Franklin boys basketball preview

Life comes at you fast. Just not as fast as it’s coming at Adrian Moss these days.

Not only is Moss preparing for his first season as the boys basketball coach at his alma mater, but he’s also adjusting to life as a new dad; his fiancée gave birth to the couple’s first child last Thursday morning. It’s an exciting time for the former Franklin star — and the entire community is feeling the energy.

After struggling through a 7-15 season last winter, the Grizzly Cubs are transitioning from the largely deadpan Brad Dickey, now the athletic director and basketball coach at Trinity Lutheran, to the younger Moss, a 2007 Franklin grad who went on to IUPUI and the University of Indianapolis before playing pro ball in Canada for four years.

The combination of Moss’ more ebullient personality and his ties to the school — he scored 1,129 points at Franklin and led the team to what is still its last sectional championship in 2006 — have generated a buzz around the boys hoop program that hasn’t existed for a while.

“It’s a completely new feel,” said senior guard Carson Hunter, the Grizzly Cubs’ top scorer last season at 10.8 points per game. “Coach Moss is a complete 180 from coach Dickey. It’s a great energy and everything around practice.”

That energy was palpable last week when the team held its Franklin Basketball Madness event, an open practice of sorts that gave the town a first glance at the new roster. Even though Moss wasn’t in attendance that night — he was, understandably, still at the hospital — the hundreds of fans who came out had the gym brimming with an excited, first-date type of vibe.

It’s not just the fans, either.

“A lot more kids seem to want it a lot more and seem like they care,” junior forward John Shepard said. “Adrian’s just brought a lot of that energy to us. He’s changing the community a lot.”

Hunter and Shepard are back from last year’s starting lineup, but the roster around them looks considerably different. While some of the new faces were on the junior varsity last winter, others were either elsewhere or had just opted not to play for the team.

The infusion of talent and the arrival of Moss has brought a good bit of hype, but while the new coach welcomes that, he’s also trying to make sure his team doesn’t get too gassed up too soon.

“Everywhere we go or our coaches go, there’s a lot of hype,” Moss said, “but we’ve also got to remember that we have not even won a game yet. We’re coming off of a (7-15) season. Right now, we’re just focused on the work.”

That work includes striking a balance. Moss wants Franklin to play at a much faster pace than it has in the recent past — the Grizzly Cubs have scored more than 60 points a game just once in the last 11 seasons, bottoming out at 47.8 last year — but he also doesn’t want his team getting out of control.

Going to more of a fast-breaking style might be fun, Moss noted, but late in a tight game, execution is what will make the difference between a fun team and a winning team.

“The little things are important,” he said. “Setting up cuts, setting actual screens, taking charges, following scouting reports, getting our body in front … the details are what kind of save you.

“In pressure situations, we’ve got to execute. We can’t run and gun the whole game.”

How successful this team can be right away remains to be seen; there is a lot of anticipation but also a lot of unknowns. Franklin is a town with a proud basketball tradition, though, dating all the way back to the three consecutive state championships from 1920 to 1922. The Grizzly Cubs have won 46 sectional titles; only 18 Indiana high schools have more.

Moss, eager to restore that former glory, is glad to be back at home.

“I’m living out my dream,” he said. “And this is 100 years since that Wonder Five team, so that’s pretty cool. … It’s so important to me just to put Franklin basketball back on the map — where kids are enjoying what they’re doing, they’re enjoying the game, getting the fans back in the building, and putting a product on the court that’s fun to watch and also wins some games.”

“We haven’t been that type of caliber team the past few years,” Shepard said. “We have that chip on our shoulder this year to come out and show the fans and show everyone who we are.”