Down to the nitty-gritty of the basketball season
Eyes on Five has some good news and some bad news.
The good news is the girls basketball playoffs are in full swing and the boys basketball playoffs are right around the corner.
The bad news is this is the last edition of the season for Eyes on Five as we shift into full postseason mode.
We offer three final words of wisdom: Enjoy the playoffs!
1. The darkhorses:
As we've discussed before, the Class 4A East Aurora boys basketball sectional field is fascinating.
At least a handful of teams could win the title, a list of squads headed by the top seeds: Benet, Glenbard West, Naperville North, Hinsdale South and Downers Grove South.
The big question, however, doesn't involve the number of teams that can win the sectional.
The question we should be asking is how many other teams can knock off the favorites?
Sixth-seeded York, champion of the Jack Tosh Holiday Classic, beat Naperville North and Downers South. Hinsdale Central, which has won five straight, just beat Glenbard West and hosts a regional as a 10th seed. Heck, any of the West Suburban Silver teams in the sectional can pull off an upset.
Same with the DuPage Valley Conference squads. It's not a stretch to imagine Matt Dacy-Seijo's perimeter shooting leading No. 8 Wheaton Warrenville South to an upset playoff win. Same with Rowan McGowen and Luke Anthony for No. 7 Wheaton North. Same with Matthew Meier and No. 9 Naperville Central. Same with No. 13 Metea Valley.
What about Tai Bibbs and 19-win West Chicago, an 11th seed? Or 12th-seeded Glenbard East, which has beaten West Chicago twice and also hosts a regional?
The bottom line is that one of the top seeds likely will claim the East Aurora sectional title because not many teams can string together four straight wins against quality competition. That being said, an additional 10 teams are capable of knocking off one of the top seeds in regional play.
Don't be surprised if or when it happens.
2. Unlucky dogs:
The Class 4A boys basketball pairings won't be announced until Friday afternoon, but you can get an idea of what the matchups might look like based on the seeds.
There's a long potential list of unlucky teams at the East Aurora sectional.
If No. 8 WW South and No. 9 Naperville Central end up together, that's not good for either. It'd be their third meeting after they split in DVC play.
Beyond that, though, the Tigers and Redhawks likely will be sent in a grouping with No. 1 Benet. The Redwings just happen to be hosting a regional, which won't be fun for any of their regional opponents.
Another potential unlucky team is Glenbard West, which likely receives no reward for being the No. 2 seed. It's possible the Hilltoppers will be sent to the Hinsdale Central regional - to the gym where the Red Devils beat Glenbard West last week.
Seventh-seeded Wheaton North and No. 15 Proviso West also might be sent to the Hinsdale Central regional. If it happens, that'd mean Glenbard West would be grouped with the only three teams to beat them this season.
Nice draw.
The list of unlucky teams will be longer, but it's tough to project too much until the pairings are announced.
3. Lombard vs. Lombard:
The Glenbard East girls basketball Twitter account had it right in a Tuesday night tweet: David vs. Goliath.
No. 8-seeded Glenbard East's reward for its stirring 51-50 come-from-behind victory Tuesday against Lake Park in a Class 4A Elk Grove regional semifinal is a date with Montini in the regional final Friday night.
That's No. 1-seeded, No. 4 state-ranked Montini (28-2), with four state championships to its credit. That's the Montini that calls Lombard home, just as Glenbard East (19-10) does.
The Rams aren't shying away from the matchup.
"I think it should be a good game," Rams senior guard Ashley Brown said. "I think we actually have a chance to keep up with them if we play our game."
The game means a lot to the underdog Rams, who would love to reach the 20-win milestone for the first time since 1987-88 and win a rare regional title.
For Montini it's just another game on the road to Normal. The Broncos have their sights set on another state title.
"It'll be a tough game," said Rams coach Don Finnie, who hopes senior forward and second-leading rebounder Amanda Chlebek can play after leaving Tuesday's win with an ankle injury. "That's a big part of our offense. And basically a big part of our defense."
Montini coach Jason Nichols said he thinks the two schools last played about 11-12 years ago. The Broncos won.
4. Back-to-back:
Don't get Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum started about this week's regional schedule.
Assigned to the Class 4A Lemont regional, the Redhawks opened Wednesday night with a semifinal win against Lockport. That earned the Redhawks a trip back to Lemont the very next night against Bolingbrook.
No rest for the weary there.
Most regionals allow a day or two in between the semifinals and final. Say, a Tuesday-Thursday schedule or Wednesday-Friday.
A Wednesday-Thursday schedule is, well, odd.
"I've never done this, exclusive of the state tournament, in 28 years of coaching, I've never had to play back-to-back," Nussbaum said. "Not regionals, not sectionals. It's unnecessary. They'd never ask the boys to do this."
Boys regionals rarely play more than one semifinal in a night. It's almost always one semifinal Tuesday, one Wednesday with the final Friday. The girls usually double up in the semifinals.
"Because we didn't know who we were going to play (Wednesday), we practiced Monday on Bolingbrook," Nussbaum said. "We practiced Tuesday on Lockport, because there's no sense in spending an hour of time on Plainfield South if we don't know if we're going to play them or not (they didn't). At this time of year, Monday morning's a distant memory, so we're going to have to maybe have a little bit of a walk-through before we get on the bus."
Naperville Central isn't the only DuPage County team playing on consecutive nights. Neuqua Valley's win Wednesday against Naperville North bought the Wildcats a ticket back to Yorkville on Thursday to play the host team.
5. Stat time:
This week Glenbard West wrapped up the outright West Suburban Conference Silver Division championship while Downers Grove South clinched the outright Gold title.
Congratulations to both teams for completing quite a turnaround.
A year ago Downers South finished last in the Gold with a 2-10 record and the Hilltoppers were sixth in the Silver at 4-8.
Heading into this weekend, Glenbard West has nine Silver wins and the Mustangs boast 10. In other words they've combined for three times as many conference wins as last season.
The teams will meet in the WSC first-place game Wednesday at Downers South.
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