Georgia Southern women's basketball forward Indya Green is enjoying a tremendous senior season for the Eagles, averaging 12.2 points per game through Wednesday and averaging an even better 17.5 points per game in Sun Belt play.
What's more intriguing about Indya's journey to Statesboro is that, for the first time in the Springfield, Missouri, native's athletic career, she is on just that - a journey. This year is the first year in which she has not played in her home state, but thanks to a unique shared history with head coach Hana Haden and the support of her family, she is thriving for the Eagles in 2024-25.
Indya's beginnings in basketball started at a very early age, trying to follow in the footsteps of her older sister, Azyah. "She started playing when she whe was around six or seven," Green says. "I was four or five, and I wasn't old enough to play yet, but I was always trying to run on the court to play with her. My parents would have to snatch me back off the court and tell me, 'It's not your turn yet, you have to wait!' So right then and there, they knew I was going to play basketball, and I've been playing ever since."
Her sister Azyah would not continue with basketball, instead focusing on volleyball, where she was a five-year standout at Missouri State, earning All-MVC honors as a senior in 2023 and recording 592 career blocks for the Bears.
Indya would play a variety of sports during her youth - and even today. "I played a whole bunch. I played softball for a while, and I played tennis in high school. I played soccer, and over this past summer I really got into pickleball."
As a high school standout at Kickapoo HS in Springfield, Indya did not have a shortage of coaches who wanted her to continue her basketball playing career in college. One of them was Moberly Area Community College head coach Hana Haden, who played for three years at Kickapoo HS.
"I found that out in my senior year in high school," Green says. "She was trying to contact me and she went through my head coach. He said 'there's this coach at JuCo, and she used to play here. She wants to talk to you.' At first, I was like I really don't want to go to JuCo, that's not for me, so I kinda blew her off. But I finally gave her a chance to meet and right after I left that meeting, I turned around to my parents and said 'okay, I want to go there.'
"She gave us this presentation, and what she was saying - her vision - that aligned with what I wanted, so that was telling me that I need to go there, right now," Green says.
After a standout season with Coach Haden at Moberly in which Indya averaged 18.9 points and 11.4 rebounds per game, earning WBCA and NJCAA All-America honors, she took that next step to Division I basketball and signed to play with Missouri State, the school her sister was currently playing volleyball at and also the school in her hometown of Springfield.
Playing so close to home, only a 10 minute drive from home, for the Bears "was a lot of fun, because my family could come to the games, and just the whole environment," Green says. "I could go home any time I wanted to, get a home-cooked meal. I didn't have to worry about too much. My dad would come and fill my gas up and buy me groceries, so that was nice."
Indya played two seasons for the Bears, averaging 7.8 points and earning MVC Newcomer of the Week honors as a sophomore in 2022-23, then averaged 10.2 points and 6.8 rebounds per game as a junior in 2023-24, earning MVC All-Tournament Team honors. Playing so near home and succeeding was satisfying, but Indya started contemplating life after basketball, which then led her to Georgia Southern and her old coach, Hana Haden.
"It got to the point where, basketball was important to me, but after college I knew that I didn't want to play anymore, so I was looking for something that aligned more with me professionally," Green said about the decision to come to Georgia Southern. "When Coach Hana got the job here, she used all the connections Georgia Southern has as a selling point for me, for what I want to do. After talking to a bunch of people, I felt like this school could help me further along my career. Ever since I've been here, I've participated in SAAC, and the We Lead program. I felt like this was a really good decision for me."
Not lost on Indya was the fact that, at age 22 and on the cusp of graduating from college, for the first time in her life she was on her own. "Far away from home, having to actually be on my own for once and not having to rely on my parents!" Indya says.
So what does the future hold for Indya? The Spring semester has presented itself with a lot of opportunities for researching different professions, especially through Georgia Southern's APEX program. "I've been giving it a lot of thought recently," Green says. "I've been leaning towards pharmaceutical sales. At first I wanted to do social media and trying that out, but pharmaceutical sales is what I'm leaning towards right now."
As a collegiate basketball player who has scored more than 1,400 points in her career, Indya has been very successful on the court and no doubt she will also be successful in her life after basketball.
