2025-2026 Chesterton boys basketball preseason preview: Talented, experienced depth and balance project to Trojans returning to elite status after a two-year hiatus

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

After a two-year detour, the Chesterton boys basketball team appears primed to return to elite status in the DAC and the Northwest region of hoops-crazed Indiana this season.
The top six players in the rotation return and know each other well by now, having spent the entire offseason together, making individual gains and developing team chemistry.
The balanced 10-man roster features not only a natural eight-man rotation, but an abundance of 3-point shooters, size and versatility.
The Trojans finished last season with a starting five of point guard Tobias Ray, wings Logan Pokorney and Jaylon Watts, and post players Caden Schneider and Bradly Basila. Malachi Ransom returns as the sixth man. Shooting star Cooper Huwig and post player Gunner Ello round out the anticipated eight-man rotation. Urban will be comfortable playing Tommy Kostbade, an athletic big man with a high ceiling, and swing man Ethan Virgil when he needs to go beyond eight players.
Pokorney, a third-year starter, was an All-DAC selection as a junior.
Senior Rob Czarniecki, a part-time starter the past two seasons and a big-time baseball prospect, is not out for the basketball team this season so as not to risk injury and to work on polishing his baseball skills, which amounts to the biggest loss for the Trojans. Reserves Anthony Gonzalez and Robert Williams are the only players lost to graduation.
Tenth-year head coach Marc Urban said he talked with Czarniecki for “about an hour” about his decision and knowing how much Czarniecki has at stake financially to stay healthy, he did not try to talk him out of it.
“I’m going to shoot myself in the foot when in January or at some point we’re really missing him from a toughness standpoint, but it's probably the right decision for him and his family and his future. So, it's good,” Urban said.
Urban has a 175-56 record for the Trojans, placing him eighth in the state in winning percentage (.758) among active Indiana boys basketball coaches.
“We’re always trying to fight to put ourselves in position to win championships,” Urban said. “That’s what we’re always trying to do.”
In a wildly successful two-year run (2021-22 and 2022-23) in Urban’s sixth and seventh seasons, the Trojans went 49-7, won two DAC titles, a regional and a semi-state, and went 17-0 against DAC schools. In the following two years, Chesterton went 31-19 without a title and had an 8-10 record vs. DAC foes.
Two years ago, the team never figured out how to make the whole as strong as the sum of its parts. Last season, the Trojans didn’t have the benefit of having played together and had to figure out how to mesh on the fly. This season, the depth of experienced talent is impressive, the roster stable.
Ransom, a move-in from Chicago, didn’t join the program until the first day of school. Basila, a move-in from the Democratic Republic of Congo, made his debut Jan. 31 and played just nine games.
Both players and the other eight players on the roster have been together throughout spring and fall workouts and more than 20 summer games.
“Everyone has played varsity basketball,” Urban said. “They’ve experienced sitting in the locker room after a loss. They’ve gone through a full season together. I really like the 10 guys we have right now.”
Urban predicted that deep and extremely experienced Crown Point , featuring Division I recruits Dikembe Shaw (UIC) and Mason Darrell (Bellarmine), will appear at No. 1 when the state preseason 4A preseason poll is released.
“There is that first group of eight to 10 teams who are right there, and then we’ll probably be at the back end of the second group that’s trying to break into that first group,” Urban said of where the Trojans might rank in the poll.
Everyone from Urban’s coaching staff is back from last season. Tim Ray and Adam White assist him on the varsity, Drew Boetel is the JV coach, and Jake Warren and Nathan Nix coach the freshman teams.
A look at the 10 varsity boys basketball players, listed in alphabetical order, with comments from the head coach:
Bradly Basila 6-7, so. Key stats: 7.2 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 0 dunks.
The first time Basila stepped on a scale in Chesterton in January, he weighed 164. Now he’s a muscular 190. His understanding of the English language and Urban’s basketball system have expanded even more than his body.
“I think his ability to speak English and understand English has really helped,” Urban said. “You go back to watching film with him and Google translating to where now he understands exactly what we're doing.”
Basila’s friendly, upbeat personality and outrageous work ethic helped his transition to American culture and basketball, and he performed remarkably well in his nine-game freshman season, considering that he arrived speaking French and unable to hold a conversation without the help of Google translator.
Anyone who saw him play this past summer would be shocked to learn that his next dunk in a game for the Trojans will be his first.
Basila’s quickness, length and motor enabled him to compete last season, and him adding strength and explosiveness in the weight room should translate to making him a beast on the boards and on defense.
Plus, Urban said, he is shooting better.
“The baseline of his shot was good, but we've really worked on getting it more consistent and getting the mechanics right,” Urban said. “He's worked extremely hard to get those mechanics right. And he's shooting it really well. I think that's the one thing that people don't realize is how skilled he really is, and he’s continuing to get better with it. And he’s learning to make plays out of our system. Defensively, he’s come a long way. Because he plays so hard he has to continue to work on processing, like, ‘OK, here comes a ball screen. What coverage am I going to be in?’ and then executing it perfectly, which just takes time. He keeps making jumps and he’s a fun kid to coach because he’s so nice.”
So nice that Urban has to remind himself to coach him hard to maximize his potential.
“With all of our guys we have to make sure that we don't fall in love with their talent and just keep pushing them, pushing them, pushing them until you're done coaching them, then you go cheer them on for the rest of your life,” Urban said. “He has abilities that some people just don’t have. He’s quick. He can handle the ball. He can bust off the rim and go. He gets so excited sometimes and sometimes you just have to take a breath and pass it and just just let the next thing come to you. But he's been great. He's been great.”
Gunner Ello 6-5 jr. Key stat: Made 11 of 15 field goal attempts.
Ask anyone involved with Chesterton basketball to name the players who improved the most in the offseason and Ello’s name inevitably is among the first mentioned. He’s bigger, stronger and playing with more confidence. His strength and ability to use his big body offers a nice complement to the other three post players.
A true post player, Ello knows how to use his 240 pounds to establish position posting up and rebounding.
“He rebounds balls that are outside his area and he is probably our best guy with his back to the basket,” Urban said. “If he gets an angle on you, he can bully you, but he also has a really good feel to spin off you to get to the other side. He’s not going to dunk over the top of you but he’s quick enough to beat you in a small space and get an angle, and he’s been finishing really, really well.”
Ello is in line for a substantial jump in playing time as the first big man off the bench.
“He’s going to be a huge, huge piece to what we’re doing,” Urban said.
Cooper Huwig 6-3 so. Key stat: .391 3-point pct., 6 of 6 free throws.
Huwig’s lefty 3-point stroke is a thing of beauty. So pure. So feathery. So efficient.
Hiw sore knees kept him from logging as many varsity minutes than he otherwise would have, but that problem is behind him and a big role is ahead of him.
“If he's open, all the guys feel really comfortable when Cooper's shooting the basketball,” Urban said. “But he also is a very good passer. He's very smart, understands how to play the game, and is going to continue to let it come to him.”
Huwig was the star of the JV team, and Urban wants to see that version of him in varsity games this season.
“Last year when he was with the JV, confident,” Urban said. “But then he would come with us and it was like, ‘I have to go into my shell and play my role, which was OK, but we need that confident Cooper, where he’s very vocal on both ends of the floor. He really brings a vocal energy to us as well in practice and that's been really good.”
The coach praised what a good job Huwig has done adding strength to his long frame through work in the weight room and said his weight is up to 192.
Tommy Kostbade 6-6 so. Key stats: 0.9 ppg, 0.7 rpg in nine varsity games: An elite swimmer in younger days, Kostbade switched to basketball in seventh grade and just might lead the team in untapped potential. Teammates rave about his wild dunks and he also has a soft shooting touch from beyond the 3-point arc. Likely to get the majority of minutes at the JV level again, unless as some young big men do he makes a huge leap at some point in the season.
“He can absolutely fly,” Urban said. “He’s extremely athletic. We’re still trying to get him to play more athletically because you throw him a lob and he’ll windmill dunk it, and it’s like, ‘Oh, my!’ But then when he plays, he needs to find a way to play with more athleticism. We’re talking with him about times where he would be able to do it. He’s a guy who’s trying to do exactly what I’m asking him to do, like to a T, and then we’ll get frustrated when he doesn’t do it right, but he’s not disappointing me. It’s more like I want him to be able to instinctually feel it, and then pick those times to be more athletic, but he’s been shooting really well.”
Urban said he feels “100% confident” putting him in varsity games, but since he doesn’t project to playing big minutes, wants him to play a few quarters of the JV game. Players are allowed to play a combined five quarters in JV and varsity games.
That also serves his development better because it allows him to gain experience as a go-to guy, as opposed to the complementary role he plays for the varsity.
Logan Pokorney 6-4 sr. Key stats: 15.5 ppg, .641 2-pt. pct., .396 3-pt. pct., .840 FT pct. A four-year varsity player, Pokorney accepted a basketball scholarship offer from Taylor University of the Crossroads League, so any fears that he might fall into the trap that some seniors do by auditioning for college coaches is not an issue with him.
“I feel that it’s really taken a huge weight off his shoulders,” Urban said of Pokorney committing. “He’s not playing with stress, and this game’s hard when you play with stress. You want to be able to play free and confident. He’s been really, really good.”
Strong, quick, a fundamentally sound defender and a killer shooter, Pokorney also is underrated in terms of explosiveness.
“He’s an athletic kid and that hasn’t always jumped off the page,” Urban said. “I’ve wanted him to be more aggressive, to play with an edge. And I think he's finally broken through with that a little bit. He is starting to get that the best version of him is when he is competing and being relentless. He’s been really, really good.”
Stealing the ball and taking it all the way for a loud dunk might be something fans will see more of this season from the team’s most polished player.
If Pokorney can become relentlessly aggressive without sacrificing any of his efficiency, he has a realistic shot at becoming the program’s sixth Indiana All-Star.
Malachi Ransom 6-0 jr. Key stats: 6.2 ppg, .761 FT pct., .529 2-point pct.
The quickest player on the team, Ransom played freshman basketball at Simeon High in Chicago and said he had never played in a structured system until coming to Chesterton. Ransom’s quick first step enabled him to blow by defenders and get to the rim.
Urban said the lefty has added 20 pounds of muscle and has come a long way playing within a system.
“He’s always been a great kid, a really nice kid, like super nice, but he’s feeling really comfortable now with who he is within the team, which is good,” Urban said. “The one thing last year that we talked about is just being consistent every single day in everything that we do. There would be days he’d be really good and there’d be days that he struggled. So, he's really trying to be focused on being consistent, and he's done that. He’s making good reads. He’s understanding when to pick his spots because his quickness is elite, where he can beat you off the dribble and doesn't need an angle to get created form. He can break you down on his own. Now, when he breaks you down on his own, he's making really good decisions, where it's ‘OK, I take my shot, I'm kicking for a 3, I'm dumping off, or I'm just moving it.’”
Ransom’s quickness gives him the potential to help the Trojans accomplish one of Urban’s chief goals for this year’s team: force more turnovers to get more easy buckets in transition.
Ransom backs up Ray and plays alongside him.
Tobias Ray 6-0 jr. Key stats: 7.4 ppg, 4 apg, .375 3-pt pct.
A third-year starter, Ray is coming an offseason during which he made great strides as a facilitator and as a more versatile scorer than just a 3-point marksman.
“When you look back at what TJ looked like as a freshman and who he was playing with, he was able to hide in a way because he had some good guys around him, so he was able to use his strengths and shoot the basketball,” Urban said. “Last year, it was a new role that kind of hit him in the face, and I thought toward the end of the year that he got much better, but he's made a really, really big jump here this year, just his maturity level, his body, his quickness. He's actually changed some things mechanically with his shot, which I think it's going to be really good for him as he progresses through basketball career.”
Urban said that in the “nine or 10” summer games for which statistics were kept, Ray averaged about 6.5 assists per game.
“His vision’s been really good,” Urban said. “I thought this summer that he actually passed up some opportunities that he had to score. What we always talk about with him is making the right decision because if you’re open, you’ve got to take the shot.”
Armed with deep shooting range and a Charmin-soft touch, Ray wants to play college basketball, and according to Urban, has channeled the feedback he has received from college coaches in a way that will benefit the Trojans.
“They said he has to stand out with relentlessness and how hard he has to play to be able to play at the next level,” Urban said. “I think he's embraced that feedback the right way and I feel he's been playing really hard and has been a lot more active with his hands. We're going to need a lot out of him this year, but I feel he's playing pretty confidently right now. And I think he has a really good understanding of what we're trying to do scheme-wise on both ends of the floor.”
Urban is encouraged at the progress Ray has made as a vocal leader as well.
Caden Schneider 6-8 sr. Key stats: 4.7 ppg, 3.4 rpg.
Schneider’s skill set makes him suited to play on the high post.
“Caden's ability to pass within what we do and have a feel for what we do really brings a lot of value to us,” Urban said. “He has a very good instincts on when to throw back doors, when to throw wraps.”
Urban explained how Schneider can do even more for his low-post teammates by making defenders respect his 3-point shooting ability: “If you can’t shoot, I can just back off and sag, and sit at 14 feet, where if you can shoot, it stretches the floor. Now the defender has to choose: Are you going to double the post or are you going to stay home?”
Schneider will need to shoot better than as a junior, when he shot .296 from 3, to make defenses guard him on the perimeter, and Urban is confident he will shoot much better than that.
“I think Caden’s more confident in himself in every way,” Urban said. “He's had a presence about him this fall, which we need. We need him to be confident. And his best offensive skill outside of passing is being able to step out and hit 3s.”
Ethan Virgil 6-2 jr. Key stat: Saw limited action in two games and did not compile any statistics.
As with Kostbade though at a different position, Virgil will continue to develop his game with some JV minutes while playing a valuable bench role for the varsity.
“He’s athletic, he can shoot it and he has a good feel of how we do things,” Urban said. “When Logan and Jaylon go, there’s a big role that he has to fill, and it makes no sense for him to just sit there and not play. He had some really good moments in the summer, and at times you feel like he’s right there, so that makes us feel good playing all 10 guys. It’s just impossible in a 32-minute game for all 10 guys to play a lot of minutes.”
Jaylon Watts 6-2 sr. Key stats: 10.7 ppg, 4.1 rpg.
Second on the team in scoring and rebounding for the Trojans as a junior, Watts has made positive contributions in all areas of the game since becoming a rotation player early in his sophomore season. A hard driver and good finisher, Watts made 55% of 2-pointers and shot .388 from 3 last season.
He ensures that the team plays at a fast pace by taking the ball off the rim and pushing it. On the intangible front, his energy-generating personality makes it difficult for anyone to be in a bad mood in his presence.
“We're lucky as coaches right now to have really good kids,” Urban said. “Like Jaylon, he's so fun to be around, just a super nice kid. I'm hoping we can find a place for him to play college basketball because he’s fully capable of it.”
Recent improvements made at the defensive end can only help Watts’ chances of finding a college uniform.
“Defensively, he's been starting to be more in charge of the guy he's going against instead of reacting and being behind in some ways,” Urban said. “I think his body, he's stronger, put on some weight, and is a little bit quicker. I feel that he has become a lot better defender this fall. Even in the summer, he struggled, but this fall he’s made a jump. He is quick, he is athletic, he is strong, so he just has to keep fighting to be a good defender because I think that we could put a pretty good defensive team on the floor. The last couple of years, I don't think we got enough transition buckets at all. Some of that is we weren't a great rebounding team, but we also didn't get a lot of steals. We have to find ways to turn people over more so we can get more easy buckets.”