Monday, March 19, 2007 11:26 PM CDT
Downs basketball stature not so diminutive
By RICK DAWSON Staff Writer
rdawson@jg-tc.com
ARCOLA -n So how tall is Kyle Downs, really?
According to Arcola’s preseason basketball roster he stands 5 feet, 9 inches, the same height as Albert Einstein, Jimmy Carter or Robert De Niro, for whatever that’s worth.
That is, if those who measured Downs at the start of the year weren’t stretching the truth. Remove two inches and you might get a closer estimate. That would make him roughly the same size as former Lake Land All-American Terrance Cast, one of the shortest players Jim Dudley can remember coaching at the college.
Another former Lake Land guard, Arcola assistant Chad Graves, isn’t sure that Cast, in whose footsteps Downs plans to continue the tradition of playing the Laker point next year, doesn’t get the nod.
“(He’s) probably two inches taller,” Graves laughed.
Downs isn’t the biggest player ever selected as the Journal Gazette/Times-Courier Player of the Year, but he fits the mold just fine. He was an exemplary scorer (17.5 points per game), shooter (65-of-195 from 3-point range), passer (4.7 assists), defender (2.4 steals) and rebounder (three per game) for Arcola’s 20-8 regional finalist.
“He provided a lot of leadership at Arcola,” Dudley said. “He reminds me a lot of Graves when Graves came out of high school. Graves has, I think, really helped him as far as his high school career is concerned. He’s kind of taken him under his wing and did some things.”
Downs’ stats were virtually identical to the numbers he put up as a junior n he averaged one and a half fewer points per game — although his hand in the Purple Riders’ improvement was evident. As his team upped its win total from 16 the year before, he encountered the difficult wrinkle of playing for two different head coaches in his final two years. During his junior year, he made the all-area team under the wing of Ben Borries, now at Shelbyville. As a senior, it was Brooks Inman’s turn.
“There were a lot of things that Coach Borries did that Coach Inman didn’t,” Downs said. “But you take the tradeoffs and they’re both good coaches. You didn’t have a real choice so you had to make the best of it.
“I was a lot more like an active scorer with Coach Borries. Then when Coach Inman came we tried to be more balanced. I think that was a good thing. A lot of my teammates improved a lot going into our senior year. It was not hard to let them step up like they should.”
Doing so meant that Downs’ own numbers would suffer in the process. When Player of the Year candidates were considered, the senior was part of a trio that stood out, along with Stewardson-Strasburg junior Ben Giertz and Shelbyville junior Jay Nottingham.
Downs’ big-game numbers, and the success his team enjoyed because of them, didn’t hurt his standing. He erupted for 26 points against Tuscola in the Little Okaw Valley Conference Tournament title game, tied a season high with 27 in Arcola’s regional victory against Arthur and scored more than half (22) of the Purple Riders’ points (40) when they were beaten by Meridian in the regional championship.
“(Player of the Year) was a goal that I had and thank goodness that I achieved it because I probably would have been pretty disappointed,” he said.
“My expectations for myself were way high going into the season, and a lot of the goals I made I achieved. I didn’t get the (school) scoring record but the tradeoff was that I upped my assists and our team won 20 games. That hadn’t been done in 10 years. I had never played in a regional championship as a high school basketball player. Those were better goals than mine.”
Now the goal is to fit in at the next level. If his size is a setback, it’s also a weapon. His ballhandling skills are refined. And, says Graves, who assisted both Borries and Inman, some of the things he can do on the floor may come as a surprise.
“He’s going to have to work harder at it because it’s not as easy as you think it is, just all the quickness and stuff,” Graves said. “But I think the fast break will benefit his style of play. Where he kind of needed to go was someplace with up tempo.
“I think when he wants to be he can be a really good passer. When he gets players around him that will show even more. He seems to get to the basket a lot better than you think he would. He’s fairly quick.”
Just look for evidence of that on the football field. Downs was an all-state running back who hoarded interest from the likes of Millikin University.
But playing basketball was an easy choice for him to make. From the standpoint of bulk alone, he called it a “no-brainer.” Besides, he could remember dreading the prospect of attending football practice, something that never occurred on the hardwood.
“I know that in the next level I probably won’t average 20 points a game or whatever,” Downs said. “I’d be more than happy to average about 10 assists and do whatever it takes.
“It’ll be a new game, but it’ll be a challenge.”
He was getting the feel for it at the all-area picture day at Laker Fieldhouse last week, shooting around on what is soon to become his home court.
“I can get used to it, that’s for sure,” he said.
Contact Rick Dawson at rdawson@jg-tc.com or 238-6855.
JG/T-C Area Players of the Year
1983-Brian Hupp, Westfield
1984-Mark Edmundson, Arthur
1985-Max Edwards, Oakland
1986-Mark Edmundson, Arthur
1987-Jeff Lauritzen, Martinsville
1988-Lance Craft, Oakland
1989-Chad Graves, Arcola
1990-Chad Graves, Arcola
1991-Derrick Landrus, Charleston
1992-Eric Smith and Clayton Stivers, Findlay
1993-Stote Reeder, Sullivan
1994-Chris Hollender, Mattoon
1995-Ryan Cox, Stewardson-Strasburg
1996-Mark Giertz, Stewardson-Strasburg
1997-Rich Beyers, Shelbyville
1998-Kurt Friese, Stewardson-Strasburg
1999-Drew Kusterman, Casey-Westfield
2000-Eric Steers, Shelbyville
2001-D.J. Throneburg, Casey-Westfield
2002-D.J. Throneburg, Casey-Westfield
2003-Brandon Murphy, Charleston
2004-Nathan Homann/Ryan McDermand, Charleston
2005-Brandon Thompson, Neoga
2006-Zach Braden, Neoga
2007-Kyle Downs, Arcola
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Angie Miley wrote on Jul 17, 2006 8:05 PM: