Franklin’s Kolt Nelson, right, scored 20 points in a sectional semifinal win over Whiteland last week.
Daily Journal file photo
To hear Kolt Nelson tell it, his job on this Franklin basketball team is to grab rebounds and play defense. His coach, Adrian Moss, has been begging him to expand on that job description — for the benefit of both the team and of Nelson himself.
“I’ve been on Kolt all year, over the summer, to really score the ball,” Moss said, “because when you score the ball — he wants to go to college and play basketball, he wants to be a Junior All-Star and that stuff, and the easiest way to do that is to put up numbers scoring. But he does all the little stuff; he rebounds, he plays defense, he’s a good passer, he’s a great teammate. He already does all the little stuff, so I really try to encourage him to score because he does everything else naturally.”
Nelson seemed to get the message last weekend, putting up career highs of 20 points and 12 rebounds in Franklin’s Class 4A sectional semifinal victory over Whiteland and then following up with 10 points and nine boards in a comeback win over host East Central in last Saturday’s title game.
The 6-foot-7 junior has been doing a little bit of everything this season for the Grizzly Cubs, averaging 8.8 points, a team-high 6.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocked shots while shooting 72% from the field. Moss notes that Nelson also leads the team in plus-minus, a pretty good indication that he’s contributing to winning basketball for an 18-4 squad.
While Nelson doesn’t necessarily view himself as a scorer first, he’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep his team’s season going — especially as a junior who plays with six seniors in a seven-man rotation.
“I’m the only junior that really plays, and this is their senior season,” Nelson said, “so really every night I go out there, especially in sectionals, I don’t want it to be their last night and me be a reason that we lost.”
The breakthrough double-double against the Warriors last Friday was a big reason why Franklin won — and nobody was happier to see it than Moss.
“With this team, I think at first he kind of felt like he didn’t need to score because we’ve had so many weapons,” the coach said of Nelson, “but at the same time, he’s usually the mismatch each game. He’s usually the guy that can take advantage of a mismatch; if they put a little guy on him, then he can post, and if they put a big guy on him he can handle the ball. I’ve been encouraging him to score all year, so that 20-point game was nice to see. Hopefully he can keep it going.”
Nelson’s recent surge is but one piece of the puzzle for the Grizzly Cubs. Most of the attention is focused on Indiana All-Star candidate Micah Davis, who’s among the state’s leading scorers at 25.3 points per game, but Franklin has also gotten key contributions from Nelson as well as senior guards Wyatt Nickleson and Grant Hunter.
Moss has seen different players step up at different times, noting that Hunter and Nelson played larger roles when Nickleson was out with an injury — but he wants to see it all come together at the same time here in March.
“If we can get Wyatt back to Wyatt, and Grant to keep playing like Grant, and Kolt to keep playing like Kolt and Micah does what he does, we can make a serious run,” Moss said. “But we know we’re going to have to put it all together.”
For the Grizzly Cubs to be that ideal version of themselves, Nelson will need to play more like last weekend’s version of himself and not be so willing to take a back seat to his senior teammates.
“We want him to come out of his shell the rest of this tournament as long as we’re still in it,” Moss said.
How long Franklin can stay in the tournament depends largely on whether it can beat county rival Center Grove for a second time this season. The Grizzly Cubs eked out a 65-64 overtime victory on the Trojans’ home floor in late November, but that was a long time ago and both teams are in a different place now. Center Grove has won 14 games in a row and is widely viewed as the favorite to advance to the semistate round.
Nelson and his teammates don’t necessarily share that view.
“We still think we’re the favorite,” Nelson said, “but it’s definitely a lot less pressure for sure. Nobody expects us to win, so we’re going to give you our best and we’re going to go out firing no matter what.”
Exactly what Moss has been wanting Nelson to do.
IF YOU GO
Class 4A Southport Regional
Franklin (18-4) vs. Center Grove (20-4), 7 p.m.
Class A Martinsville Regional
Oldenburg Academy (13-11) vs. Greenwood Christian (17-7), 4 p.m.
Admission: $10 at each site; children 5 and under free. All tickets being sold digitally at ihsaa.eventlink.com.
