Naperville Central’s Preston Kuta, right, pushes the ball up the court during a game against Lockport in Naperville on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. (Troy Stolt/Naperville Sun)
Naperville Central’s Preston Kuta plays premier positions in two sports.
The 6-foot-1, 165-pound junior was the backup quarterback on the football team, and he’s taking the reins of the boys basketball team as the point guard.
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“They’re very close together,” Kuta said. “As a quarterback, you’re almost like a captain of the football team, where you’re running the offense.
“As a point guard, same thing. You’ve got to help take control of the team, keep the guys together, keep their composure, reset everyone if it gets out of hand.”
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Kuta is doing that for the Redhawks, but it has been a learning process for him and his teammates, who have struggled to put 32 good minutes together.
“Preston is just growing as a player every game,” Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer said. “Every game is a different experience with what you go through.
“He’s starting to learn because there were times when he was moping, and I was like, ‘I’m not going to play you if you’re going to mope, and I’m not going to play you if you’re just worried about scoring.’”
Kuta’s best strength is his shooting ability, but like anyone else, he’s susceptible to having an off game. When that happens, Kramer asks his players one thing.
Naperville Central’s Preston Kuta (3) puts up a shot during a game against Lockport in Naperville on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. (Troy Stolt/Naperville Sun)
“When you’re not scoring, are you still doing something else to contribute?” Kramer said. “And that’s a maturity thing. I think he’s starting to grow up.”
Senior center Jack First has seen that growth in Kuta, whose brother Christian is a standout linebacker for Naperville Central.
“He has stepped up in recent weeks and has been playing hard and playing hard on defense, getting steals for us, doing a little bit of the dirty work,” First said. “He’s been our lead ballhandler, and he’s kind of been a scoring spark for us.”
That was the case Saturday, when Kuta tallied a team-high 14 points during a 61-50 nonconference loss to Lockport in Naperville. It was the 10th defeat in 11 games for the Redhawks (6-12), who were routed 55-25 by DeKalb on Friday.
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Lockport quickly threatened a repeat of that blowout by scoring the first 10 points. But Kuta sank a pullup 3-pointer to start a 12-5 run to get Naperville Central back in it. The rest of the game was competitive. Kuta made 5 of 9 shots and went 2 for 2 from the line.
“As a team, it really starts with one shot, then guys are building off of each other,” he said. “Whether it was me knocking down the three or if it was a teammate making a good play on defense, the entire team builds off each other.
“I wouldn’t be able to play how I did tonight if my teammates on the bench weren’t giving us support and if I didn’t have the other four guys on the court going as hard as me. They were striving for the same goal, and we were all putting out our max effort.”
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The Redhawks’ mood was better than it was after the DeKalb loss, in part because of Kuta’s improved leadership.
Naperville Central’s Preston Kuta (3) shoots the ball during a game against Lockport in Naperville on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. (Troy Stolt/Naperville Sun)
“When you’re a point guard, you’ve got to be a leader,” Kramer said. “It makes a loss not feel so bad when you put forth an effort, when you leave it all on the floor.”
It really is that simple, although it took Kuta awhile to get out of his head.
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“My goal this year was to basically take some pressure off myself and just go out there and play because I feel like sometimes I put all this pressure on myself and it doesn’t really help me play,” he said. “My goal was to develop as an athlete in general and become a better teammate and play for the seniors, too, because I know it’s their last year of basketball, and I want to help make it be worth their while.”
First, who had six points and a game-high 15 rebounds against Lockport, said this is a rebuilding season, so the Redhawks are playing with one eye to the future.
“The majority of the guys on the team are juniors and sophomores, so it’s important that they get experience for next year,” First said. “They’ve done a good job. They play hard and work their butts off for us.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
Naperville Central’s Preston Kuta takes reins
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