IHSA awards Jacobs sectional in new format
Though the boys basketball regular season is less than two weeks old, the postseason began taking shape this week when the IHSA announced sectional assignments for the new 4-class system.
In Classes 3A and 4A, sectionals in which all the schools are located within the seven-county Chicago metropolitan area are considered sectional complexes. Those seeding meetings will be held at the sectional site as usual.
However, any sectional that includes teams from outside Chicagoland has teams pre-assigned to four regional sites. The seeding meetings for those regionals will take place at the regional sites.
Jacobs, which officially christens its new competition gym tonight with a girls/boys varsity doubleheader against Prairie Ridge, was named a Class 4A sectional host, which could be a big boost to the Golden Eagles' downstate quest.
Because the Jacobs sectional includes Rockford-area schools, all teams have been pre-assigned to regionals to cut down on travel expenses.
Regional hosts within the Jacobs sectional include Larkin, Crystal Lake South, Rockford Boylan and Hononegah.
The winner of the Jacobs sectional will play at Northern Illinois University for a chance to advance to the Final Four in Peoria.
Jacobs, the likely No. 1 seed, has been assigned to the Crystal Lake South regional along with the host school, Prairie Ridge, Cary-Grove and Dundee-Crown. That means for the second straight year the Golden Eagles could be forced to play a Valley Division rival on its home floor just to win a regional.
Jacobs was 26-1 last season when it was upset by Dundee-Crown on the Chargers' home floor in the regional title game.
"I'll tell you what, if we don't make it to the sectional at our place this time, I'm shutting off all the lights and locking the doors," Jacobs coach Jim Hinkle said, half-jokingly.
The Larkin regional could provide a neutral-site rematch for Elgin and St. Charles East. Last year the Saints nipped the Maroons in overtime in a regional title game played in St. Charles.
Of course, South Elgin, St. Charles North, Streamwood and the host Royals will have a say in whether that rematch occurs.
Bartlett was assigned to the East Aurora sectional, which is an eclectic grouping of teams from seven conferences, stretching from York in the east to Geneva in the west.
Bartlett was named a regional host along with Willowbrook, Waubonsie Valley and Naperville North.
Class 3A:ŒBurlington Central will compete in the Freeport sectional, which has regional sites at Sycamore, Crystal Lake Central, Dixon and Belvidere North.
Regional assignments are already in place for this sectional. The Rockets will compete in the Sycamore regional, where they could face a March rematch against the host Spartans.
By then Central should be a much different team than the one that fell behind Sycamore by 25 points last weekend at the Leland G. Strombom Holiday tournament and eventually lost 77-64.
Huntley has been assigned to the Crystal Lake Central regional, so the Red Raiders might have to beat a Fox Division rival on its home court to advance.
Also in the mix at CL Central will be Johnsburg, Richmond-Burton and Marian Central.
Class 2A:ŒClass 1A and 2A schools are grouped in sub-sectionals with seeding meetings to be held at the sub-sectional site.
St. Edward and Hampshire are assigned to sub-sectional B of the Byron sectional.
Other teams assigned to the same sub-sectional include Genoa-Kingston, Plano, Rockford Christian, Rockford Christian Life, Stillman Valley, Winnebago and regional hosts North Boone and Aurora Christian.
Class 1A:ŒWestminster Christian has high hopes of advancing deep into the small-school tournament with loads of returning talent. Hosting a regional within sub-sectional A of the Somonauk sectional will only help that cause.
Immaculate Conception is the other sub-sectional host in a far-flung grouping of Northeastern Illinois schools.
Homage:ŒThe Crystal Lake South basketball program will honor the man who built it tonight.
Gary Collins, went 397-301 in 25 seasons in two coaching stints between 1978 and 2005.
His teams won 8 conference titles, 7 regional titles and earned 1 sectional crown in 1982-83 when the Gators finished 26-3.
Collins will be presented with a personalized version of Crystal Lake South's new jersey, embroidered with a special "G.C." logo, which can also be seen on t-shirts worn by the players and coaches.
Head coach Dan DeBruycker and his staff have invited back all the basketball alumni spanning Collins 25 years, all of whom will sign a special gift to be presented to their former coach.
"Crystal Lake South basketball as we know it wouldn't exist without the efforts of Gary Collins," DeBruycker said. "Thanks to him we have Gator Alley and the summer tournament. It should be a great night with so many former players in attendance."
New digs:ŒThe new competition gym at Jacobs High School hosts a girls/boys varsity doubleheader tonight, but that's just part of a larger basketball festival.
The Algonquin school will host eight games on four courts against teams from Prairie Ridge.
The new 2-500 seat competition gym will host the girls varsity game at 6 p.m., followed by the boys varsity.
The sophomore girls and boys will square off in a doubleheader in the adjoining fieldhouse, the freshman boys A and B teams will compete in the old Eagles Nest and the freshman girls A and B teams will play in the auxiliary gym.
Hurtin':ŒThe Jacobs boys varsity enters tonight's nonconference crossover against Prairie Ridge a bit beaten up in the post, courtesy of the Quincy Thanksgiving Tournament.
Center Conrad Krutwig received four stitches and lost a tooth diving for a loose ball, forward Tim Moran suffered a concussion and sophomore backup Mike Barch broke his nose late in Jacobs' last-second loss to the host Blue Devils in the title game.
Zig-Gonzaga: Huntley senior forward Mike Gonzaga uses the lost art of the fake to create open shots as well as any player in the area.
Gonzaga made defenders leave their feet regularly last weekend at the Sycamore tournament. He has a knack for faking a shot near the 3-point arc to coax charging defenders to leap. He simply sidesteps them with a dribble and cans either a higher-percentage bank shot or takes it to the hoop.
At 6-feet tall, fakes are a prerequisite for Gonzaga's basketball success.
"I'm short," he said with a laugh after the tournament. "I just want to get the big guys up in the air so I can get a shot off."
Let's try that again: It's an intriguing rematch tonight in Carpentersville between Dundee-Crown and Huntley as two of the sharpest young coaches in the area match wits for the second time in less than a week.
The Red Raiders beat the Chargers 45-42 last Saturday to take third place at Sycamore.
D-C coach Lance Huber had his players hounding the perimeter, where Huntley's shooters can do serious damage. But Marty Manning's Red Raiders adjusted by finding ways to score inside. They also capitalized on 18 D-C turnovers to win a tight ballgame.
"Hopefully, we'll have worked on everything in practice and come out looking a lot better against Huntley," D-C senior Jeff Beck said of the rematch. "They hit a lot of good shots because they were setting screens and we weren't following them enough. They were wide open. We weren't talking and helping out."
"Obviously, we have some deficiencies, like a lot of teams do," Huber said after the Chargers fell to 1-2. "We'll just have to work on improving in those areas, get better every day and, hopefully, find our groove."
Inside the box:ŒBurlington Central faced plenty of box-and-one defenses last year as teams tried to slow down scoring machine Cully Payne
With Payne having transferred the Rockets weren't expecting to see the gadget defense this season, let alone in their third game.
But after senior guard Mike McCurdy scored 34 points in the season-opening win against Harlem and followed it up with 26 points in a victory over Dundee-Crown in the semifinals, Sycamore went to the box-and-one in the title game.
Still, McCurdy scored 28 points in a loss to the Spartans.
"You see a box-and-one in November, you're probably not going to be ready for it," said Rockets coach Chris Payne. "It's something we're going to have to be ready for now. Early in the year that's not something you spend a lot of time on in practice. Down the road we'll be better prepared for it."