Gulfport Admirals are progressing with a loaded roster. ‘It’s only the start for us.’
Building a championship roster can feel a lot like putting a puzzle together.
Gulfport basketball coach Owen Miller has been working on that puzzle since last summer with a talented Admiral team that has rocketed off to an 18-4 start.
Miller’s latest group is a product of a plug-and-play build, with experienced wings Matt Krass and Amir Abdul-Rauf joining returning point guard and senior Kamari Mitchell in the backcourt.
Twins Kylan and Jylan Howze have joined the mix, as well, towering over opponents on the low block at 6-foot-8 apiece.
Three new starters were injected into a lineup that already featured Mitchell, one of the best point guards in South Mississippi.
So much talent converging at once comes with its own challenges and the Admirals have stared them down all season.
“It kind of took a little bit, because everybody is a star,” Mitchell told the Sun Herald. “We think that everybody has to do it themselves, but the whole time we are a bigger team when we team up together. I feel like we lost a couple games when we weren’t focused and playing as a team. But we’re going to get it right, it’s only the start for us.”
Mitchell is one of the more efficient scorers on the team, averaging 10 points per game and sporting a 45-percent shooting clip, and is benefiting from the addition of Krass, who transferred in from St. Patrick.
Krass, a junior, is one of Miller’s best perimeter shooters and the team’s leading scorer at 14 points per contest. He’s led the team in scoring in wins over Port Gibson, East Jefferson, D’Iberville, Hancock and others.
His game, partly sharpened by his older brother and current Oregon State Beaver Nick Krass, has translated into the 6A game well.
His offense is complemented by Mitchell and Abdul-Rauf, the latter also being critical in the team’s success this year.
Abdul-Rauf is the son of former NBA player and Admiral Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and is one of two players on the team, the other being Krass, who is shooting at least 35 percent from deep. He’s just behind Krass in scoring, as well, bring 12 points to the table on average.
The Howze twins, both of whom are committed to Jones College, are there own threat to alter any game in a variety of ways on both ends of the floor. Both are shot-contesting specialists and Kylan is closing in on the school record for blocks in a season with 75 and counting.
“I just try to fit everybody in,” Mitchell said. “We got shooters, people that post up and get any bucket in the paint that they want. It’s just moving the ball around and figuring out who is going to get it.”
When the team is on, they’re on. Gulfport has beaten Ole Miss commit Josh Hubbard and Madison-Ridgeland, as well as earned three wins over a strong Pascagoula team. One of those thanks to a game-winning lay-up from Abdul-Rauf.
Building consistency, however, has been its own challenge. According to Miller, the Admirals have struggled to shoot the ball from beyond the arc and at the free throw line.
The team is shooting just 28 percent from deep and under 60 percent at the free throw line. Streaky shooting has led to what few stumbles the team has made throughout the year.
Gulfport’s fourth loss of the season came at home to Biloxi. The Admirals scored just four points in the fourth quarter and turned the ball over six times as Duran Parish’s Indians ran away with a critical district victory.
“This is when it matters,” Miller said after the loss. “We’re in the second phase of our season, we’re in district play. We’ve got room to grow and hopefully we can start playing together.”
Playing together and gelling on the floor has been a critical factor for the Admirals. Miller says they’ve had five different leading scorers.
At one point, Gulfport played without Krass for eight games as he dealt with an ankle injury. During his absence from the floor, he was able to improve his own chemistry with teammates.
“It was harder mentally than physically,” Krass said about being sidelined. “I love the game so much, I want to be on the court playing. Being out like that gave me a different perspective. I got to see the game... I got to watch all my teammates and learn their tendencies a little bit more.”
Krass says his team is still a work in progress, but is confident the Admirals will hit their stride at the right moment.
Gulfport has a crucial game against Harrison Central on Friday before a pivotal rematch with Biloxi next week sets the stage for the final run into the district tournament in February.
It’s never easy fighting for positioning in a district with multiple heavyweights and slogging through a schedule that has featured eight top-10 teams in the state, but Miller likes where his team is heading.
“We’re a work in progress and I like what the future holds for this group.”
