Culver boys basketball preview: ‘Be a team that teams hate to play against:’ McCuen twins expected to lead Cavs as Evans returns for 2nd stint

Val T.
1 minute ago
5 min read

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Once again, Kyle Evans is the boys basketball coach at Culver.

Evans coached Culver from 2020-24, but he stepped down to take an assistant coaching position on Aaron Butcher’s staff at Marian University Ancilla.

Evans remained on the faculty at Culver all along as a physical education teacher, driving to campus after the school day at Culver.

Administration turnover at Marian Ancilla led to coaching turnover there, and Evans applied for his old job back after Drew Mosson stepped down after Culver went 2-21 last season.

“The experience there was great,” Evans said. “I worked with some really good coaches – Aaron Butcher, Joel Grindle. They were good guys to be around, good guys to learn from. … Just coaching at that level was exciting for me as a coach, just to see that sort of athleticism and ability. We had kids ranging from NAIA to D2 (NCAA Division II) to some D1 looks.

“Honestly, the thing that led most to coming back was I really just didn’t feel part of this the way I wanted to anymore. I missed that. I had really good relationships with the guys. So when that opened up, it was something I wanted to get back to. Those relationships were already established, so I wanted to make sure we got it going in the right direction again.”

Evans’ roster has its top seven scorers back, and he got hired in time that he got to spend the entire month of June together with the players. The issue is that Culver only averaged 26.7 points per game last year, and they scored 40 or more points in a game only five times.

Evans has changed the Cavaliers’ offensive style. He knows that it might not be smooth at first.

“Our guys already have a better fit for it, I would say,” Evans said. “There are still little things to clean up. You could use the word undisciplined passes or decision making. But really truly, that’s just lack of experience in what we’re doing. I think with understanding reads and the right passes and how to make those passes, the decision making will come, and that will lead to more disciplined play and fundamental play if you want to say.”

Evans also has to re-establish a culture. Culver won one game the year before he arrived in 2019-20; they won at least seven games in all four of his seasons before last year’s downturn.

“Obviously, our standard and expectation is to compete in every basketball game,” Evans said. “But that’s easier said than done, especially with the talent we have in our conference. We just want to play hard, play with integrity, be accountable, be a team that teams hate to play against just because of our style of play and how hard we play, not because we act like hooligans or anything like that. And that’s all about culture. We want to set a standard and expectation that it’s unacceptable not to compete. It’s unacceptable to not play with energy and not play with effort, not to defend hard, not to rebound – all those sort of things that go into the game that makes you competitive. So far kids have done that. It will be interesting to see when adversity hits.”

The team’s seniors are twin brothers Jonas and Caleb McCuen and Skyler Greer. Jonas was the second-leading scorer at 6.7 ppg, and Caleb, who is three inches taller than Jonas, averaged 4.9 ppg. Evans calls Jonas McCuen and sophomore Braylon Jackson the team’s point guards.

“It’s really nice actually,” Evans said. “Usually, I haven’t been able to take my point guards off the floor. But when Jonas needs a break, Braylon is just as solid at the point guard spot and brings a different element to the point guard spot.”

Drake Zorich and Jordan Green are the two juniors, and Jackson, John Carr and Kolton Howard are sophomores who all got experience as freshmen.

Evans compliments Jonas McCuen on his poise but added “he’s going to have to be a double digit scorer for us.”

Jackson is also going to have to both look to score and set up his teammates.

But Evans added that Caleb McCuen excelled at playmaking for others in the team’s scrimmage against South Bend Career Academy Thursday and that he led the team in assists. He is a “utility guy” that Evans said will be used in dribble handoffs and pick-and-rolls.

“He’s been pretty much dominant in practice,” Evans said of Caleb McCuen.

Evans called Greer “an unbelievable teammate” and a “great energy giver.”

Zorich is a “tenacious rebounder,” according to Evans.

“He is completely undersized for his position, and on the defensive end, he’ll play the center spot of our defense,” Evans said. “He has to play a lot bigger than he is. Physically, he’s one of the strongest kids in our school, and he looks it. That’s pretty much his role. He’s got to board. He’s got to guard.”

Green developed into “our best perimeter shooter” over the summer, according to Evans.

Carr can make plays “off the bounce” and will have the job of pressuring ballhandlers defensively, according to Evans.

Evans likes the potential of Howard, a 6-1 forward.

“The ceiling for him is extremely high, and I don’t even think he’s come close to surfacing that yet,” Evans said.

Evans appreciates that almost the entire team played a fall sport.

“We had double digit kids all summer long,” Evans said. “We hadn’t had this good of attendance over the summer in the six years I’ve been here, so it was really encouraging. And then in the fall – and this is really cool actually because I don’t think many schools can say this – but we had 16 players and 15 of them were in a fall sport and 14 of them were in football, so I didn’t want to mess with them during their fall sport obviously. So we didn’t really do much as far as fall workouts other than just coming in on Friday mornings and getting shots up on the gun.”

Culver boys basketball schedule

Nov. 26 – vs. Rochester, 7 p.m.

Dec. 2 – at West Central, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 5 – vs. Lakeland Christian, 8 p.m.

Dec. 13 – at Elkhart Christian, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 16 – vs. Winamac, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 19 – vs. North Miami, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 20 – vs. Trinity Greenlawn, noon

Dec. 23 – at Knox, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 6 – at South Central (Union Mills), 8 p.m.

Jan. 9 – at Caston, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 10 – vs. Frontier, 7:30 p.m.