Jacobs' man in the middle

Conrad Krutwig is one big reason for Jacobs' recent resurgence.
(Tyler Stoffel/For the Courier News)

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Staggering is one way to describe Jacobs' recent run of boys basketball success.

Not only are the Golden Eagles 14-1 and in the midst of a 12-game win streak this season, but they are more impressively 40-3 since the start of the 2006-07 campaign.

Not many teams come close to such a significant run of success, but the prosperous times can hardly be called surprising.

After all, Jacobs is home to not only the area's best all-around player in senior John Moran, but also the area's most versatile big man in junior Conrad Krutwig.

In Krutwig, Jacobs has a 6-foot-5 center who provides the best of both worlds.

At one moment he is inside the paint, battling other bruisers for a defensive rebound. Then in an instant, he is streaking down the court on a fastbreak, catching a pass in stride and gliding to the basket for a slam dunk.

"Conrad can rebound, throw the outlet and score at the other end as well as any big man you are going to see," Jacobs coach Jim Hinkle said.

As a three-year varsity member, Krutwig is hardly an unknown commodity. However, he often takes a backseat to Moran, the reigning Courier News Player of the Year who has already committed to play at Northern Iowa.

While Krutwig might not be the face of the team, his is certainly a face that causes problems for opposing coaches. With an average of 16.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game, Krutwig's numbers demand respect.

Just ask Huntley coach Marty Manning, who saw his team hold Moran to nine points in a game last week, only to see Krutwig pick up the slack and score a game-high 16 points and grab 10 rebounds in a 46-38 Jacobs victory.

"Before our JV game the other day, (Crystal Lake South coach) Dan Debruycker and I were talking about how John makes everyone better because of his passing, but the person who scares us the most is Krutwig because neither one of us has anyone who can come close to matching up with him," Manning said. "You don't find a lot of people with his size and athletic ability."

With Moran moving from shooting guard to point guard this year, Krutwig came in knowing he'd need to take on a bigger role in scoring.

However, through Jacobs' first few games Hinkle and Moran felt Krutwig was only meeting the standard he set last season when he scored 12.5 points and grabbed 5.9 rebounds per game.

To validate that point, Moran was the Eagles' leading scorer in their first seven games.

That prompted coaches and teammates to ask more of Krutwig, and since then he's shouldered the largest scoring load in six of the past eight games and is closing in on Moran's team-best 17.9 points per game.

"We kind of told him what he was doing was good, but we knew he could do better than that," Moran said. "Right after we told him that, he picked his game up right away. His confidence is up and he's doing really well."

Krutwig admits that having Moran for a teammate makes his job much easier. Moran averages 8.1 assists per game, and a good portion of those dishes end up in Krutwig's hands.

Having played together for the past three seasons, the two seem to know each other's every move on the court, which makes a major difference considering Jacobs' up-tempo play is geared toward creating fastbreak baskets.

That familiarity between the two often leads to razzle-dazzle plays. Moran has been known to fire no-look passes to Krutwig across half the court, and Krutwig more often that not finishes the play with a dunk or layup, eliciting plenty of 'oohs' and 'aahs' from spectators.

"Some of our plays in practice are pretty crazy, so when we do crazy stuff in a game it is so much fun," Krutwig said.

Although his ability to run the floor is impressive, Krutwig's game is much more than just fastbreak dunks.

Moran says Krutwig has developed a number of effective post moves beyond the baby hook he's been known for the past few years. Hinkle adds that Krutwig has a good shooting touch from 15-18 feet, even though he is rarely called on to spot up from the outside in the Eagles' offense.

Those abilities will only help Krutwig solidify his place as a Division-I prospect. He's heard from a number of D-I programs, with significant interest coming from Wisconsin-Green Bay, Loyola and Miami (Ohio), all three of which he visited last summer.

"It's kind of hard to keep in touch right now during the season," Krutwig said. "But I still get my one-month call from all those coaches and continue to keep in contact."

While his distant future is bright, there's no doubt Krutwig is focused on the immediate future as Jacobs works towards its goals of capturing the program's first regional title since 1998 and becoming the first Fox Valley Conference team to advance Downstate.

"We definitely want to make it to state this year," Krutwig said. "I think we have all the weapons. Now we've just got to keep playing our best."