Warren, Vernon Hills find assists lead to victories
’Tis the season for giving and the Warren and Vernon Hills boys basketball teams have been in the spirit in a big way.
Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the Blue Devils and the Cougars are two of the best teams in Lake County right now.
Warren is 4-1 heading into Saturday’s big North Suburban Lake Division tilt against Mundelein (6-1), and Vernon Hills is 7-0 prior to its Prairie Division matchup Saturday against Grant.
The key to such great starts?
Both coaches say their players happily “give” up the ball. As in, shooting isn’t always a first priority. The Blue Devils and the Cougars emphasize the idea of making one more pass, especially if it means that they’ll get a better shot at the basket.
“We’ve got a lot of different guys who like to make that extra pass,” Vernon Hills coach Matt McCarty said. “We’re getting multiple guys each game with 3 or 4 assists. We’re doing a really good job of sharing the basketball and it starts with our best player.”
That would be senior forward DaVaris Daniels, who will be playing football next year at the University of Notre Dame but has also been one of the best basketball players in the area since his high school career began.
He is averaging about 18 points per game this season.
“It could be a lot more,” McCarty said of Daniels’ point production. “He could be getting 25 points a game, but he’s doing a great job of sharing the ball and finding his teammates and we have a lot of balance because of that. We’ve had several different guys in double figures this season.”
Like Daniels, guard Chris Argianas is also averaging double figures for Vernon Hills. He’s at 13 points per game.
At Warren, only one player junior forward Darius Paul is averaging double figures (11.4 ppg).
But the Blue Devils are getting the job done by committee. Averaging nearly 15 assists per game, Warren is spreading the ball around, and the points, too.
Balance has become the Blue Devils’ most dangerous weapon.
Six players, Paul (11.4), Nathan Boothe (9.4), Brandon Ferguson (9.0), Jeremiah Jackson (8.8), JoVaughn Gaines (7.6) and Tanner Erbach (7.2) average between 7 and 11 points.
“We have a lot of different kids capable of putting the ball in the basket and the good thing is that the kids all look for each other,” said Warren coach Chuck Ramsey. “You’re a much more effective basketball team that way because the defense has to guard everyone.”
More games, please:
Having played a total of 25 games last season, Warren had the fewest number of games on its schedule of any team in the North Suburban Conference.
Mundelein and Lakes, for instance, played 32 games during the 2009-2010 season.
Although the lighter schedule was a matter of circumstance, Warren coach Chuck Ramsey wasn’t happy about it.
He saw his team’s lack of court time as a competitive disadvantage. And that’s why the Blue Devils went shopping over the off-season.
For more games.
Now, Warren will play in three tournaments during the regular season instead of the two in which the Blue Devils typically compete over Thanksgiving and Christmas. New this year is the Martin Luther King Classic at Galesburg in January.
The tournament guarantees five games: two on the Saturday before Martin Luther King Day and two on Monday, the day the holiday is observed. The other game will be played next week against Maine South in Park Ridge simply because there won’t be enough time or gym space in Galesburg over the holiday weekend in January.
“We’re happy about being in this Galesburg tournament because we knew we weren’t getting enough games,” Ramsey said. “The Thanksgiving tournament we play in has only four teams, so you’re getting only three games there when some teams are getting five games over Thanksgiving. And over Christmas, we play at Pontiac and that’s one of the few tournaments out there where you don’t get a predetermined number of games. You get only 2 losses.
“For instance, if you go to Wheeling for Christmas, you get four games no matter what, whether you win all of them or lose them all. At Pontiac, you could get off to a rough start, lose your first two games and you’re done.”
That happened to Warren last year. After 2 quick losses in Pontiac, the Blue Devils were home sitting while other teams kept playing.
“Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we were falling behind in games. By adding another tournament, we’re essentially adding three more games,” Ramsey said. “That will be a busy stretch for us (in January), but it will be worth it. We want to challenge our kids and we want to get them as much game experience as possible.”
What if?
As the Vernon Hills football team rolled through its magical season this fall, basketball coach Matt McCarty was coming up with a Plan B.
Two weeks before his team’s first Thanksgiving tournament game, the football Cougars were getting ready for their quarterfinal playoff game. And with eight (DaVaris Daniels, Chris Argianas, Patrick Crowley, Stephen Curry, Jarrett Wood, John Foley, Brian Berzanski and Dustin Rusch) of his 12 players on the football team, McCarty knew his season opener could be tough.
“It turned out that we (the Vernon Hills football team) lost to Kaneland in the quarterfinals, but had we kept winning, I was prepared to play our Thanksgiving tournament games with our sophomore team,” McCarty said with a bit of a laugh. “I think I lost some sleep over that, but it ended up being great for us.
“While our football guys were still with the football team, we had our sophomores up and we were running them through full varsity practices as if they were the varsity team. It was a lot of fun and I think it gave those kids a little taste of the expectations and the competition level present at the varsity level. That was a good experience for them.”
What rust?
Despite being in total football mode through mid-November, Chris Argianas needed little time to shift gears to basketball.
The Vernon Hills guard, who also served as the Cougars’ starting quarterback, got only a handful of practices with the hoops team before tipping off for the first time. But just three games into the season, he was already looking like he had spent the entire fall in the gym working on his shot.
Against Evergreen Park in a Thanksgiving tournament game, Argianas rolled up a school-record eight 3-pointers. Next, Vernon Hills played Carmel and Argianas drained five 3-pointers.
“Chris really took a pounding in football and then a week or two later, he’s out there going nuts on Evergreen Park,” Vernon Hills coach Matt McCarty said. “DaVaris (Daniels) has been the same way. I was kind of surprised at how quickly our guys from football were able to bounce right into basketball season.”
But make no mistake. McCarty wouldn’t mind if his football players carry a little bit of football with them this season.
Eight of his 12 players were on the football team, which went 10-2, pitched shutouts through the first seven games and advanced to the quarterfinals.
“We really want to use the success of the football season as a positive for us in basketball,” McCarty said. “We’re hoping that winning attitude, that swagger really carries over. I’m already seeing that it has in some ways. I get the feeling that this group really believes that it can beat anyone.”
Mr. Milestone:
Welcome to the club, Ryan Sawvell!
With a game-high 27 points against Lake Forest on Tuesday, the 6-foot-8 Mundelein forward scored his 1,000th career point, which ranks him among the top 15 scorers in school history. He has 1,024 total points.
“He is a great story,” Mundelein coach Dick Knar said of Sawvell. “He did not play basketball until seventh grade. He is a self-made player. You can tell I’m a proud coach.”
Meanwhile, Warren coach Chuck Ramsey is a bit of an apprehensive coach. His Blue Devils take on Sawvell and Mundelein on Saturday in a showdown of the top two teams in the North Suburban Lake Division. Warren is 4-1 and Mundelein is 6-1.
“Sawvell is really, really good and he keeps getting better,” Ramsey said. “He was outstanding (against Lake Forest). He just kept playing and playing and playing and carried his team.”
Family tradition:
Not much has changed about Lake Zurich’s top player since last year.
Only a vowel.
Marko Grcic was the Bears’ only all-conference selection in 2010. Now, his younger brother is among the best players in the North Suburban Conference.
Miko Grcic, a 6-foot-5 junior forward, is averaging about 15 points and 10 rebounds a game this season. He had a season-high 20 points in Lake Zurich’s win over Palatine during Thanksgiving tournament action.
“Mirko is a real versatile player,” Lake Zurich coach Billy Pitcher said. “With his size, he can go inside, but he can also shoot the three and handle the ball. He’s a really tough match-up for people.”
Double trouble:
It didn’t come as a huge surprise that Round Lake guard Juddon Carter saw double teams against Antioch on Tuesday.
He entered that game having twice scored 27 points in previous games.
Antioch’s approach worked on paper. But even though the Sequoits held Carter to just 6 points, Round Lake coach Jim Roberts says that the Antioch game was Carter’s best of the season.
“It’s the way Juddon handled the situation,” Roberts said. “It’s easy to get frustrated when you’re being played like that, when the defense is focusing on you and double-teaming you. You don’t get the ball in your hands very often and when you do, you sometimes force it because you’re so anxious to make something happen.
“But Juddon didn’t do that at all. He didn’t make any of his shots in the first half, but he wasn’t forcing things and getting frustrated. He was really patient and in the second half, he ended up hitting two huge 3-pointers that helped us win the game.”
Big basket:
Nick Lange’s basket in the final seconds of regulation Tuesday not only helped Round Lake get a 53-51 win over Antioch, it also helped give his team a major mental victory.
In the confidence department.
The Panthers have struggled in recent years with multiple losing seasons and needed a spectacular win like that.
“After the game, we were so excited. I don’t think even my family understood how exciting it was for us and how important a win like that was,” said first-year Round Lake coach Jim Roberts, who is trying to change the culture at Round Lake. “It was huge for us and our confidence to know that we can close out a game like that.
“I also think it helped the guys to understand that the work we’ve been putting in will pay off.”
The victory moved Round Lake to 3-4 overall and 2-0 in the North Suburban Prairie Division. The Panthers host defending Prairie Division champion North Chicago on Saturday.