Saints' tourney grows in stature
Only seconds after the 2007 St. Charles East Thanksgiving ended Saturday night, tournament officials were already looking ahead to next year.
That's because the St. Charles East Thanksgiving tournament will be turning 50.
And an already stacked field that includes this year's champion St. Joseph along with Proviso East, Proviso West, East Aurora and both St. Charles schools figures to be even better.
"A lot of people have it as the No. 1 Thanksgiving tournament in Illinois," St. Charles East coach Brian Clodi said. "We obviously feel it is. The crazy thing is it's going to be better because St. Joe is young, Proviso East is going to have everybody back, Proviso West is going to have everybody back, St. Charles North is going to have the majority of theirs back. It is going to be a great tournament for years to come."
Wheaton North, after taking third the past two years, improved to second, losing 58-54 to St. Joseph in the championship game.
"It's a great tournament," Wheaton North coach Jim Nazos said. "You find out where you are at right away."
St. Charles East finished sixth, one spot ahead of St. Charles North. Both teams went 1-3 with its lone win coming against Proviso West.
"We're guarding against putting too much into this being an indication of how we are going to play the rest of the way," St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said. "This tournament is a tool we're going to try to use the rest of the way. There's a lot of teams here you won't want to face down the road."
The nucleus of the North Stars' team played football, and several other players in the rotation are baseball standouts. So trying to get them all on the same page on the basketball court is the main focus early in the season.
"This group hasn't played together," Poulin said. "We are trying to form a team. I don't want to beat a dead horse, but we have a lot of guys who haven't played basketball in awhile. We're coming together as a team, learning our roles. We want to increase our basketball IQ and really become quality teammates. As the season goes along we'll be fine. I'm pleased with the effort."
The Saints also have several new faces in their lineup, and that might have contributed to three straight losses that easily could have been wins.
St. Charles East led Prospect 66-61 with two minutes to go but gave up the last 11 points of the game. The Saints were up 50-48 on tournament St. Joseph but missed 6 free throws in the final three minutes, then allowed a tying basket with 7 seconds left and lost in overtime.
St. Charles East concluded the tournament with a 3-point loss to East Aurora.
"We're going the right direction, we're getting better every game," Clodi said. "This team believes it can win every game. We're close."
Senior Collin Pryor was the only player from the two St. Charles schools to make the all-tournament team.
"It's (the close losses) going to make us stronger as a team," Pryor said. "The biggest thing right now is we have a lot of inexperience. It's just something we need to adjust to and as time goes on and we practice we'll get smarter and have a better on-court intelligence. It will come along."