It was a tough 2014-15 season for the ADM boys basketball team, which went 3-19. One major bright spot, however, was the play of sophomore Matt Larson.

In his first year on the varsity squad, Larson was named Second Team All-Raccoon River River Conference. He lead the Tigers in scoring (13.2) and assists (67), while shooting a cool 45.5 percent from the floor and an impressive 42.7 percent on 3-pointers, also a team-best.

Larson carried a struggling ADM offense on many occasions, the result being some sparkling individual efforts. He eclipsed the 20-point mark on three different occasions, scoring a career-high 25 points on 5-of-10 three-point shooting in a loss to Perry on February 3.

Quiet by nature, the young Larson prefers to let his practice habits and game do the talking.

“I think he naturally leads by his work ethic. He likes basketball a lot. He’s willing to put in the time,” Tigers head coach Aaron Mager said. “He didn’t become a great shooter because he just fell into it. He puts in the reps and he puts it in the right way.”

Moving forward, Larson will have to become more crisp with other areas of his game to reach his full potential. Mager said Larson’s high level of confidence was at times a “double-edged sword” because the sophomore would become too casual with the ball, leading to unforced turnovers.

“And I think he found this year, you know, you made a big leap when you’re a sophomore making varsity, that’s a big jump from freshmen playing freshmen and a little bit of JV,” Mager said. “So maybe he learned that this year, maybe he’ll take that into his AAU where, ‘I’ve got to be more solid, more steady, so I can be that rock we lean on, even if I don’t verbalize much’ – which I don’t think he will. It’s kind of against his nature, I guess, to be real, real vocal, rah-rah, not that we need that anyway.

“But we need him to be the guy that makes plays when we need him to make plays, and he did that a lot for this year, I’ve got to be honest. He had a really good sophomore year. But going forward as a junior and senior, yeah, he needs to be an extension of the coaching staff as to how demanding he is of how steady we are.”

Larson is a student of the game, and plays year-round, as Mager alluded to. There’s no reason to think he won’t make those improvements, and when he does, the rest of the conference will be on notice.