Does anyone out there have experience with the new Canon 885mm f1.2 lens. I was considering it for shooting high school basketball in poorly lit high gyms. What are your thoughts?

Not sure how it work, the 50mm 1.8 doesn't do too well but it is probably due to the slow AF which the 85mm may or may not have as well. I'd actually suggest the 35-135 or similar with flash as 85 will be too long in some cases, but it depends on where you are.
I use the canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS USM but it has superfast AF and IS which helps, even in low light gyms.

JS

I use the 70-200 f2.8 also but sometimes the pictures are dark or grainy or both so I was looking for an alternative.

If your pictures are coming out dark and grainy, it's due to the camera's metering, not your lens.

Well I don't think the new 85 1.2 is shipping yet, and I haven't seen any in depth reviews yet either. I can say that the 85 1.8 works very well in dark gyms, and at around $350, gives you a lot of bang for the buck. The AF isn't ultra fast in the gym, but certainly fast enough at least for me.

As far as dark and grainy photos, the grainy part is unavoidable, but with my 20D I can crank the ISO up to 3200 and have gotten some decently exposed shots with a 70-200 f4 at 1/200. I don't think the noise is all that bad, especially when downsized for the web or even printed at full resolution.

The new lens isn't available yet. It was only shown for the first time today at PMA. I'm not so sure it would be a great lens for indoor sports, though. If you shoot with it wide open you'll have no depth-of-field. So you'll end up with soft photos because of focus issues. It sounds to me like you either need to shoot at a higher ISO, with a flash, or both.

I did get to try the new lens tonight. It's very, very bright and I like it. But it's also very large and I wouln't use it for unpredictable sports like basketball. Then again, I don't shoot basketball, so maybe I'm wrong?