Year two of Daniel Cutbirth's coaching career at Aurora saw marked improvement, as the Houn's finished the season 13-15 overall and 3-3 in the Big 8 Conference. The Houn' Dawgs season ended last year with a first-round district loss to Reeds Spring. Yet, according to Cutbirth, hopes are high for even more improvement in 2013-14.

"The Big 8 Conference is much improved with a good crop of coaches and players," said Cutbirth. "Our conference race will be a tough one with lots of challenges."

Aurora lost three players from last year's squad, including Honorable Mention All-Conference selection Andrew Parker. Also lost to graduation were Jordan Fronabarger and Chad Hughes.

"Andrew (Parker) will be greatly missed this season," Cutbirth said. "Andrew was a hard worker and a great person. He loved to guard the opposing team's best player."

The most positive sign for the Houn' Dawgs this season will be the number of players who will return with key varsity experience, as Aurora will have eight players who played significant varsity minutes for the Houn's last year. They include seniors Garrett Bader and Corey Gregory, junior Dylan Cullers, and sophomores Logan Bader, Mason Husmann, Josh Fronabarger, Billy Meredith and Skylar Cahill.

Garrett Bader will return as the team's leading scorer and rebounder, averaging 14 points a game and 7 rebounds last season as a junior.

"Garrett is a great post presence for us and has a ton of potential and upside," Cutbirth said. "He has improved greatly on his strength and footwork this offseason and his mid-range game has improved, as well." Cutbirth also said Bader's improved defensive skill set will make his even more dangerous on the floor.

Bader sees the youth of this team as an important factor to the team's overall success.

"We have a lot of young players that will need to step up," said Bader. "Our bench will be key, having players that can come into the game and give their full effort. I am really looking forward to playing this season."

Joining Bader as the only other experienced senior will be Gregory, an all-around great athlete who truly understands the game of basketball.

"Corey has really matured and come into his own," Cutbirth said. "When Corey is dialed in, he can be a real difference maker for us."

Gregory has high expectations for his senior year.

"We had a better season last year," said Gregory, "which lead to a successful summer. We play great team ball and that will be key to our success this season."

Cullers returns as the only junior with significant varsity experience and will be counted on to run the floor well for the Houn's. Junior Tyler Crews will move to the varsity squad this season and Cutbirth says Crews is willing to do whatever needed to help make the team more successful.

It is the vaulted numbers of sophomores that return for Aurora that saw significant varsity action as freshmen that has Aurora fans excited about 2013-14. Five players, including Logan Bader, Husmann, Fronabarger, Meredith and Cahill, played important roles last year and that will only increase this year.

"We return a lot of kids with varsity experience," said Cutbirth, "yet, the majority of those players are sophomores. With this group of kids, I feel we can open up our philosophy and do a lot more things on offense and defense."

Leading those sophomores is Logan Bader and Josh Fronabarger.

Cutbirth said Bader can play and guard any position on the floor.

"He is a player with great tools," said Cutbirth. "He plays above the rim and is a fun kid to coach and be around. We ask him and challenge him to do a lot of different things for us and he accepts the challenge with a grin."

Fronabarger started for Aurora as a freshman point guard.

"Josh understands the game as well as any kid I've coached," said Cutbirth. "He is a great competitor and loves to win. He will be asked to look to score more and become a better defender this year."

Other players Cutbirth mentioned as key players this season were sophomores Gerrit Montgomery, Ty Ray, Austin Carmichael, Tyler Moore, Kobe Besch, Colton Spencer and Alex Burdett, as well as seniors Tristan Dunning and Chase Mayes.

So the pieces seem to be available to Cutbirth and his assistant coaches Paul Dixon and Jim Waggoner. These three will work to place the pieces in the appropriate spots. And, with the success they expect, expectations are high for a team that plans to compete against the tough Big 8 Conference and find themselves a formidable foe in the district playoffs in March.

The Aurora boy's basketball schedule can be found under Schedules tab.