Culver boys basketball preview: New coach Mosson bringing man defense to Cavs

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

CULVER — Jack Rodgers averaged 20.3 points per game last year and led the Culver boys basketball team in rebounding and assists too. He graduated.

The second leading scorer chose not to play this year.

The third leading scorer was Adria Guasp, and he returned to Spain after a year here as a foreign exchange student.

But replacing the 45 points per game that left is only part of the job that first-year coach Drew Mosson has on his to-do list.

He also is teaching man-to-man defense to his new players. Man-to-man might be the Mosson family defense – Drew’s father Gordon was a proponent of the defense during his time as head coach at John Glenn and Argos – but Drew Mosson said nobody on the roster has played man-to-man at any point in their basketball careers.

Mosson’s predecessor Kyle Evans, who is now an assistant coach at Marian University Ancilla, coached a frenzied zone defense that pestered teams up and down the court.

The concepts and rules in Mosson’s defense might be unique to those who think that playing man-to-man is as simple as standing between your opponent and the basket.

“Nobody in the program has played man defense really ever in their basketball careers,” Mosson said. “There’s a learning curve there because man-to-man is a lot different. You’re worrying about one guy and the ball and the basket all at the same time. But they’ve done a really good job. … In our defensive drill principle breakdowns, they’re doing a good job of trying to do things the way we want to do it. It’s just going to take us some time to get them to where a Mosson defensive philosophy would feel that we’re in the right place. Anytime you talk about Mossons and defense, we’re probably never pleased with our defense just because we’re perfectionists on the defensive end.”

The only senior on the roster who received considerable varsity experience is 6-0 forward Logan Caudill. He is the second leading returning scorer and the leading returning rebounder.

“Logan, his role is going to take a big step forward,” Mosson said. “That’s what we’re hoping. With the way we’re going to play offensively, we’re a program that’s going to run a lot of set plays. We’re going to set a lot of screens for our shooters, but we also try to get the ball inside a lot. Logan’s a big, strong kid. He’s really patient when he gets the ball inside, so we’re looking for him to take a bigger role scoring. He’s always been a good rebounder and good defender just with his size, but we’re looking for him to take another step forward and maybe put the ball through the basket a little bit more than he has in the past.”

The other seniors are 5-6 guards Adam Peterson and Tony Sommers. Peterson reclassified and will graduate in the spring, and Mosson said he “works his tail off.” Sommers is playing for the first time since he was a freshman.

“Freak athlete,” Mosson said of Sommers. “If you watched him in football, if he got a hole, he was probably getting 10 to 15 yards every time he carried it. Again, he’s working really hard. For being behind everybody else, he’s trying to catch himself up. He’s going to be a really good defender. Hopefully, we can get him in there to face-guard players here and there just with his pure athleticism.”

The leading returning scorer is 5-11 junior point guard Jonas McCuen. The third leading returning scorer is his 6-2 twin brother Caleb McCuen.

The McCuen twins are the only juniors in the program. Caleb McCuen is the team’s tallest player.

“Being a quarterback on the football field, that kind of translates to being a point guard pretty easily, I think,” Mosson said of Jonas McCuen. “We’re looking for him to be an extension of myself on the floor.”

Asked if Caleb McCuen is more of a wing or a post, Mosson said “a little bit of both” and added that Caleb might be the team’s best outside shooter.

Sophomores on the varsity are Jordan Green and Eli Woodward, both of whom played JV last year. Mosson said Green’s role will be to set screens, rebound and play defense. Woodward is a “really good shooter,” according to Mosson.

But the more intriguing newcomers might be freshmen Braylon Jackson and John Carr, both of whom are listed at 5-10.

Jackson will be varsity only.

“His basketball IQ’s probably higher than what a freshman normally would be,” Mosson said of Jackson. “So he might take some of the ballhandling duties away from Jonas at times once he starts learning how to play varsity basketball just so we can get Jonas coming off screens a little bit. Again, a really good athlete and a really smart player. It’s going to be fun to have him for four years.”

Carr is known for his strength and dedication to the weight room, according to Mosson.

“He’s deceptively quick,” Mosson said. “He gets to the basket when you don’t think he can. But again, he just needs to work on his defense and his basketball IQ and all that stuff. Again as a freshman, it’s fun for him to be around for another four years.”

Scoring is both a mindset and a skill for players, and Mosson has talked with players whom he would like to adopt that mindset.

“Obviously, Jack was a really good scorer, and I think that’s something that as coaches you have to have a conversation with the guys that you think are going to score for you,” Mosson said. “So we’ve had those conversations with a couple guys. Like hey, ‘You just need to look to score when you’re catching the ball. If we’re going to be successful, you’re going to have to score points for us.’ That’s kind of how I’ve always approached it. When we were at Argos, that’s how we approached it there as well. I think to combat that a little bit, I think sometimes kids just know, ‘Hey, it's my time now. I need to score more because the guys that were older than me, they’re gone now. They graduated, so now it’s my time to shine, so to speak.’ That’s how I’ve always gone about it.”

Gordon Mosson will be the varsity assistant. Owen Valiquet, a 2020 Culver grad, will be the JV coach. Dylan Kindig, a 2022 Argos grad who played for Gordon Mosson for three years in high school, will be a varsity assistant.

Culver added Elkhart Christian and Frontier to their schedule and kept Knox as a nonconference game. They dropped Community Baptist, Granger Christian and LaVille. Hoosier North newcomers Argos, North Miami and Oregon-Davis were already on the schedule.

Culver boys basketball schedule

Nov. 27 – at Rochester, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 3 – vs. West Central, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 6 – at Lakeland Christian, 8 p.m.

Dec. 14 – vs. Elkhart Christian, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 17 – at Winamac, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 20 – at North Miami, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 21 – at Trinity Greenlawn, 7 p.m.

Jan. 7 – vs. South Central (Union Mills), 8 p.m.

Jan. 10 – vs. Caston, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 11 – at Frontier, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 17 – at Triton, 7:30 p.m.