Defense and depth: New coach quickly molds Morton into elite basketball program
PEKIN — One thing Abe Zeller knows is defense.
“I’m a defensive-minded coach,” the first-year Morton boys basketball coach said. “I wish I was smarter and could teach offense better (every year I’m growing on that) but defense is something you can always hang your hat on.
Zeller's defense-first identity came through big time in Thursday’s 51-33 quarterfinal win over Peoria Notre Dame at the Pekin Insurance Holiday Tournament. The second-seeded Potters held PND without a field goal for a 13:53 stretch, surrendering just a 5-of-8 effort from the free-throw line in that span.
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The Irish ended up shooting 37.5 percent (9-for-24) and getting turned over 16 times.
“Defense is a staple of what I believe in and how I coach," Zeller said. "Our guys have done a tremendous job taking ownership and taking pride in their individual defense and their team defense. It’s been fun to watch how we’ve defended.”
As for the performance vs. PND? “I was really, really pleased we how we executed our gameplan,” he said.
This swarming style, though, has been the trend for Morton, which defeated East St. Louis, 62-58, for third place Friday. This followed a two-point, semifinal overtime loss to Roselle Lake Park.
During a six-game winning streak coming into tourney play, teams were scoring a shade under 40 points a game against the Potters. That number didn't change much through the first 16 games, with Morton giving up 39.4 points an outing.
“Coach Zeller really pushes for a hard effort,” said Morton senior Gus Rugaard, who scored a game-high 16 points against PND, “good defense and the crashing the boards mainly. That’s what we pride ourselves in and we’re doing it really well.”
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Zeller was hired to replace Matt Franks in April and officially took over the Morton program on June 1.
His only stop prior to the Mid-Illini Conference school was a 15-season tenure at Roanoke-Benson. In that time, the former R-B athletics director won 229 games highlighted by leading the Rockets to a 36-1 record and the pandemic-cancelled 2020 Class 1A state finals.
He says the communities of Roanoke and Benson provided him and his family great support and memories through the years. Still, Zeller always aspired to coach at a bigger program with a deeper talent pool.
“I’ve never had as much depth ever,” he said, “for sure, obviously, at R-B. … If (Morton) had more depth than they’ve had this year, those were some really good teams.”
Behind Rugaard, Silas Steffen (eight points, four rebounds) and Alex McKie (eight points) were next in team-high honors as the first two off the bench. The sophomore duo contributed all but two of their points in the first half.
Not to mention a strong starting five behind Rugaard, Tripp Rugaard, Calvin Boeker, all-Mid-Illini second-teamer Wes Gudeman and Evan Barlow, who will play at Florida Gulf Coast as a preferred walk-on.
“We got 10 guys that could start at multiple varsity teams,” Barlow said. “… We’ve had multiple guys (score in double figures) on different nights. Having that depth really takes a lot of pressure off our starters, so knowing we can pick up the pace defensively and then turn it into offense and then have guys come in and do the same thing.”
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Morton (15-2) is ranked No. 10 in Class 3A by The Associated Press and sits atop the Mid-Illini standings at 5-0.
The Potters began their season with a 3-0 run at the Kevin Brown Memorial Tournament of Champions. Add in wins over Pontiac and Champaign Central — plus a victory against the reigning Class 3A state champion Metamora — and the Potters playing with a lot of confidence.
Not even Zeller could have envisioned this start.
“If you would have said pre-Christmas, coming into the Pekin Holiday Tournament, we were going to be 12-1, I would have lost that bet,” he said with a laugh.
“We just take every game as an opportunity to show what we can do and control what we can control. If you come with that mindset and you have talent, because you got to have talent, and I have a whole lot of that, my job is pretty easy.”
Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.
Holiday basketball tournaments
Go to pjstar.com for stories and the complete scorelists for Peoria-area boys and girls teams at high school basketball holiday tournaments across the state. Scores will be included in Tuesday's print editions.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: IHSA basketball: Morton boys state ranked under new coach Abe Zeller
