Kudrna a scary factor for Midgets

• Jaden Kudrna

Press Photo by Royal McGregor Dickinson High senior Jaden Kudrna, right, is guarded by Bismarck Century senior Kyle Conner on Jan. 8 at the DHS gymnasium.

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When Dickinson High senior Jaden Kudrna gets into scoring mode, there is little opposing teams can do to stop him.

Kudrna, a 6-foot-1 guard, averages 10.3 points per game. His highest offensive outputs have been the first and last two games of the season. In those four games, he averaged 17.3 points.

“Jaden’s got that scare factor to him that other teams have to know where he’s at, because he can score,” Dickinson head coach John Wilson said. “He’s a great shooter from the outside, but I think one of biggest assets is being able to shoot over people in the paint.”

Though Kudrna is the first to say, he’s more focused on winning than how many points he scores each game.

“Statistically, I don’t really care about the numbers,” Kudrna said. “I have fun with my teammates and that’s probably what matters.”

One area of Kudrna’s game where Wilson said he’s improved the most, especially in the last four games, has been on the defensive side of the ball.

“Probably his biggest shortcoming last year was defense,” Wilson said. “Even in the last four games, he’s been able to play defensively so much better.”

Kudrna played in every single game and started all except for one this season. Kudrna rolled his ankle in the final 50 seconds against Dawson County, Mont. on Dec. 21, Kudrna sat out the next game the following day against Minot High.

However, as Kudrna entered his senior season, a majority of his playing time came off the bench. He did start three games last season.

“When you finally get to that senior year, it seems like you finally catch up to the varsity game,” Wilson said. “For other guys it takes a while to catch up to the speed of the game, the physicality of the game, the mental part of the game. That’s something he can show other kids. He’s the not the quickest kid, but he can create and he can do so many things really well. I think Jaden is a kid that doesn’t realize how talented he is. He’s the guy that can be the calm factor.”

Jordan Krieg, a 6-4 senior post, said even if Kudrna misses 10 shots in a row, he wants him to take that 11th shot. Krieg trusts it only takes one shot to start a hot streak.

“Jaden is a great one-on-one scorer,” Krieg said. “He can score when he wants to. He kind of has this mental thing where if he misses a couple, he gets out of the game, but he makes one and it’s game over.

“Everyone has an off game, everyone has an off shot. There’s no one player ever to go 100 percent for the whole season. He’s a good player and he just needs to be there for us. I just tell him to keep shooting.”

Krieg, who leads the team with 18.1 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, and Kudrna have helped the Midgets to a 10-9 overall record and 7-9 mark in the West Region.

It wasn’t until Kudrna’s sophomore season when he realized how much he wanted to go to the state tournament.

The Midgets will have the No. 6 seed heading into the West Region Tournament, where they’ll play No. 3 seed Minot at 7:15 today at the Bismarck Civic Center.

“At WDA it is a lot different, the atmosphere is more intense,” Kudrna said. “We still probably haven’t played a full 36 minutes, but hopefully we can put it together in this tournament. Hopefully, it’s for all three games.”

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