Four classes bring many changes

Last week the state got its first look at what a four-class basketball system will look like for the IHSA postseason tournament.

While the big schools remain in the biggest class of 4A, the scenery will change. Instead of DuPage County teams heading to their traditional supersectional spot of Northern Illinois University, they're bound for Chicago State University.

Most of the local 4A teams still feed into the East Aurora sectional, although Downers North and South and Hinsdale Central and South are grouped in the opposite sectional that doesn't yet have a host site.

The main changes come in the other three classes, including in 1A, where Immaculate Conception is the lone local team. Driscoll, Timothy Christian and Lisle reside in 2A.

Fenton hosts a 3A regional, although if the Bison win it they'll have to head up north to a sectional at Antioch. Glenbard South, Montini, Wheaton Academy and St. Francis would face an easier 3A commute in the Riverside-Brookfield sectional.

Nice start:ŒNaperville Central has the unenviable task of opening the DuPage Valley Conference season with the annual dreaded road trip to West Aurora.

"When is there a good time to catch West Aurora?" joked Redhawks coach Pete Kramer. "I'd rather catch them early than late."

Actually, the timing might be perfect for the Redhawks.

They're coming off a 4-0 run at Fenton's Chuck Mitchell Thanksgiving tournament, the program's third title in five years that earned junior Drew Crawford MVP honors and Dan Ondik an all-tournament selection.

West Aurora, meanwhile, swept three games at its tournament in Rock Island.

"I don't think we could be in a better situation team-wise than we are right now," Kramer said. "We're playing so well."

Naperville Central closed strong in each of its four wins, scoring at least 20 fourth-quarter points in all of them. That included a 25-point performance in the title game against Rolling Meadows as the Redhawks rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit.

Back on the ball:ŒWithout seven football players -- including returning starter Kendrick Perry -- who were preparing for the Class 7A state title game, Wheaton Warrenville South's basketball team won all four of its games at the Wheaton Academy tournament.

How quickly will the football Tigers climb into basketball uniforms? Actually, it already happened.

Several of the players came to Monday's junior varsity game against Glenbard North and jumped right into a few minutes of game action.

"They didn't have to be there, but they decided to come out," said Tigers coach Mike Healy. "We figured we might as well get them some conditioning."

WW South didn't play as well as Healy had hoped at Wheaton Academy, but the Tigers still claimed the title. Healy credited Sam Carlson for playing the most consistent ball while Derek Babb and Byron Given also performed well.

Most important, though, is the Tigers played better as the tournament went along.

"It's early, and I understand that," Healy said. "We played our best games at the end of the week, so that was a positive."

Big man, big start: One of the area's top big men, Driscoll's 6-10 Jake Lindfors, fairly dominated at the Lisle Thanksgiving Tournament.

Lindfors showed why Division I Albany offered him a scholarship after averaging 27.2 points, 14 rebounds and 2 blocked shots in five games at Lisle.

Lindfors scored 42 points with 16 rebounds against Montini, and 25 points with 20 rebounds in a loss to Timothy Christian.

With Highlanders point guard Austin Baker and guard-wing David Schwabe occupied with the state football championships, Driscoll coach Nick Latorre also asked Lindfors to handle the ball.

"He's scoring for us," Latorre said. "He's really done a pretty good job of helping us with handling the ball given our personnel situation that we're in. You certainly can't complain with (averages of) 27 and 14."

Being put in a new position as ballhandler, Lindfors made his share of turnovers in the tournament -- most in the category of "trying to do too much."

"He's trying to make the great pass," Latorre said. "And not being an experienced guard, never in his life has he been asked to bring the ball up."

Driscoll fell to North Lawndale the last day of the tournament -- last year's Class AA runner-up, Lawndale went 5-0 -- but the Highlanders would have liked to have back their 58-56 loss to Timothy Christian.

Driscoll missed a pair of free throws with six seconds left that could have clinched the win. Timothy's 5-6 hustling guard, Andrew Logan, dribbled down and smacked a running 3-pointer off the backboard for the win.

Injury bug: Montini's Dex Jones spent the past four months hitting, and being hit, as a running back and linebacker for the Broncos football team without being injured.

Step onto the hardcourt and look what happens.

Four days before starting the season at Lisle, Jones suffered an injury to his right ring finger that benched him for all five games. He'll be out an additional two weeks, Montini coach Tom Sloan said Wednesday.

Over at Wheaton Academy, the Warriors were rolling along in their first Thanksgiving tournament. They opened with a win over Hope and followed with a win over Streamwood the next day.

But at halftime of that Streamwood game, 6-8 sophomore forward Tim Rusthoven said he didn't feel well.

He didn't return and hasn't played since. Wheaton Academy coach Paul Ferguson called it a "medical condition" and said there's no specific timetable for Rusthoven's return.

The two-year starter, who would have helped in a 41-31 loss to Wheaton Warrenville South in the Warriors' third game of the tourney, had averaged 13 points, 7 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in his first two games.

No guts, no glory: It's too soon to project for the entire season, but Downers Grove North has gotten off to a good start under first-year coach Jim Thomas.

The Trojans won all three games at their own Thanksgiving tourney and continued Tuesday with a 64-53 win over Addison Trail.

"All the kids are buying into the system and doing whatever it takes to win, just scrapping every which way," said Thomas, the former all-area Wheaton North Falcon and three-time Augustana defensive player of the year.

Three-year starting guard Wes Love led the Trojans with 20 points against Addison Trail, and WW South transfer Deon Thomas added 15.

It's been a group effort in the points department, however. Thomas said a different player led in scoring in each of Downers North's first four games.

"We have a lot of kids averaging 8-12 points right now," Thomas said. "It's really an unselfish team."

They seem to give it their all on the practice court and in games.

Love threw up twice in the Addison Trail game -- once, Thomas said, on the side of his coach's pants.

"To see a kid do that -- leave his guts on the floor -- made us awfully proud of him," Thomas said.

Last season the Trojans started at 2-2 in their tournament, then moved to 3-2 before getting beat up in the West Suburban Silver and finishing the season with a record of 5-23.