Big-time players stepping up in SCC
As St. Francis, Driscoll and Immaculate Conception all head into a second straight weekend playing two Suburban Catholic Conference games, they'll hope to get command performances from their leaders.
St. Francis' Brian McMahon, Immaculate Conception's Matt Purdom and Driscoll's Jake Lindfors all put up numbers that had them vying for player of the week honors.
Last Friday, St. Francis senior forward McMahon scored 15 points with 13 rebounds and 8 assists in a win over Marian Central.
McMahon came back the next night to score 24 points with 15 rebounds and 8 assists in a win over Montini.
Immaculate Conception, which started nicely in conference play with wins over Marian and St. Edward, got a big weekend from junior forward Purdom.
The 6-foot-5 two-year starter had a whopping 30 points and 18 rebounds plus 5 blocked shots in the Knights' double-overtime win against Marian Central.
He followed that with 17 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocks against St. Edward.
Driscoll's Lindfors has had several big nights already this season. At the Lisle Thanksgiving Tournament he had games of 24, 25, 30 and a tourney-record 42 points.
Last weekend at Marmion he opened up with 32 points. Lindfors came back the next day at the Lisle Playing for Pride Shootout with 19 points in the Highlanders' win over Deer Creek-Mackinaw.
Essig likes Wildcats: Aurora basketball analyst Charlie Essig recently compiled his first ranking of boys basketball teams, fitting them into the sectional complexes for Class 3A and Class 4A. Essig's rankings are weighted toward strength of schedule.
At the Class 3A Riverside-Brookfield sectional Essig placed Glenbard South fifth behind Marshall, St. Joseph, Manley and Nazareth.
In Class 4A with the exception of the two Hinsdale schools and the two Downers Grove schools, all of which are part of the Richards sectional, every area team is at the East Aurora sectional, in the Chicago State University supersectional.
In his initial rankings Essig has Neuqua Valley heading a top six at East Aurora that includes West Aurora, Batavia and York -- which the Wildcats lost to at the wire -- Waubonsie Valley and Wheaton North.
Elsewhere in Class 4A, Essig has Homewood-Flossmoor No. 1 at the Bloom sectional, Lyons heading Richards, and Lincoln Park and Foreman tied atop Proviso East.
He has Von Steuben No. 1 at Evanston and Zion-Benton leading the way at Barrington. Rockford Boylan is the best at Jacobs and Edwardsville gets Essig's nod in the sectional whose location has yet to be determined.
See how the holiday tournaments shake it up.
The spice of life: Last season Waubonsie Valley guard Justin Peaster had his hair cut short, styled in a subtle wave.
This year it's a little longer, a little curlier.
At least for the time being, the friendly Peaster seems to enjoy variety in his coiffures.
Over the summer he grew it out and had it in braids, he said after Saturday's win over Downers Grove South, "just to do something funky."
Now he'll sometimes wear it in an afro to practice but "to try to look nice" he'll put it back in the short curls for games.
He'll keep things light up to a point.
"Until I graduate," he said, "then I'll probably go back to the short cut."
Make or break: That's probably a little strong this early, but it is a particularly important weekend for at least two DuPage teams.
Downers Grove North got off to a 4-0 start under new coach Jim Thomas. The Trojans have gone 1-2 since, with a 15-point loss to York their only game in the West Suburban Silver.
Till this weekend, that is, when the Trojans get Oak Park and Hinsdale Central, two teams that can use a couple wins themselves.
The good news for the Trojans is both games are at home where their purple-painted superfans can provide an advantage.
It would have been good to see what Montini was like with a healthy Dex Jones complementing brothers Alex and Anthony Blashewski, who are scoring a respective 20 and 13 points a game.
The 6-2, 220-pound Jones, who got through the entire football season fine, suffered a thumb injury before the first basketball game, denying the Broncos of a top athlete.
Montini took losses to two of the Suburban Catholic Conference's top guns last weekend, St. Francis and Aurora Central, but it doesn't get much easier.
The Broncos host Marmion and Immaculate Conception this weekend. Driscoll's yet to come, and with every team in the conference improved, an 0-4 hole will be hard to dig out of.
Hole in the middle:ŒGlenbard North suffered a major loss last week when 6-foot-6 junior center Evan Watkins decided he wasn't going to play basketball this season.
Watkins, a potential Division I recruit as a football quarterback, told basketball coach Erin Dwyer he decided to focus his attention on football and baseball.
"We're going to miss him in the basketball program, but we support his decision," Dwyer said. "He's got a lot of options in football. I realize that's where his passion's at."
Watkins, a varsity basketball starter as a sophomore, averaged 8.5 points last season. He was also a starting pitcher as a sophomore on the varsity baseball team and contributed to the team's run to the summer state tournament's Elite Eight.
This football season Watkins emerged as one of the state's top quarterbacks in the Class of 2009. He carried the Panthers through a run to the Class 8A state championship game as they became the first four-loss team to reach a football final.
Watkins threw for 2,007 yards and 21 touchdowns.
Three other football players -- Matt Ng, Carl Gerrick and Jon Bohn -- have rejoined the Panthers basketball team. Gerrick, recovering from a hip injury, was cleared to play on Monday.
With nearly everyone back in the mix, Dwyer is confident the Panthers can rebound from an 0-5 start. They notched their first win last Friday, beating West Chicago 52-43 in DuPage Valley Conference play.
"We don't have any time to hang our heads," Dwyer said. "We've responded well. We've been in every game we've played, and we've played hard."
No rest:ŒNaperville North, headed to the Waubonsie Valley holiday tournament beginning on Dec. 26, is about to enter its busiest stretch of the season.
After a doubleheader weekend of games next week, the Huskies will take a three-day break before playing four straight days at Waubonsie Valley.
With those six games, Naperville North will have played nearly a quarter of its entire schedule in a span of nine days. The Huskies then turn around and play Glenbard North on Jan. 5.
The dark horse:ŒAfter Willowbrook's overtime loss to Downers Grove South two weeks ago, the Warriors fell back into the familiar role of underdog in the West Suburban Gold.
Willowbrook (5-2), however, is quietly climbing its way back to the top.
Wins over Glenbard East and Leyden have led up to tonight's Gold showdown at Proviso East. The Pirates suffered a harsh 68-49 home loss to Morton last week, the Mustangs first win in Maywood in 40 years.
Led by Milton Colbert and Kyler Market, who have combined for nearly 27 points and 15 rebounds per game, Willowbrook hopes to continue Proviso East's slide.
Jamell Hunter has given the team a boost at the off-guard position while Joe Flood has helped take pressure off Colbert in the post.
"I like the way the team is coming together," said Warriors coach Tim Lavorato. "We're getting contributions from everyone."
Sum of the parts:ŒBenet coach Marty Gaughan isn't asking his players for massive improvements. Rather, he's just hoping for a little bit extra from every player.
"We met and watched film on Monday, and we just had a good meeting," Gaughan said. "It's nothing major we need to fix. Each player just needs to give us a little bit more and I think we'll be a much better team."
The Redwings (3-4), who travel to Joliet Catholic on Saturday, have seen leads disappear in losses to Marian Catholic and Naperville North. Benet also suffered a 46-44 loss to state-ranked and unbeaten North Lawndale.
Three players -- Ryan Haggerty, Brian Gaughan and Joe Meyerhoff -- are averaging double-figure scoring. With Alex Gasick, Jono Davern and Emmett Carrier contributing valuable minutes, the pieces are in place to make a move in a positive direction.
"In some ways these games were extremely frustrating," Gaughan said. "When you get a lead sometimes the little things disappear a little bit. We need to get back to taking care of the little things."