A productive summer of improvement: Chesterton High School boys basketball team went 16-5 in summer league games against a tough schedule

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Senior Jaylon Watts executed a blink-and-you-missed-it dribble move in the lane to free himself for a bucket.
To sophomore Cooper Huwig the diameter of the hoop could have been 18 feet instead of 18 inches and he couldn’t have been much more accurate from 20 feet.
Junior Tobias Ray’s long-range shots fell as softly as ever, but it was his passing that turned heads.
Sophomore Bradly Basila slowed down and let his athleticism bubble to the surface, looking like more of a shot-blocking menace than in his half-season debut.
Junior sixth man Malachi Ransom showed a better feel for when to floor it and when to pump the brakes, instead of always keeping the pedal to the metal.
Individual improvement popped from all over the floor on the final night of the Chesterton summer league when the Trojans scored victories vs. South Bend Adams and Kouts, but those developments weren’t what put 10th-year coach Marc Urban in an upbeat mood talking about what was accomplished during the game-playing mode of the summer.
The Trojans went 16-5 in summer games, including 3-1 at the prestigious Charlie Hughes Tournament. The way they accomplished the record, by playing together unusually well for this point in the calendar, made the coach the happiest.
“I felt system-wise that we found out some things offensively that fit the personnel that we have, and we found some rules that tie everything together,” Urban said. “When the top 20 polls come out, out of the 21 games I bet there are at least six teams that will be in that top 20. You want to play good competition. And the other piece that’s been good is we really got connected and that connection is a big piece to the magic that you’re trying to create.”
When the summer schedule started, Urban was coaching the Indiana All-Stars and varsity assistants Tim Ray and Adam White and JV coach Drew Boetel took over the program for a trip to Indiana University. The Trojans also played at Bethel, Purdue and Indianapolis for the Charlie Hughes tourney.
“I think there are a lot of things that kids got better at,” Urban said. “After the season, we met as a team and as individuals and I think a lot of guys took steps in the right direction and now we need to reevaluate and figure out how to make that step.”
Urban used the strides Ray has made as a point guard to illustrate how productive summers are key to successful winters.
“His ability to make the right reads to get the guys the ball on time, on target, I think from the beginning of the summer to the end of the summer he’s getting the ball out of his hands a lot quicker, and I think that’s been big for him but for us as well,” Urban said. “That’s where our rules go into play, where he understands the read, and he’s done a good job of working on his body and that’s contributed to some of his success too because he’s finishing around the rim well. He’s taken a big, big jump here in the spring and summer and we have to keep finding the next jump.”
A great shooter can be a point guard’s best friend and in senior Logan Pokorney and Huwig, Chesterton has a pair of those, as well as Ray. Huwig was plagued by sore knees playing mostly for the JV a year ago and is playing pain-free now.
His coach stresses that Huwig is more than a shooter armed with such a soft, lethal lefty touch.
“Coop. You always feel good when he’s shooting it,” Urban said. “He’s got a good stroke, but he’s also a real smart, high-IQ guy, sees the floor really well and does a good job of making other guys better. He’s a big, big piece to what we’re doing. It’s always good to bring in real weapons off the bench.”
Of all the encouraging signs from the final night of the summer league, the one most discussed by spectators on their way to the parking lot likely was Huwig’s shooting. He was that hot.
That won’t curb his hunger to improve his shooting, which will be one of the areas Chesterton players will work on when they get back to working out on July 7, after the end of the moratorium week. During that dead period, there is no contact with student-athletes, including phone, text, email and team messaging apps.
Once that ends, “lot of skill work,” Urban said.