Grinding out the dog days
The period of the basketball season between the holiday tournaments and the playoffs always has been something of a grind ... even for Eyes on Five.
The basketball season is the longest in high school sports. The weather stinks. Sometimes it's hard just to get to games through the snow, and getting off the bus is no treat when the temperature is in single digits.
Just like how they sometimes have to grind out individual games, players and coaches sometimes have to work through the grind of the dog days of January.
Please allow Eyes on Five to guide you through the grind.
1. The original:
Jim O'Boye has been putting on his girls basketball shootout for 26 years, first at DePaul University, now at Willowbrook High School.
"It was the only event of its type for girls basketball, really for boys basketball, too," he said. "There weren't any shootouts. We sort of started the whole parade."
It's been quite a parade. These days conference play slows so teams can go to a shootout. O'Boye's two-day shootout not only features some of the best teams in Illinois but also surrounding states. This year's top-ranked Indiana team, Homestead of Fort Wayne, will play twice, including a 6:30 p.m. Saturday game against Benet.
"I don't bring in as many teams from out of state as I used to for no particular reason," he said. "One of the attractions is to see new teams and different players."
There can be as much action in the stands or in front of the concession stand as on the court, with college coaches milling about, talking with each other, high school coaches and players. O'Boye said 90 college coaches, from the junior college level through Division I, were there for the Monday session at last year's event.
"For the coaches it's nice because they can see 18 games in one day," he said.
There is one difference this year. Longtime sponsor McDonald's dropped out but was quickly replaced by Subway.
"I'm building a relationship with Subway so I can keep doing this event for many years," O'Boye said.
2. A treat:
OK, maybe it's not as big a treat to have the 8 a.m. game Saturday at Willowbrook as the Wheaton Warrenville South girls do. Or the 9:30 a.m. game, like Wheaton North does.
Still, it's nice to get away from your conference rivals for a day and play a different team on something of a big stage. Because that is what Willowbrook High School becomes for this weekend every year. It's a big gym and O'Boye spices up the pregame introductions by including statistics and college commitments for some seniors.
"It's a big event and it's just the place to be. They perceive this as something very nice and prestigious," O'Boye said. "They perceive it as something bigger than the normal high school game."
Montini junior Kaylee Bambule, who has 10 Division I offers, said she looks forward to the event.
"Yeah. It's a big crowd always, and we're playing a team (Joliet Catholic), that's a rival with Montini so it's going to be a good game," she said.
"We love that event," adding Broncos coach Jason Nichols. "It's a local event. We're playing (Joliet Catholic), who our school has a little bit of a rivalry with. Even though they had some kids transfer, they still have Nicole Ekhomu (a Florida State recruit), they still have great shooters in Kaitlyn Williams and Mia Farrell. They still have a pretty good role player in Andriana Acosta."
O'Boye said one of his hardest parts of putting on this shootout is telling a team it won't be invited back.
3. Kings of the hill:
Through the first 12 games of the season, Glenbard West's boys basketball team wore its road uniforms only once. It was in the Hilltoppers' Thanksgiving tournament game against Hinsdale South played on Glenbard East's neutral court.
Surprisingly, they faced their first two road tests of the season last week while beating St. Charles East and, in West Suburban Silver play, Oak Park. They won both.
Despite the growing pressure of being unbeaten at 14-0, the Hilltoppers keep responding. Maybe because they don't feel the pressure.
"I don't think pressure's a factor at all," said Glenbard West coach Tim Hoder. "At no point have we said being unbeaten is a goal for us. It's not anything we've ever talked about."
Still, Glenbard West provides every opponent with a double whammy of motivation. Not only do they want to be the team that beats the Hilltoppers for the first time, they want to be the team that slows William & Mary-bound forward Justin Pierce, who's averaging 25.2 points and 11.1 rebounds as one of the state's elite players.
Will Glenbard West make it through the regular season undefeated? The odds are obviously against the Hilltoppers.
But with each victory - especially Silver road wins like Oak Park - the thought becomes more interesting. And the opposition's motivation to beat them becomes greater.
"With our record obviously people are going to want to beat us," Hoder said. "But every year we get everyone's best effort in the league. That's just life in our league."
4. Host with the most:
In its attempt to switch up supersectional sites, the IHSA may have done Hinsdale Central's boys basketball team a great favor.
The IHSA recently unveiled its regional, sectional and supersectional hosts. Hinsdale Central made the list in Class 4A, but not in its typical slot.
Instead of playing host to a supersectional - something the Red Devils have done the last six seasons - they'll be hosting a regional. The prestige of hosting a supersectional may be nice but the reality of hosting a regional is ... well ... real.
For six years the Red Devils needed to win four postseason games in someone else's gym to earn the opportunity to play in their own. This year - for the first time since 2004 - they'll start the playoffs at home.
It's an advantage that places Hinsdale Central in a much better position to knock off whatever top-four seed the IHSA sends to the historic gymnasium.
So even though we mourn the loss of a pretty cool supersectional atmosphere, the Red Devils are probably celebrating the change.
5. Stat time:
What do Glenbard West's football team and boys basketball team have in common? Their unbeaten records.
In the fall the Hilltoppers' football team went 14-0 while rolling to the Class 7A state title. It's the same record the boys hoops team achieved with last Friday's win at Oak Park.
Which begs the question...when was the last time a high school's football and boys basketball team went 14-0 in the same school year? Has it ever happened?
We don't have the resources to check it out but, regardless, it's pretty impressive stuff.
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