Roberts enjoys trip back to Lake Zurich

Losing is never fun.

But seeing old pictures of your head coach playing basketball in high school, sporting a dated hairdo, sure can be.

The Round Lake boys basketball team suffered a North Suburban Conference crossover loss to Lake Zurich last weekend, but the trip wasn't a total downer.

First year head coach Jim Roberts used to be a star guard at Lake Zurich in the mid-1990s. In just his second trip back to the school since he graduated in 1996, Roberts enjoyed sharing some of his memories with his current players.

“I walked around with the kids and showed them all this stuff, including the old gym that we used to play in,” said Roberts, who had never before coached against Lake Zurich in any of his previous jobs. “Then I showed them this picture that is on the wall of the 1995 team. We won a conference championship that year.

“I had this flat-top with the shaved sides and everything. A lot of guys wore their hair like that back then. Our kids had fun with that. They loved seeing me looking like that.”

Roberts, who now sports a much longer, spiky hairdo, graduated as Lake Zurich's all-time leading scorer with 1,300 points. A 6-foot-5 guard, he also owned the scoring record for most 3-pointers in a game, season and career. He spent three years on varsity.

Joining Roberts on his walk down memory lane were his two assistants at Round Lake, Jack Denny and Jay Iden. Both are also former Lake Zurich basketball players — Denny graduated in 1989 and Iden graduated in 2004.

“There were a lot of good memories and it was surreal to be back, coaching against Lake Zurich,” Roberts said. “For pretty much the whole first quarter, I was a little out of it. My family was there. I saw my eighth-grade coach there. It was kind of a reflective thing having that all come together like that.”

The Bears prevented Roberts and Co. from getting the storybook ending. Lake Zurich posted a 55-36 victory.

“Some of our kids were apologizing to me that they couldn't get a win for me at my old school,” Roberts said. “That was totally unnecessary, obviously. But it was nice in that it kind of showed that our relationship is growing and that the guys care.”

Rocked, and not rolling:

An ankle injury has taken away much more than Round Lake's starting point guard.

“Danny Uriostegui is our rock. We've lost our rock,” Round Lake coach Jim Roberts said. “He gets us in our offense, he directs our team, he's our calm. He does so many things for our team that go unnoticed, but are so important.”

Uriostegui has not played in a game for Round Lake since Christmas. He went down in practice the night before the Panthers' North Suburban Prairie Division game against Vernon Hills on Jan. 7.

“We thought his ankle was broken at first. It was really bad,” Roberts said. “But it turns out it's not broken, just very badly sprained.

“We're not sure when he'll be back. He's getting better, but all we can say right now is that he's day to day.”

Roberts is hoping for a day sooner rather than later. His team has been struggling to score lately — and he says Uriostegui's absence really hurts.

Over the last three games, all losses, Round Lake is averaging just 38 points per game.

“When Danny is healthy, he literally never comes out of the game,” Roberts said. “He is just that important to what we're trying to do out on the floor. He's also our best defensive player. We're really anxious to get him back.”

Getting better …:

Even in a 6-12 season, there can be bright spots.

First-year Carmel head coach Tim Bowen has found plenty. He continues to be impressed with the optimism and resiliency of his team, which is on its third coach in four years.

“Our guys are disappointed with the way the season has gone so far, but they're not giving up,” Bowen said. “They're still working hard to get some big wins and we continue to learn and get better.”

Bowen pointed to the marked improvement of players such as senior guard Doug Meyer, junior forward Brandon Motzel and junior guard Connor Jordan.

“These are all players who have come a long way since the beginning of the season,” Bowen said. “Just watching their progress has been fascinating.

“We knew that Doug was going to have a great year being a shooter and scorer for us. But where he has really improved is that he's made himself a more well-rounded basketball player. He's playing great defense, he's getting his teammates the ball, he's getting to the basket instead of just shooting jumpers.”

Bowen says that he's getting better defense and rebounding out of Motzel and that Jordan is learning to play more consistently.

…. And bigger:

While clear strides have been made this season at Carmel, there have been shortcomings.

According to head coach Tim Bowen, a common denominator in Carmel's losses this season is a deficiency in the strength department.

“The one thing I've learned about (the East Suburban Catholic Conference) is just how physical it is,” Bowen said. “I always knew it was physical, but it's even more than I knew and what I know now is that we need to get a lot stronger.

“I mean, we were looking at these kids from Benet. Some of them were on the underlevel teams, and even they looked like they had been in the weight room for a long time already. That sent a message to us coaches.”

Bowen says he's begun to consult with Carmel's football coaches and some outside strength trainers about how to beef up his team. He's also already thinking about how to design his weight program for the upcoming off-season.

“The weight program has always been mandatory in the past, but it's going to be a much higher priority now,” Bowen said. “It's not going to be where you come in and lift a bit and visit with your friends. We are going to get some work done in there. We're going to be busy. We've got to pick it up a lot in the weight room.”

One-hand wonder:

Even half of DaVaris Daniels is better than no DaVaris Daniels.

Vernon Hills has been reminded of that over the last couple of weeks as Daniels has managed to play his game even with just one good hand at his disposal.

Daniels, a star football player who will strut his stuff at Notre Dame in the fall, played in a high school All-American football game in Florida on Jan. 5. In the game, Daniels dinged up his left hand, to the point where he was unable to use it normally because scar tissue had built up.

But that didn't stop Daniels on the basketball court.

He had two of his better efforts of the season just after suffering the injury, scoring 20 points against Round Lake and 22 points against North Chicago.

“I've never seen anything like it,” Vernon Hills coach Matt McCarty said. “He was basically doing all that with one hand. You could tell that he was having trouble dribbling with his left hand, he was having trouble rebounding with his left hand.

“But he hung in there pretty well and was able to put together a couple of really good games even though he wasn't close to feeling his best.”

Tall order:

With 10 players taller than 6 feet and three who are 6-5 or taller, Lake Zurich boasts one of the tallest rosters in the area.

But the Bears haven't always used that size advantage as an advantage.

“Definitely not as much as we'd like to,” said Lake Zurich coach Billy Pitcher, whose tallest player is 6-8 center Drake Orser, followed by 6-7 center Tyler Every and 6-5 forward Mirko Grcic. “One of the problems is that we aren't always getting the ball to our big kids enough because we're turning the ball over before we can do that.

“We've had a trouble with turnovers all year. I remember when we played Highland Park, it was frustrating because they have so many small guys and we weren't able to take advantage of our height because we kept turning the ball over.”

When the Bears' big bodies do get the ball, good things usually happen.

Grcic leads the team in scoring, while Orser and Every provide a big presence in the lane on both ends. They are among the team's best rebounders and shot blockers.

“Drake had a lot of early success inside and people really key on him, which opens up our outside shooters,” Pitcher said. “And Tyler has quick feet and can really move. He can get around and do a lot of things for us.”

Libertyville's super seniors:

Grandmas and Grandpas love basketball, too.

Next week, they'll be able to love it for free at Libertyville.

The Wildcats will be hosting “Senior Citizen Night” for Tuesday's North Suburban Conference game against Lake Zurich. Fans ages 65 and older will be admitted free of charge for both the sophomore game, which starts at 5:30 p.m., and the varsity game, which tips at 7 p.m.

Scott Schwerman of the Junior Wildcats has contacted local retirement homes to help promote the event, and players and students at Libertyville are encouraged to invite their neighbors and grandparents to the game.

Special seating and wheelchair space will be available.