Although it suffered heavy losses to graduation, the Columbus North boys basketball team didn’t seem to take much of a step backward this summer.
The Bull Dogs went 16-6 during the month of June, when coaches were permitted to work with their teams in practice and game settings. Among the 16 wins were home victories over reigning Class 3A state champion Silver Creek and 4A final four participant Bloomington South on June 15.
“The highlights of the summer were beating Silver Creek and Bloomington South at home,” North coach Paul Ferguson said. “From where we started to where we finished, we had a lot of growth. From a coaching standpoint, we got a real good feeling of what our strengths and weaknesses are.”
The Bull Dogs went 7-1 the Shelbyville Summer League, with their only loss coming against Whiteland. A short-handed North team then fell to Indianapolis Washington in that league’s tournament.
At Hanover College, the Bull Dogs went 3-0 with wins over Evansville North, Bullitt East (Kentucky) and Austin.
North finished its June schedule by going 4-3 in pool play in the Super Hoops Camp at Indiana Wesleyan.
The Bull Dogs beat Dublin (Ohio) Jerome, Evansville North, Marion and New Castle on the first day, then lost to Penn, Valparaiso and Rockford (Michigan) before falling to Rockford again 42-40 at the buzzer.
Because of injuries, North had only six players at the end of that Super Hoops Camp.
“The last week of our season, we dealt with some injuries, so we weren’t completely healthy at the end,” Ferguson said. “I think if we were, we could have won the Super Hoops Camp, which is a really good benchmark for where we were at the end of the summer.”
Leading the Bull Dogs this summer was junior Cooper Horn. Horn is stepping into the leadership role vacated by the losses of Blake Barker, who is headed to Army, and Reese Harmon.
“Cooper had an excellent summer,” Ferguson said. “I was probably most excited about him stepping into that leadership role and taking on that mantle. Obviously, he’s a great player on the court, but I saw a lot of growth with him taking control. We think self-awareness is the key to growth, and you could tell that Cooper was ready to step into that leadership role for us.”
The other returning starter is senior center Sam King.
“Sam King also had an outstanding summer and continues to improve as a player,” Ferguson said. “He made a lot of big plays for us this summer. We saw both of those guys (Horn and King) take a step forward, which was exciting to see.”
Three other seniors who saw mostly JV action last season — Noah Abfall, Carson Dibble and Rhett Harmon — played big minutes this summer, along with juniors Ty Ferguson and Tyler Blythe and sophomore Connor Hensley. Junior Luke Harmon played mainly baseball in June.
Ty Ferguson and Horn shared the point guard duties this summer. Luke Harmon also could be in the mix for that spot in the coming season.
“We had a great summer,” Paul Ferguson said. “One of the main purposes of our summer is to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of our team and to help our players on our team. We got a feel for what our growth levels are.”
The Bull Dogs went 11-5 and shared the Conference Indiana title last winter, when they twice had to quarantine for two weeks because of COVID-19 and contact tracing. As a result, they played more games in June than they did all of last season.
“I was really pleased with our participation and our effort,” Paul Ferguson said. “We won some big games and lost some close ones. We had great chemistry this summer, guys supporting each other and putting the team before themselves. I was excited to see that start to develop.”
