I was, of course, frustrated because we lost to a team we never should’ve lost to. It was kind of a somber moment,” Burkhart said. “We celebrated the next day, but he never really talked about it and never really made it an emphasis, and that shows the type of character he has.”

Lairy’s record — 2,237 points — still stands, although Tyler Myers of Day School is 188 points away from breaking it. He feels the Evansville area is overlooked in overall recruiting, something he experienced firsthand.

“There’s been a lot of great hoopers, a lot of very talented players that have come through the city, and for me to be at the top of that list, it means a lot,” Lairy said. “It just shows me that all of my hard work is paying off and hopefully we just keep going up from there.”

Burkhart on Lairy’s recruitment: “It was terrible”

Lairy was a four-year varsity player for Burkhart. His scoring prowess speaks for itself. In a normal case, the collegiate offers would be piling up.

But not for Lairy. Burkhart said his height, listed at 5-foot-8, was the major reason Lairy didn’t garner much interest despite Bosse’s success and his performances for Indiana Elite.

“His recruitment was crap. It was terrible,” Burkhart said. “We had absolutely nothing.”

Burkhart and Lairy had to be proactive. Going into Lairy’s junior year, the two sat down and looked at different schools based on how far he wanted to go from home. From there, they went to open shootouts wherever they could.

The offers started coming. Indiana Wesleyan offered Lairy the day he visited. So did Tennessee-Martin. And Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. The RedHawks were next.

“He was amazing at Miami,” Burkhart said.

Playing against New Castle, Lairy “went for like 40,” Burkhart said. When the game finished, Burkhart noticed then-Miami coach Jack Owens waiting in the corner.

“We’re gonna offer him the day of and we’re giving him seven days,” Owens said. “I want this kid right now.”

Miami brought Lairy and his family to campus for a visit to map out his offer and explain everything. Given the seven-day period, Lairy “took two or three” before committing, Burkhart said. Lairy’s feeling that he and others in Southern Indiana were being overlooked was a major role in his success.

“It pushed me, made me work harder. Made our team work harder,” Lairy said. “Without my teammates, my coaches and everyone who’s helped me get to where I am today, I wouldn’t be able to achieve what I achieved in Evansville.”

Later on during his senior year, Bosse faced Lawrence North in Indianapolis. The Bulldogs lost by two points in overtime, but Lairy had a "really good game," Burkhart said. Owens spoke to Burkhart afterward with praise for his new commit.

"I got a steal," he said. "I absolutely got a steal and I'm so glad I did. This kid is a high-major talent."

Lairy’s legacy and decision to return to the RedHawks this season

Lairy’s Bosse jersey was the first retired in school history and hangs in the gymnasium now five years after he graduated.

The 2019 halftime ceremony — held the night before his first college game in town versus the Aces — is something Lairy looks back on fondly. He had family, friends, teammates and coaches in attendance to see the No. 2 jersey get retired.

“It was actually a surreal feeling. Growing up, I never really thought about getting my jersey retired, becoming the city’s all-time leading scorer, I was just playing ball to play ball,” Lairy said. “But to have my friends, my family, my team all around my jersey retirement, it was surreal.”

Burkhart has held firm in the belief that he thinks more students should have their jerseys retired, and he made sure Lairy got that recognition. Lairy’s character on and off the court is the main reason for that, which Burkhart quantified with a single word: “Loyal.”

“I wanted to make sure that when he left, it was something that people talked about on a regular basis,” Burkhart said. “You see a lot of kids nowadays, specifically with his talent, you see a lot of kids enter the transfer portal.”

When Owens was fired this spring after five seasons leading the RedHawks, Lairy could have left. But he decided to stay loyal — “one of his strongest pieces to his puzzle,” Burkhart said. There were several factors in his decision to stay at Miami: The city, the team. One stood above the rest.

“Probably the biggest factor were my kids in Evansville,” he said. “I didn’t want to be too far away. I’ve been here four years, it’s basically home for me, and for them as well. They’re here a lot visiting.

“It was an easy decision to stay.”

Lairy’s three children not only convinced him to stay in Oxford but have helped him grow as a person. Whenever he feels like giving up, he looks to them. They play basketball together, a reminder of how he learned to love the game when he was young.

“He’s a great father,” Burkhart said.

Lairy hopes to continue playing after college, joking that he “may try to get a sixth year” with a slight laugh before brushing off the quip. If professional basketball doesn’t pan out, that’s fine. He has his family and wants to spend as much time as he can with them. That was the driving reason behind staying at Miami, where he is his kids’ favorite player. Sometimes he gets homesick, but his children are his motivation and he wants to continue to be that father figure.

“Everything I do is for my kids,” Lairy said. “Even on my off days, they help me keep my head up, keep pushing and keep working. Without them, I felt like I would have given up a long time ago.”

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville's Mekhi Lairy motivated by family, loyalty for Miami (Ohio)