Former Tiger Remembers His Roots, In Life And Hoops
April 7, 2020 at 2:25 a.m.
Former Tiger Remembers His Roots, In Life And Hoops
By Mark Howe-
“I started my Warsaw basketball career in second grade, playing on a third-grade level travel team in town with guys like Paul Marandet, guys like Riley Rhoades and Evan Schmidt who I’d go on to play high school ball.
“I went to Harrison Elementary, Edgewood Middle School, then on to play for Coach (Doug) Ogle in high school, where we had some really good teams.
“I’ve enjoyed memories of playing with my brother Jake for a year when he was a senior and I was a sophomore. We had some really successful teams, especially my junior and senior year. My junior year we started off 22-0 and were able to make it all the way to semistate, then in my senior year we won sectional again and almost won the regional.
“(Warsaw) was an awesome place to grow up. It’s a tight-knit basketball town where we were able to receive a lot of support from the community, which is awesome.”
While many in town thought Mangas should have received more attention from NCAA?Division I schools, especially within basketball-crazy Indiana, Mangas had IWU in mind almost from the start of the recruiting process.
“From the beginning of my freshman year I just started talking to the coaches and we just hit it off; just built a relationship with them. I went to a lot of workouts, camps, games, practices, really anything IWU,” he said. “I hung out with the players and got to know what the culture was all about, and it was really appealing to me.
“I knew it was a great fit for me, and a place where I could grow all around.”
“Playing in the perennially touch Crossroads League, which sent half its schools to the ultimately-cancelled NAIA Division II national tournament, probably helped the case for Mangas. The former Tiger knows there are no nights off in the league schedule.
“The Crossroads League is an outstanding league, and every team is very tough and competes night in, night out,” he said. “We know every single game is going to be a battle and if you don’t come prepared and don’t come ready to give your best shot, you’re probably going to lose that game.
“It’s high-level basketball where there’s a ton of skill and teams play together. I love playing in the Crossroads League.
The Francis accolade compliments the Mangas resume, which includes an NAIA Division II national championship following his freshman season two years ago. But winning the individual prize isn’t a substitute for a team title. The Wildcats spent the season at or near the top of the national polls, but had the chance to win a second title in three years taken away by the pandemic.
“(The award) doesn’t make up for it, because the No. 1 goal of every team is to win the national championship,” he said. “And we were right there, ready to play our first game when it was cancelled.
“It was a mix of emotions, disappointing and frustrating, and I hope this award will serve as a marker of some team success, because we really had a great season, and we felt like we had a good shot to win it all this year. We thought we were peaking at the right time and playing our best basketball of the season.”
Still, the award not only reflects on his career at IWU, but on the way he came up with strong faith, family and ethos.
“It accumulates all the way back to when I began playing basketball. It really stems from my family and how they raised me, with (an emphasis on) work ethic and character,” Mangas reflected. “Obviously, there’s the things I learned from my high school coach and my high school teammates.
“College is a whole other level, where you basically live with your teammates. You spend hours with them with a common goal.
“So a lot of people have helped me put a lot of hard work into it. I want to thank my mom and dad, by brother, my grandparents, and I want to especially thank Coach Ogle. He instilled a lot of qualities in me, with humility and discipline the main two things.
Ogle was quick to return the gratitude.
“I’m very happy for Kyle to be recognized in this way. He’s certainly deserving; no one can argue that.” said Ogle. “I’d take it a step further; I’d agree with anyone who would suggest Kyle is the best college basketball player in the state of Indiana.
“As I look at rosters of Notre Dame, Purdue, IU or Butler, I don’t see anybody on there that I think could go into the Crossroads League and score 2,500 points in three seasons. Indiana Wesleyan’s been great for him and he has been great for them.”
The former Warsaw head coach, who announced his retirement from coaching at the end of the 2019-20 season, said some might not have fully appreciated Mangas during his days as a Tiger.
“The most remarkable thing about Kyle, to me, is how efficient he is and how easy he makes it look to score as much as he does,” he said. “That’s hard to do, and I think it made him underappreciated as a high school player. He made it look easy, and really, it wasn’t. I think the essence of his brilliance, is to be so simple yet so effective.”
So while looking out, not down, from the pinnacle of the small college basketball world, Mangas is fully aware the Francis Award is presented to an individual, but no one gets it without “getting it.”
“I’m grateful to win this award. I know a lot of small colleges, whether that’s NAIA or (NCAA) DII, get overlooked a lot by NCAA Division I teams, and we don’t get a spotlight a lot of the times,” said Mangas.
“It’s pretty cool to be able to get an award like this and represent my family, Indiana Wesleyan and the town of Warsaw, because basketball means a lot to those communities.”
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“I started my Warsaw basketball career in second grade, playing on a third-grade level travel team in town with guys like Paul Marandet, guys like Riley Rhoades and Evan Schmidt who I’d go on to play high school ball.
“I went to Harrison Elementary, Edgewood Middle School, then on to play for Coach (Doug) Ogle in high school, where we had some really good teams.
“I’ve enjoyed memories of playing with my brother Jake for a year when he was a senior and I was a sophomore. We had some really successful teams, especially my junior and senior year. My junior year we started off 22-0 and were able to make it all the way to semistate, then in my senior year we won sectional again and almost won the regional.
“(Warsaw) was an awesome place to grow up. It’s a tight-knit basketball town where we were able to receive a lot of support from the community, which is awesome.”
While many in town thought Mangas should have received more attention from NCAA?Division I schools, especially within basketball-crazy Indiana, Mangas had IWU in mind almost from the start of the recruiting process.
“From the beginning of my freshman year I just started talking to the coaches and we just hit it off; just built a relationship with them. I went to a lot of workouts, camps, games, practices, really anything IWU,” he said. “I hung out with the players and got to know what the culture was all about, and it was really appealing to me.
“I knew it was a great fit for me, and a place where I could grow all around.”
“Playing in the perennially touch Crossroads League, which sent half its schools to the ultimately-cancelled NAIA Division II national tournament, probably helped the case for Mangas. The former Tiger knows there are no nights off in the league schedule.
“The Crossroads League is an outstanding league, and every team is very tough and competes night in, night out,” he said. “We know every single game is going to be a battle and if you don’t come prepared and don’t come ready to give your best shot, you’re probably going to lose that game.
“It’s high-level basketball where there’s a ton of skill and teams play together. I love playing in the Crossroads League.
The Francis accolade compliments the Mangas resume, which includes an NAIA Division II national championship following his freshman season two years ago. But winning the individual prize isn’t a substitute for a team title. The Wildcats spent the season at or near the top of the national polls, but had the chance to win a second title in three years taken away by the pandemic.
“(The award) doesn’t make up for it, because the No. 1 goal of every team is to win the national championship,” he said. “And we were right there, ready to play our first game when it was cancelled.
“It was a mix of emotions, disappointing and frustrating, and I hope this award will serve as a marker of some team success, because we really had a great season, and we felt like we had a good shot to win it all this year. We thought we were peaking at the right time and playing our best basketball of the season.”
Still, the award not only reflects on his career at IWU, but on the way he came up with strong faith, family and ethos.
“It accumulates all the way back to when I began playing basketball. It really stems from my family and how they raised me, with (an emphasis on) work ethic and character,” Mangas reflected. “Obviously, there’s the things I learned from my high school coach and my high school teammates.
“College is a whole other level, where you basically live with your teammates. You spend hours with them with a common goal.
“So a lot of people have helped me put a lot of hard work into it. I want to thank my mom and dad, by brother, my grandparents, and I want to especially thank Coach Ogle. He instilled a lot of qualities in me, with humility and discipline the main two things.
Ogle was quick to return the gratitude.
“I’m very happy for Kyle to be recognized in this way. He’s certainly deserving; no one can argue that.” said Ogle. “I’d take it a step further; I’d agree with anyone who would suggest Kyle is the best college basketball player in the state of Indiana.
“As I look at rosters of Notre Dame, Purdue, IU or Butler, I don’t see anybody on there that I think could go into the Crossroads League and score 2,500 points in three seasons. Indiana Wesleyan’s been great for him and he has been great for them.”
The former Warsaw head coach, who announced his retirement from coaching at the end of the 2019-20 season, said some might not have fully appreciated Mangas during his days as a Tiger.
“The most remarkable thing about Kyle, to me, is how efficient he is and how easy he makes it look to score as much as he does,” he said. “That’s hard to do, and I think it made him underappreciated as a high school player. He made it look easy, and really, it wasn’t. I think the essence of his brilliance, is to be so simple yet so effective.”
So while looking out, not down, from the pinnacle of the small college basketball world, Mangas is fully aware the Francis Award is presented to an individual, but no one gets it without “getting it.”
“I’m grateful to win this award. I know a lot of small colleges, whether that’s NAIA or (NCAA) DII, get overlooked a lot by NCAA Division I teams, and we don’t get a spotlight a lot of the times,” said Mangas.
“It’s pretty cool to be able to get an award like this and represent my family, Indiana Wesleyan and the town of Warsaw, because basketball means a lot to those communities.”
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