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BOYS' PREVIEWS: Cougars look to freshmen to help fill in for graduated seniors
North Putnam closed out the 2017-18 season strongly, winning its first two games of the South Putnam Sectional before falling to Cloverdale in the championship game.
The Cougars suffered some pretty severe losses from that 10-16 team to graduation, including leading scorer and rebounder Elliot Gross and versatile guards Treyton Smith and Caleb Duncan.
Leading the returners is 6-7 senior Andrew Pickel, who averaged 12.5 points and 5.0 rebounds last year.
Providing support for Pickel are seniors James Duncan (5.3 ppg, 3.1 rpg), Chris Murray (3.0 ppg) and Evan Davies (1.6 ppg).
“This is probably the oddest combination of returning players and new players I’ve ever had,” North coach Collin McCartt said. “We don’t have a junior in the program, so we have a lot of experience on one hand and the other half has basically zero varsity experience. There is a pretty big gap there to bridge right now, and that’s something we’re still working on.”
Three other seniors are moving up from the junior varsity in Bryce Smith, Brendan Chandler and John Huffman along with sophomore Aaron Huffman.
Looking to supplement the upperclassmen are freshmen Zach Huff and Aaron Pickel, Andrew’s brother, who were key cogs on North Putnam’s eighth-grade championship team last spring.
“Going into last year, we had a pretty idea of who was going to play and who we were going to go to,” McCartt said. “There’s not much question Andrew will be option No. 1 for us, but after that we are going to have to figure out roles, strengths, lineups and those kinds of things. We have a team where two freshmen will contribute, and others who will have to step into bigger roles than they’ve had in the past.
“Any time you have to do that, there’s going to be a pretty big learning curve.”
Pickel has grown about an inch since last season, and McCartt likes the versatility his big man has.
“He’s really long and had a good summer,” McCartt said. “He’s going to have to adjust to being ‘the guy’ and the first guy mentioned on the other team’s scouting report, as well as being a high-volume shooter, is something he has to adjust to as well.”
While Pickel is the team’s tallest player, McCartt says describing him as a post player is about the last term he would use.
“He’s a really skilled shooter, and has done a really good job of learning how to attack the basket better,” McCartt said.
McCartt thought Duncan, Murray and Davies were all solid in supporting roles last year, and thinks they are ready for more responsibility.
“They have to step up and have more of a prominent role,” he said. “Evan Davies has worked on the offensive part of his game, and right now he’s shooting the ball really well from 12 and 13 feet. Chris can attack the basket and do some things, while James will see his role be about the closest this year to what it was last year.”
There is obviously a huge step upwards from middle school to high school, but McCartt is confident his youngsters can make the transition relatively quickly.
Smith was the point guard for all four of McCartt’s years at North Putnam, so Huff inherits a role that hasn’t been open for a while.
“It’s going to be a little bit where this is the first time since I’ve been here that I haven’t had Treyton running the team,” he said. “Zach gets the ball from day one, and he’s going to be really good for us. Aaron Pickel is a guy who can score for us, and he’s the closest thing we have right now to do that.
“We have four other freshmen playing JV, and that’s a class of kids who have played a lot of basketball,” McCartt added. ”They’ve played a lot of travel ball and have a lot of experience.”
McCartt is also hopeful that the school’s much-improved performance in the fall sports will carry over for some of his players to this winter.
Davies evolved from a receiver to quarterback for the 8-4 sectional runnerup football team, while Murray gained more than 1,000 yards and Duncan was also valuable as a receiver and defensive back.
John Huffman and Huff were both members of the school’s county champion cross country team as well.
“Football got to play for a championship, and two of our guys were in the regional cross country meet,” McCartt said. “There are a lot of things, including making the sectional championship last year, that we can build off.”
Even though several key players have graduated, McCartt acknowledges the value that ending last year so strongly has on the program overall.
“You can’t describe how valuable playing in a championship game can be,” he said. “When you have four guys coming back who had significant minutes in a game like that is very valuable. The most prominent role is leadership, how best we motivate each other.”
While McCartt will sorely miss the outstanding play of Gross, he is not alone among his local colleagues in losing vital members of last year’s teams.
Seeing county standouts such as Cloverdale’s Jalen Moore and Greencastle’s Colin York to move on will make room for others to rise to the local elite level.
“South Putnam is by far the most experienced group and has a really good player in Allen Plunkett,” McCartt said. “They have all played a long time and played a lot of games. They’d probably be tops in line to be county favorites.”
In the Western Indiana Conference’s West Division, Sullivan and Northview also lost its best scorer from last year to make it an open affair.
“Greencastle has some good young guards back with Gavin Bollman underneath,” McCartt said. “Northview has some good young players, and Sullivan has some solid pieces coming back. It’s still going to be a solid side of the conference.
“Add Monrovia in the sectional along with Covenant Christian, and it’s also going to be tough.”
For now, McCartt is hard at work not only on figuring our roles but on improving his team’s defense and rebounding.
“We are trying to keep it simple and get better at the basic things we are doing,” he said.
2018-19 roster
| Player | Yr. |
| Andrew Pickel | Sr. |
| James Duncan | Sr. |
| Chris Murray | Sr. |
| Evan Davies | Sr. |
| Bryce Smith | Sr. |
| Brendan Chandler | Sr. |
| John Huffman | Sr. |
| Aaron Huffman | So. |
| Zach Huff | Fr. |
| Aaron Pickel | Fr. |
Coach: Collin McCartt
2017-18 results (10-16)
at Southmont, L 62-55
at South Putnam, W 47-41
Covenant Christian, W 73-68
at Sullivan, L 83-42
at Northview, L 63-39
Riverton Parke, L 63-61 (OT)
at Cascade, L 53-49
Indian Creek, L 59-46
Southwestern (Shelby), L 65-55
Bethesda Christian, W 50-49
West Vigo, W 57-47
at North Vermillion, W 53-44
Monrovia, L 57-44
Greencastle, L 62-55
Cloverdale, L 77-67
Cascade, L 57-44
at South Vermillion, L 71-63
Turkey Run, W 69-38
Cloverdale, L 51-43
South Putnam, L 57-56
North Montgomery, L 72-67
Covington, L 64-56
Eminence, W 63-51
Sectional
Cascade, W 55-53
Covenant Christian, W 55-42
Cloverdale, L 63-38
2018-19 schedule
(Game times 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise)
Nov. 21 — Southmont
Nov. 30 — South Putnam
Dec. 5 — at Covenant Christian
Dec. 7 — Sullivan
Dec. 8 — at Parke Heritage
Dec. 14 — Northview
Dec. 15 — Riverton Parke
Dec. 21 — Cascade
Dec. 28 — Southwestern (Shelby) in Monrovia tourney, 1:30 p.m.
Jan. 4 — at West Vigo
Jan. 5 — North Vermillion
Jan. 11 — at Greencastle
Jan. 12 — at Monrovia
Jan. 17 — at Cloverdale
Jan. 25 — at WIC crossover
Jan. 26 — South Vermillion
Feb. 7 — vs. Cloverdale in county tourney at Greencastle, 6 p.m.
Feb. 12 — at North Montgomery
Feb. 15 — at Covington
Feb. 22 — Eminence