Boys Basketball: Handling a tall order

Updated: December 22, 2011 11:10PM

Ice buckets are the daily routine for Lowell senior Kyle Richwalski.

It’s not his idea of a good time, but it’s a small sacrifice to pay in order to get on the basketball court and represent the Red Devils every night.

“I usually get home from practice or a game and it’s sore,” said Richwalski, who hurt his ankle in a scrimmage game against Knox this season. “It hurts when I do certain things but I use ice buckets every night and do different exercises to strengthen my ankle. It’s a little stiff when I wake up in the morning but once it gets going, I’m pretty good.”

The pain is worth the gain for Richwalski and it’s paid off this season.

The 6-foot-9 senior center is averaging 14 points and 10 rebounds this season as he hopes to keep Lowell going in the right direction following the team’s first winning season in 17 years.

Coach Nate Richie said the senior has stepped up his game in the absence of Lowell’s first Indiana All-star, Austin Richie. Richie averaged 33.2 points per game last season and earned a scholarship to play at Western Michigan.

“You don’t find a lot of kids with his size that like to work at the game,” Richie said. “That makes him enjoyable to be around. He has a hunger for learning and continues to push himself to become a better basketball player.”

Richwalski made an immediate impact in the Lowell community when he moved into town before seventh grade. Teammate Austin Magley couldn’t believe his eyes when he first met Richwalski.

“I was like, ‘Wow, this kid’s big.’ He was 6-4, 6-5 in seventh grade,” the senior guard said. “He’s great to play with. He’s a very unselfish player. He knows his basketball too, and is probably one of the smartest basketball players I’ve been around.”

Richwalski has played through pain before, too.

The 3.6-GPA student played most of his freshman year with what he thought was just sprained ankles. He wound up going to his doctor at season’s end and finding out he had two partial tendon tears in his ankles.

“I thought it was just normal pain and I thought I could play through it,” he said. “That wound up putting me out six months. It wrecked my whole summer of AAU.”

But while he might have missed the chance to play against some of the area’s best basketball players, he still earned a spot on the varsity his sophomore season.

Junior year was his breakout season, though. Richwalski averaged 10 points and 10 rebounds last season and helped lead the team to a 12-9 overall record and 5-1 Northwest Crossroads Conference mark.

Richie thinks Richwalski can have an even better senior season. He’s got Division II and NAIA colleges checking him out, too.

“We set goals for him individually and he is right on pace with those goals,” Richie said. “As his ankle continues to heal, he’ll be able to move better. And once that begins to happen, he should continue to see his numbers rise individually.”

The Red Devils opened the season with two straight wins but lost four consecutive before beating Calumet, 63-56, on Tuesday night. Lowell looks to even its record to 4-4 on the road against Morton tonight.

But Lowell’s biggest test will be the Zionsville Tournament on Dec. 28. The Red Devils finished 1-1 (third place) in last year’s tournament, losing to the host in the opening round before winning the consolation game.

Richwalski says winning the tournament down south could be a turning point in the season and put the team in the right direction heading into the new year.

“That would be big to win the Zionsville Tournament,” he said. “Not many people think we can go down south and compete with them. We played Zionsville tough last year but had small breakdowns and let the game slip away. We just ran out of gas a little bit and got flustered.”

Magley believes the team is more mature heading into that tournament.

“We learned last year that any team we play down there is going to be tough,” he said. “If we hope to win it, we’ll need to play smart, hard and together.”

Wins down state could also make Richwalski a more attractive basketball player in the eyes of college recruiters too.

And make all those hours icing his ankles worth it.

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